Spanish integration company, Future Lifestyle, had this
project featured by home automation manufactures Control4 in their magazine
Smart Home. This beach side holiday home near Marbella was refurbished and the
client was all up for the idea of some cutting edge technology.
Armed with the mandate from the client, Co-owner of Future
Lifestyle, Murray set about designing a system that integrated, in addition to
the usual multi-room audio and video components, all aspects of the heating and
cooling systems, DMX lighting, shutters, door and gate entry/exit, and chose
Control4 automation to do the job.
The first challenge I faced as system programmer was to
implement the vision that spaces should be subtlety altered through the use of
standard lighting and DMX colour mixing. As no readily available driver could
be found to control the equipment installed by the lighting designer, I needed
to create over 120 lighting scenes to achieve this. One touch control ensures
that the ambiance can be tailored to suite the occasion or mood.
By far the most interesting aspect of the project was the control
of the air conditioning system. We could not find any readymade solution to
bolt on to the Daikin water based unit so decided to use the Control4 HC1000 as
the HVAC controller and Card Access contact sensors for temperature sensing. Lots
of variables and a good many lines of programming later we had the temperature at
the required set point.
With an eye on energy efficiency and cutting utility bills,
when the owner is not here enjoying his holiday home, water heating, Air
Conditioning, under floor heating and certain lighting functions are
de-activated by the client when he leaves. Service providers like cleaners,
garden and pool services can only access functions that are required for them
to complete their work. However, the client can easily set the temperature of
the house and turn on the water boilers remotely to ensure that conditions are
at their optimum for when they arrive.
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