From March 13th until March 17th, Frankfurt will be the home of ISH 2023. For the first time again in many years, the world’s leading event for the HVAC and Water industries will hold an in-person trade event, bringing together all the leaders of the increasingly broadening and comprehensive smart building industry.
ISH To Focus On Climate, Energy And Air
This year, the fair will have a specific focus on smart system solutions for heat transition and climate protection. Decarbonizing the heating sector will be an important topic, in line with Europe becoming climate-neutral by 2045 and reducing emissions by at least 55% by 2030. Intelligent energy management will put a greater focus on how to use energy more efficiently. And to round off, air quality control will become a main point of attention, not only fueled by the increased awareness of air quality in the past couple of years, but also since it is interwoven with the goals of reducing CO2.
These topics are becoming more and more of an integral part of a holistic solution that is offered by the major players in the smart building industry. In order to increase efficiency in achieving these goals, several important steps are currently being taken in our industry.
Building Platforms Are Going IP
Building automation platforms are in the process of transitioning to IP-based implementations. KNX, BACnet and DALI all have IP-native solutions to complement and future-proof their native platforms. Going IP brings a number of benefits, first and foremost since the platforms can leverage the well-known and proven IP specification, they can use the existing and usually wide covering IP network backbone. Not only in a building, but also extending to the internet for remote management and maintenance. We recently outlined several reasons for moving to IP-based networks for building automation.
The Need For Wireless And Thread
Another key ingredient for the move to create smarter and more efficient buildings is to make sure that there are limited hassles on the road to installation and maintenance. For this, wireless technology is key, as it greatly simplifies applying the necessary components without the need for complex and costly rewiring. Eliminating the need for power cabling allows for extra flexibility of placement of sensors on locations that would previously be out of the question.
The wireless Thread protocol plays an important role here. It is fully based on IP, making it integrate seamlessly in native IP-infrastructure, and its low-power operation by design makes it ideally suitable for the implementation in completely wireless sensors.
More and more companies in the building automation space are adding Thread-based products to their upcoming portfolios. This includes Siemens, a Sponsor member of Thread Group and one of the world’s leading suppliers of smart building solutions.
Demonstrating Thread at ISH
Several Thread Group member companies will be at ISH including Siemens who is a Sponsor Member with a seat on the Board of Directors. For the first time, they will be publicly demonstrating several new Thread-based products they have in the pipeline.
Siemens Thread Temperature, Humidity, and CO2 Sensors
Siemens will demonstrate a series of sensors for optimal room data measurement. The product line includes a temperature sensor, a combined temperature and humidity sensor, and a sensor that adds CO2 measurement to the temperature and humidity measurement.
The sensors are based on the KNX IoT protocol and because they are fully Thread-based, expected battery lifetime under normal circumstances is between 9 and 12 years on a single battery. This makes it ideal for application in large buildings, where the frequent replacement of batteries, as necessary when other protocols would be used, would be impossible or, at the very least, greatly undesirable.
Siemens KNX IoT To BACnet IP Gateway
To make sure that these sensors can be used in BACnet-based Building Management environments, Siemens offers a KNX IoT to BACnet IP Gateway. This device allows the sensors amongst others to be used with the popular Desigo, Desigo Control Points and PXC5 product lines from Siemens.
The Gateway provides all the necessary translations between the KNX IoT protocol and the BACnet protocol, so that the sensors can be natively controlled in a BACnet environment.
Siemens Thread Border Router
The Thread Border Router acts as the bridge between the low-power, 802.15.4-based wireless Thread network and the rest of the building’s IP-infrastructure (see the Thread Smart Building Network Topology Diagram for an illustration of the role of a Thread Border Router).
Siemens Thread Range Extender
To round off this product portfolio, Siemens also offers Thread Range Extenders. One of the benefits of Thread technology is that mains-powered Thread devices act as Mesh Extenders (or “routing devices”) on a Thread network. They automatically relay data packages from one device to the other, thereby extending the reach of the network.
When a lot of battery operated devices are present that don’t act as Mesh Extenders, such as aforementioned sensors, Thread Range Extenders can be placed at convenient locations in the building to further increase Thread network coverage. With Gateways and Extenders combined, the Thread mesh network can easily consist of 100 sensor devices, more than enough to cover most office and building situations.
An Integrated Solution That’s Easy To Manage
For both the KNX IoT to BACnet Gateway and the Thread Range Extenders, all of the initial commissioning, configuration and maintenance can be handled using a built-in web based configuration panel. It allows network specialists to optimise network settings, adding, replacing or removing devices and assigning the proper BACnet properties.
The Siemens KNX IoT to BACnet Gateway in a network with
Thread Border Router, Thread Range Extender and Thread Sensors
On-Site Demonstrations At ISH
Visit this year’s ISH Fair in Frankfurt to see how Thread technology is increasingly becoming an integral part of the Smart Building product portfolios of Siemens and other leading product manufacturers. Other Thread Group members present at ISH include Bosch, Cascoda, and more. Product specialists will be present to answer all of your questions.