Forum House highlights intelligent building of KNX

The ability of KNX intelligent building technology to integrate and manage many different building services functions and systems is being clearly demonstrated at Forum House in Cheshire.

Here, KNX fully controls a typical mulit-purpose commercial headquarters building with a floor space of 3000 square metres on two floors.

Constructed three years ago, Forum House has KNX installed throughout to control all heating, lighting, and air conditioning products from a range of different manufacturers as well as external blinds.

It also meters all the utilities and allows the building occupiers to monitor remotely all external gates, lights and blinds.

This is especially useful during periods when the building is unoccupied, such as during shutdowns or weekends.

The benefits of constant lighting control or blinds lifting automatically due to the angle and position of the sun are invaluable from an energy conservation point of view and enhance the benefits of solar shading.

Savings in excess of 30% have been calculated on the reduced running costs and the benefits to the building users have proven priceless from a comfort point of view.

Forum House further highlights how KNX technology works passively and automatically without the need for building occupier interaction.

When the building's offices and showrooms are changed or given a different purpose, KNX can be adapted to the new requirements as one of the major benefits of KNX is its ability to seamlessly add more functionality when required.

Furthermore, KNX is distributed technology so should there be any local failure; it does not result in all the building's services not working.

At Forum House, KNX covers a diversity of building functions using one standard, this means that the cabling network is very simple and the KNX controlled devices are based around the standard green KNX twisted pair bus cable.

Forum House was originally planned from its conception as a building that would be a working example of how flexible and reliable KNX can be.

It has proven a huge success in attracting consultants and architects to experience the benefits of KNX technology in a real working environment.

Forum Technik, a member of the KNX UK Association, completed installation and systems integration.

Full details of KNX technology and the vast range of KNX products available, which fully comply with EN 50090 the European Standard for Home and Building Electronic Systems are available from KNX UK.

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