Smart Buildings

Whether in a family house or in an office complex or in a hotel, the demand for comfort and versatility in the management of air-conditioning, lighting and access control systems is growing. At the same time, the efficient use of energy is becoming increasingly important. More convenience and safety coupled with lower energy consumption can however only be achieved by intelligent control and monitoring of all products involved. (KNX Association)

Marios Karantonis Ltd is a registered partner of KNX Organisation in Cyprus. KNX is the leading global organisation in Home and Building Automation. With approximately 28,000 partners and 250 members (product manufacturers), KNX protocol is considered one of the most reliable and promising product in the ‘Smart Systems’ Sector. The capabilities are infinite and the system has no limits. Through absolute customer oriented designs, smart home automation systems guarantee customer satisfaction.

Smart Buildings Cyprus

Lighting control systems are made of a control unit that manages the status of lighting fixtures in a room or a premise. Light level at a space is an important part of our everyday life and in most cases it is not taken in consideration. The quality and level of the light affects the appearance, creates atmosphere and saves energy according to the use. In common households the light switches have only two states, on/off positions. There are many times throughout the day that the lights are ON but the luminance of the room is at such level that they do not make such difference. At those periods of time excess energy is wasted.

Imagine if the lights in your house were dimmable and they were controlled with the reference of the daylight harvesting of the building and the needs of the room, in such scenario the energy consumed would have been the minimum required and the capabilities of creating scenarios will be unlimited. Similar methods that can be applied in smart home systems minimise the waste of energy and reduce drastically the energy consumption of the property. Nowadays, architecture is focusing on the eco-friendly design of a house with specific house orientation for maximum daylight penetration during winter period and sun blocking during summer period. Lighting control gives the sense of luxury in an area and at the same time optimises the energy usage and the provision of comfort.

Lighting control can also be your security guard when you go on vacation. Smart home systems can keep in memory the sequence of light usage in the house for several hours up to several days long and replay this pattern when the system is set on ‘vacation mode’. This function sends the message of occupancy and can prevent burglars or vandals from approaching and entering.

Τhe comfort of the house is closely related to the climate in the space. Whether it is a centralised HVAC system or individual split units in each room the target is to maintain stable temperature in our house. In combination with the rest of the systems implemented in a smart home, like blind/curtain control and light control, stable temperatures can be achieved with significant savings in energy consumption using climate control technology. Remotely or physically smart home systems are informed whether we are leaving or entering the property in order to alter the temperatures in it and set it according to preconfigured scenarios.

Blind & curtain control is another capability in smart home systems. Blind control is usually used in lighting scenes for home cinema and controlled daylight penetration. Controlled daylight penetration can result in energy savings for lighting and also can support the climate control of the house. In Cyprus during sunny days in winter, it would be ideal to let the sun enter and warm up the rooms of the house and definitely in summer we need to block out the sun. In this way, blind control manages the heat transfer in and out of the house, depending on the season, and keeps the in-house temperature close to the setpoint of the heating or cooling systems.

Security and surveillance systems in houses are installed in almost all the new houses being built in Cyprus today. The integration of security and surveillance system in residential premises with home automation enables the owner to control and survey the property remotely from anywhere around the world, activate and deactivate alarms with the push of a button, match the activation of alarm with the lighting control for indoor and outdoor lights to turn on and many more.

Think of all your media, whether this is a movie, a song or a picture, to be stored in a single system and be accessible from all the rooms of your house. This is what a home entertainment system can offer. Docking stations and keypads with jags enable the home owner to play the media files that are stored in the smartphone’s memory.