The house in which I will live
Real Intellect, whose clients are commercial structures and individuals, designs, installs and services integrated control systems. Both I and my colleagues have accumulated sufficient experience during our work at Real Intellect, necessary for assessing both positive and negative trends in the field of system control as applied to the Russian market. I myself live in a house equipped with such a control system, and as a user I can evaluate both the difficulties that arise during its operation and the advantages of its use.
First, of course, about the problems. I will start with operation, i.e. with the processes of communication between man and technology at the household level. The incidents that sometimes arise here are not due to insufficient reliability of the equipment, but due to the lack of experience in communicating with intelligent technology. I recall a recent case. A call to a client: it turns out that an electric lamp has burned out. If it were not a “smart home”, the owner would simply change the lamp. But in this case, the “lamp” was part of an intelligent system. This case, despite all the anecdotal nature, is quite typical. Even more indicative are the attempts of maintenance workers to make electronic intelligence a “scapegoat”. It happens that the operators, having touched some wire related to the control system, are unable to eliminate a trivial malfunction. However, they blame the installers and the “smart home” for everything. It turns out that the intelligent system should not only control everything, but also be responsible for everything that, naturally, they cannot do.
Often, a negative attitude towards automation is a consequence of insufficient information. People think that if it fails, then all systems will fail immediately. In fact, it is only a connecting thread between various life support systems, each of which is equipped with its own automation and is completely self-sufficient. When designing decentralized systems, we always strive to ensure the highest possible autonomy of individual engineering components.
Sometimes the installers themselves are to blame for this attitude of consumers towards intelligent systems, choosing not the best solutions. For example, to perform some basic operation, say, «dimming» the light in the room, you need to not just press a button, but first enter the menu, then select the desired tab, go somewhere else, etc. In this case, the installer was either incompetent or did not warn the client about the possible consequences of his clumsy decision. I often have to dissuade clients from such excesses as, for example, an extra control panel (which, by the way, is subsequently no less tiring than a complex menu).
And even if everything is done correctly, the client may be dissatisfied if he himself is not able to answer the question of what exactly he wants from a smart home. To understand such a client, the installer must either rely on his own experience or have the same mentality as the customer.
There are different ways to avoid mistakes and gain experience in this area. Certified KNX courses are now available.
However, only half of those who complete these courses subsequently specialize in installations. There are also those who do everything correctly without any courses. And, perhaps, based on the experience of past mistakes.
However, the source of problems is often not only the initial misunderstanding between the client and the contractor. Even a good system may eventually cease to meet the needs of the homeowners: children grow up, the family grows… But by the time the need for rework arises, it suddenly turns out that detailed documentation on the system structure is missing, and the company that installed the equipment refuses to restore the wiring structure or no longer exists. Our company is ready for such a situation: there is a special program that allows you to scan the contents of the ROM and restore the network structure with sensors, controllers and actuators connected to it. However, the customer will have to pay for the fact that the contractor once in the past did not fulfill the most important obligations.
Sometimes the documentation is available, but it is compiled with gross errors. For example, in one project, 300 devices were attached to the bus, while the power supply unit capacity allowed a maximum of 64 devices! Now, by the way, the number of «defector» clients who bring such documentation is increasing.
If we talk about companies that really mislead customers, then these are “multiroomers”. Many installers take advantage of customers’ ignorance to lobby for their specialized brands: “Why offer the virtually “invisible” KNX? Let’s build everything on the spectacular AMX!” Meanwhile, this system, like the more expensive Crestron, comes from “Multiroom”. Of course, AMX controls light and something else, but it doesn’t have anything close to what KNX can do in full. And most importantly, the control system is centralized! This is exactly the case when a small defect in the “brain” paralyzes the arms and legs, i.e. the whole house. I am not against AMX at all. It is certainly convenient and stylish. But we offer such solutions as an “add-on” to the Instabus bus, since there is a ready-made gateway. Now there are KNX-compatible devices with good interfaces, so it has become easier to fight the pressure of “Multiroom”. As, incidentally, with attempts to impose on the client a system that is obviously limited in its capabilities, passing it off with several additional options as a full-fledged «smart home». But in fact, AMX and Crestron are a good «Multiroom» and a good user interface for an intelligent system built on the basis of KNX. But this is not high end for either one. If you need a high end «Multiroom», then this is the Linn system. And if you want a full-fledged «smart home», then this is a set of KNX, LON, BACnet.
I will not hide that KNX also has certain problems: the advantages of a decentralized system with free exchange of information via the Instabus bus with an open protocol in KNX are undeniable, but ventilation control is difficult. Sometimes in this part of the system it is necessary to resort to LON and use the corresponding gateway. There is also no possibility to program the system by the user himself; professionally oriented ETS software is used for this purpose. But with all this, the capabilities of KNX are almost never fully utilized even in medium and large objects, their range is so great.
I would like to say separately about the German company Gira, which is one of the founders of the European Association KONNEX and is one of the five leading manufacturers of components for automated systems for «intelligent buildings». The system based on Gira Instabus KNX/EIB offers a virtually unlimited range of possible applications: from a light control system to a facility dispatching system. Gira is also known for offering innovative solutions that allow you to easily modernize an existing system. In the West, the engineering of many prestigious hotels, office buildings of famous companies, public and sports facilities and private homes is controlled by Gira equipment.
The history of the «intelligent building» in Europe has been written for a long time. And in Russia, it is only gaining momentum. And so that electronic intelligence in Russia ceases to be perceived only as an expensive toy, i.e. excess, integral experience of communicating with it and statistics of incidents must be accumulated. Then effective means for their prevention will appear. It is clear that both training of specialists and promotion of these systems in the media are necessary, since tomorrow is simply impossible without them. But the main thing is that a person finally begins to understand what exactly he wants from a “smart home” and can formulate it as easily as he formulates his request to an electrician today. |
