By Guy Kasier / Published on Wed, 2009-10-21 14:19
Once an electrical installation had been installed in a home in the past, that was it. So, when a domestic electrical installation was fitted, it was and in a many cases still is considered to be an unmodifiable fixture. In fact, it has always been quite difficult to make any changes to a classical electrical appliance once it is installed. Fortunately the arrival of integrated home systems means that such flexibility is now available to us (see: Definition of integrated home systems), even if the communications aspect (see: Increasing communication) is, admittedly, still in its infancy.
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By Guy Kasier / Published on Mon, 2009-08-24 07:21
When a house or apartment is built or renovated, choosing the stones for the floors is one of the easy jobs. Walking around a dealer’s showroom for a few hours is usually sufficient to return home satisfied. However, things get more difficult when you have to decide what number of electrical sockets, switches, lighting points, computer connections, telephone sockets, etc. has to be fitted in each room. The e-tool “Checklist for the electrical installation in the home” changes this situation.
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By Guy Kasier / Published on Thu, 2008-07-17 10:41
Chapter 5 of this eCourse on Integrated Home Systems is published as an eBook so you can scroll the different pages using the titles below. The full chapter is also available as a PDF for download.
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By Guy Kasier / Published on Tue, 2008-07-01 16:45
By Guy Kasier
Chapter 4 of this eCourse on Integrated Home Systems is published as an eBook so you can scroll the different pages using the titles below. The full chapter is also available as a PDF for download.
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By Guy Kasier / Published on Tue, 2008-05-20 10:54
In the corridor, we have some switches to operate the corridor lighting. If we operate such a switch between 07:00 and 22:00, then the corridor lighting will adjust between 0% and 100%. At night, however, the same switch will adjust the corridor lighting between 0% and 30%. At night, there only needs to be enough light to get through the corridor safely. If, however, we want to clean the corridor during the day, then the lights must be at 100% so we can see adequately.
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By Guy Kasier / Published on Tue, 2008-05-20 10:50
Little Eva (3 years old) is in bed, but cannot sleep. She gets up in the dark and goes down the darkened, dangerous stairs. The risk of her falling is high. In order to prevent this, we can place a pressure mat beside her bed. When she wants to go on her nighttime wanderings, the lighting in her room will switch on at 30%, as well as in the corridor and on the stairs. While Eva’s parents are watching television, a message appears on the TV: “Eva is awake.” The unsafe situation has changed to a safe situation.
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By Guy Kasier / Published on Tue, 2008-05-20 10:49
A similar light path can also be created at nights from every bedroom to the WC. Thus, we do not have to fumble around in the dark and we do not get the full intensity of the light in our still sleepy eyes.
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By Guy Kasier / Published on Tue, 2008-05-20 10:44
Above, we dealt with functions provided by one integrated home system that are also found in most other integrated home systems. However, good integrated home systems require us to think about the lifestyles of the user and to present a smorgasbord of specific integrated home system functions. Below, we try to a give a few examples.
The list is certainly not intended to be exhaustive. The creativity of the installer, the residents and the architect will certainly be put to the test in developing specific integrated home system features.
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By Guy Kasier / Published on Tue, 2008-05-20 10:39
As an example, below we discuss a few functions provided by the Teletask integrated home system. When you want to program a button in the software, then one of the available functions is allocated to this button. Immediately afterwards, the user must specify the consumer or consumers to which this function will be applied.
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By Guy Kasier / Published on Tue, 2008-05-20 10:24
There are some integrated home systems on the market that use small building blocks during programming. The installer can use these building blocks to create functions himself. Such systems are generally derivatives of the programmable logic controller (PLC), where the software always goes through a programme from top to bottom. The Gardy integrated home system is an example of this.
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