West Side Cottage

Located in a quiet Derbyshire village, this cottage had been uninhabited for more than 20 years and was virtually derelict when the current owners decided to buy it.  The oldest part of the cottage was originally built in 1799 as a single dwelling, and the original parchment title deeds show that the newly erected dwelling, garden and orchard were bought for the princely sum of £60.

Before renovation work began, the ground floor consisted of four very dark rooms.  Now the house includes two reception rooms, a conservatory and three bedrooms.  The new house boasts a staircase, internal doors and upstairs floorboards all made of oak, giving a feel of the traditional, but there lies the secret – the lighting, heating, audio and security are all controlled by an EIB/KNX system. It brings the cottage from the 18th into the 21st Century. The finish has been carefully selected to give modern life choices to perfect "olde worlde" surroundings.

Why they chose EIB / KNX

Many systems were considered before EIB/ KNX became the only sensible choice.   EIB / KNX caters for all the intelligent requirements of a modern home including heating, lighting, audio entertainment, enhanced security and remote access.  As EIB/ KNX is based on an industrial control platform available and unchanged since 1984,  it is already widely known to be absolutely robust and reliable. With over 100 manufacturers and more than 6,000 products, all taking the same distributed intelligence language down the same twisted pair cable, there’s no risk of a single manufacturer going out of business and denying us spares for the future and no single point of catastrophic failure can ever leave the house ‘in the dark’.

How it was installed

The owners did much of the work on the cottage over a period of 15 months.  They teamed up with a good local electrician and planned the installation carefully.  The owner, with a keen technical knowledge, decided to take on the commissioning himself and as long as all the ‘live side’ was done by the electrician then his part-P certificate would be no problem.
Having talked to an EIB consultant engineer, he bought ETS (the EIB/ KNX programming tool) and quickly got trained to EIB Partner level.

Lighting

The cottage has 45 EIB/ KNX dimmed and switched lighting circuits that can be used to set moods for each room. Like any lighting control system, this allows for scenes to be set for particular instances, however EIB/ KNX allows lights to be incorporated into other features of a house. Some examples are:

• A welcome home function incorporating a motion sensor by the front door so when you walk into the house at night the lights in the hallway, landing, kitchen and family room light automatically. The owners never have to ‘stumble’ around a dark building with arms full of groceries.

• A ‘discreet’ scene has been set for the bedrooms. In the master bedroom, the discreet button turns on the wall, landing and bathroom lights at a very low level, effectively lighting a pathway there and back so that they don’t needlessly wake anyone asleep.

• Simulated occupancy where the house repeats previously recorded switch pushes and blind movements when the owners are out. The actions are played back at random intervals to give a very real appearance that some one is always at home.

• A porch light and architectural lighting are programmed to come on at dusk and turn off at a random time in the late evening. The rear courtyard and garden have numerous lighting circuits that allow for scene setting at night depending on how the space is being used. Infrared patio heaters, controlled via a switch in the conservatory, have been built into the garden walls and provide heat for cooler evenings.

• A "Goodnight" function in the master bedroom which, when pressed, turns off all the internal lights, except the master bedroom, as well as the patio heaters and any garage lights that may have been left on. This function negates having to go round the house turning all the lights off one by one.

Heating

Water based underfloor heating throughout the entire cottage in 9 zones is controlled using GIRA Sensor2Plus thermostatic light switches (removing the need for ugly traditional wall thermostats) and Theben HMT-6 24V AC Manifold controllers. The whole EIB/ KNX system works seamlessly lowering temperatures both at night when everyone is asleep and a few degrees lower than normal when the house is known to be unoccupied. This represents a big saving in fuel bills when you consider it is an accepted practice to run wet underfloor systems continuously throughout the winter.

Audio

Integrated audio which is controlled via the EIB/ KNX system offers music in the main living spaces and the bathrooms with no evidence of any further wall controllers or switches. Simply select your listening preference and volume level using the same light switches that control the rest of the room functions. Luxury without the need for a wall full of technology that would spoil the period appearance of the cottage.

Remote Access

The whole house can be accessed by an internet connection anywhere in the world using the GIRA HomeServer2 IP addressable controller.  With a multitude of high end features such as direct heating and lighting control, security monitoring, remote diagnostics, IP camera viewports, email transmissions for security breaches or activated smoke detectors, this Linux based box is fantastic for higher end EIB/ KNX projects. 

The owners are now delighted with their very stylishly-appointed period cottage, packed with features that enhance their lifestyle. The security of the property is improved and the operating costs of their home reduced.

 

The finished cottage, pretty as a picture and bristling with technology.