Visualization and control of a single-family home in the city of Hradec Kralove

At the beginning of the implementation of this project, we faced the problem of how to integrate several different devices in the home 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 the 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 the outdoor blinds.

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 the control of all devices via a central control system. For this purpose, we used a Tecomat Foxtrot CP-1005 PLC with expansion modules. This PLC has a big advantage – it features an intelligent CIB bus, through which we are able to obtain data from various electric devices installed in the house (e.g., room thermometers, light switches, blinds, security system).

The result of this installation was a control cabinet containing the Tecomat Foxtrot CP-1005 PLC, which was placed in the basement of the house. This solution allows the 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, it is energy efficient and user-friendly (the owner of the home 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 blinds after leaving the house
• Automatic water 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 the use of text messages. Moreover, the control system can send information messages about specific events to the user's cell phone. It is also possible to display the visualization screens on a remote computer via the Internet.

Examples of visualization windows

The main overview screen

Visualization of the heating process

Visualization of the air-conditioning system

The dialog window showing the settings of the outdoor blinds

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