A home automation system using EnOcean wireless technology and Beckhoff Automation

Energy renovation of existing old detached houses and designing a new home automation system for them induce a huge potential for energy efficiency increase in Northern European countries. In Finland, there are more than a million of such wooden traditional houses, which could make a vast energy saving in general. This paper is a follow-up of the research work, which focused on energy renovation of an old, wood-framed, and poorly insulated house in Finland. Having a mindset that the house was fully refurbished, this project targeted to level up the plus energy concept and to bring in a smart home system. After having completed a profound analysis of the current energy situation of the house and reviewed literature concerning the common technologies, the hardware and software elements for this project were selected. The Beckhoff Automation was chosen to be a base framework of the system, whereas EnOcean’s wireless technology acted as a main device. The focus of the system fell on the lighting control since it had a capability for great energy savings and was easy to handle. The project resulted in a small home automation prototype with a visualization board for a user