Metering Industry Recommends KNX.

KNX is now a radio frequency standard for collecting consumption data from water, heating and gas meters.

Communication technology, in particular the remote reading of meters, will continue to play an increasingly important role for meters in homes and buildings. The new EU regulation, “Energy efficiency in buildings” (prEN 15232), states that every customer must be able to read and control their energy consumption at any time. In order to meet these requirements as efficiently as possible, FIGAWA (the association of more than 1000 companies that produce gas, heating and water meters), has recommended the use of KNX radio frequency (KNX RF) as the standard for home and building automation.

Specifiers, constructors and operators of systems with remote meter reading are facing an increasing number of different communication technologies, protocols and transfer media. This hampers expansion and rebuilding work in particular. The metering industry has now defined clear specifications for using standards in homes and buildings. This now makes it possible for a KNX product to receive both M-Bus telegrams (EN 13757) and KNX telegrams with a single receiver.

The norm for building automation

KNX is the only worldwide international standard for home and building automation. It meets the requirements of both the CENELEC EN50090 and CEN EN 13321-1 European standards as well as the ISO/IEC 14543-3 international standard. KNX defines cabled (double-wire cables, power line, IP/Ethernet) and wireless (radio frequency) communication. KNX RF (radio frequency) uses a frequency of 868 MHz.

KNX RF is based on the ISO/OSI 7 layer model. The physical layer and the link layer have been ratified as KNX metering with the relevant parts of the EN 13757 (M-Bus).

Choice of frequency range

The frequency range from 868 MHz to 870 MHz is reserved in Europe for short range device communication for use in homes and is separated into different bands. This means that one of the frequencies between 868 MHz and 870 MHz is available for KNX metering. Due to the range in buildings, frequencies over 1 GHz should be avoided so you should allow for an additional damping of approx. 15 – 40 dB compared with 868 MHz for the “building radio frequency” of 2.4 GHz (40 dB damping means that the power at the receiving site is ten thousand times lower).

The recommendation of the association

The association of more than 1000 companies that produce gas, heating and water meters, FIGAWA, recommends the use of KNX as the international standard for all transmission media in home and building automation, i.e. twisted pair, power line, radio frequency and IP. This shows that the different branches of the industry with different backgrounds, market objectives and target groups have worked together for the benefit of their customers. Even though KNX is already established as a standard, these synergies on the collection of consumption data will accelerate its success. The first KNX metering products were presented at the ISH 2007.