Complete control system and visualization of a family house in Hradec Kralove

At the beginning of the implementation of this project, we faced the problem of how to integrate several different devices in the family house into a Central Control System. We needed to control a hot air heating system based on an ATREA recovery unit and an underfloor heating system including a water tank, electrical boiler and fireplace heat exchanger.

It was also necessary to control heating of domestic hot water, including water circulation and purification. On top of that, the owner of the house wanted to install a security system, intelligent lighting system and the system for controlling of the outside sunblinds.

After reviewing the situation with the investor, it was decided to discard a number of autonomous regulators and control units from different manufacturers and integrate control of all devices via a central Control System. For this purpose we used the Tecomat Foxtrot CP1005 PLC unit with expansion modules. This PLC unit has a big advantage, it features an intelligent CIB bus, through which we are able to obtain the data from various electric devices installed in the house (e.g. room thermometers, light switches, sunblinds and security system).

The result of this installation was a distribution box containing the Tecomat Foxtrot CP1005 PLC, which was placed in the basement of the house. This solution allows reliable control of all intelligent devices from one place. There is a 17" control panel with a touch screen installed on the wall in the foyer. This control panel provides visualization and control of all processes and devices installed in the house.

This solution has several advantages, for example this solution is energy efficient and user-friendly (the owner of the family house can control all the systems from one place).

The new control system provides control of the following features:

• Automatic light switching at a predefined time
• Automatic light switching when the owners leave the house
• Automatic lowering of outdoor sunblinds after leaving the house
• Automatic water supply heating switching after leaving the house
• Automatic activation of the "Reduced Heating" operation after leaving the house
• Automatic turn-off of the main water line after leaving the house (in case of washing the laundry or dishes, the main water line is turned off immediately after the washing)
• Instant start of the "Occupancy" operation when the owners leave the house

The user has the possibility to control the system by use of SMS messages. Moreover, the Control System can send information messages about specific events to user's cell phone. Users also have the ability to display the visualization screens on a remote computer via the Internet.

Examples of visualization windows

Main overview screen

Visualization of the heating process

Visualization of the air-conditioning

The dialog window shows settings of the outdoor sunblinds