As we slowly returned to our offices, we found that the workplace has changed forever. Even with the almost total relaxation of Covid measures in the UK, the office is very much different to how it was in early 2020. I think, though, that the writing was on the wall before the pandemic – commercial space has to change to compete.
Before the lockdowns we were seeing demand for shorter lease commitments and well-appointed flexible office space. There was a growing belief that no matter how small your enterprise, your working environment can make the difference between surviving and thriving. People also came to see that where you work is as big a part of your carbon footprint as where you live: so alongside Covid safety, energy-efficiency is a high priority for occupants – tenant businesses and landlords alike boast of their achievements in their ESG policies.
You can only go so far with interior design makeovers: there is always going to be an underlying need for technology that offers the ideal choice in terms of space flexibility, adaptability and maintainability; and that should be designed and built in from day one.
The new safety dynamic, which means that ‘work space’ now means ‘social distancing’, and ‘room temperature’ conjures up ‘ventilation’ and ‘air quality’. Even at home, these are things we now consider. The right technology brings it all together so you can have your cake and eat it eg. optimum temperature, good ventilation and air change rates.
In the commercial environment, we have learned that flexibility isn’t just about linking a sensor with the HVAC or some lights – it’s about being able to tailor the building for new layouts and ever-changing levels of occupancy. With continuing rises in energy costs, maintaining optimum energy efficiency is another factor that we all must consider.
These new issues will be of concern to all stakeholders: owners, end-users, managers, or estates and facilities management (FM) teams. So, constructors and technology integrators must consider how to cater for these needs in our new building designs, as well as finding ways to improve the performance of existing buildings.
Changing spaces
The office space is changing – we were used to hot-desking, but Covid hasn’t gone away and it is still forcing us to re-assess shared space. It has to be flexible but also easily cleaned to keep it healthy. Social distancing, not to mention the costs of renting good offices, means space is at a premium so businesses are exploring the possibilities of contactless work environments. At the same time, working from home, for many of us, will remain in some form, and mixing this work environment with our home life will require new approaches to residential buildings.
A lot of offices will have some form of BMS, so changes may already be possible. If designing from scratch or refurbishing, the open KNX protocol has the full capabilities, across multiple commercial and residential building topologies to effect the changes required. Ensuring that new buildings include this flexibility, adaptability and maintainability will come from design collaboration that can be driven by the KNX integrator. KNX is de facto global standard for open communications within smart buildings, the language spoken by thousands of intelligent devices from hundreds of manufacturers. It communicates via a single, signature green bus cable. Once that is in place, the world is your oyster as far as scalability and flexibility is concerned. New devices are simply connected to the nearest node and programmed in as part of a holistic integrated system.
Real-time space management
Space management linking to real occupancy usage and ventilation adaptation is still a key concern as new waves of Covid infection remind us to remain on our guard. It only makes sense that occupancy control also factors in energy management, with lighting control and efficient, comfortable heating responding accordingly.
Thanks to a choice of sophisticated presence detectors, KNX offers a perfect solution to this by integrating intelligent lighting control with multiple types of HVAC. There are pixel-based sensors that go a step further by keeping count of how many people are in a space in real time. This can be used to provide feedback to restrict access when an area is full, or to increase the ventilation to ensure fresh, clean air is provided in more confined spaces when more people arrive. This is pre-emptive control rather than reacting to already high levels of CO2.
Using KNX to integrate motorised doors, it would be simple to create a completely contactless environment as people move through a building and use different spaces. A scenario could be as follows: in a high-rotation office space, a group of people have booked a meeting room. This booking was carried out remotely and logged on the building system. When they enter the room, it has been brought up to temperature for them ten minutes before the meeting was due to start. The lights turn on as they enter, dependent on ambient light levels. They log in so their presence is recorded, and the system adjusts based on the number of people actually using the room. The system monitors CO2, temperature, light and shading, and adjusts heating, lighting and ventilation accordingly, in real time, exactly dependent of the prevailing conditions and usage.This is truly effective real time space management.
KNX sensors such as the Theben AMUN 716 CO2 Monitor can be used to monitor prevailing conditions and adjust the environment accordingly.
The home front
At home, things are slightly different. The same requirements exist, namely adequate ventilation, suitable lighting and the correct heating, all managed to the highest levels of energy efficiency. Modern housing should be able to fulfil this from outset, rather than by having to add Internet-dependent gadgets. KNX can play the central role in residential development and, for instance, help to achieve the requirements set out in the recently-revised and updated UK building regulations.
With KNX, we know that these systems are suitable for the commercial sector, and its adoption as the defacto standard is growing globally, but now we need to ensure residential mass-market construction embraces them too. New housing must offer the flexibility, healthy environment and energy efficiency that we all deserve post-Covid and moving into an era of rising energy costs.
Whole buildings
It is only when we treat whole buildings as a single environment that we can use technology to really achieve the level of control needed to meet the evolving requirements of building design, both mandatory standards and customer preference. Ideally this technology should also be a system that can be adapted over time, or even pivoted quickly to provide a completely different type of functionality.
I have no doubt that only open-platform functionality removes the risk of hardware lock-in, and leads to collaborative industry-led solutions, that communicate freely. KNX supplies that open functionality. The holistic collaborative KNX design approach to control systems, with systems sharing a single secure infrastructure, ensures that valuable data from a sensor can be used across the whole system regardless of the application.
This will ensure that the systems we specify, design and install provide the highest level of adaptability and control, with no risk of proprietary lock-in or redundancy.
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