A large, four story, Grade II listed home in Westminster now benefits from smart building technology thanks to global associates’ technology.
Built in 1911 as a private home, the striking residence features a 37.5 ft wide drawing room, a panelled library and a travertine stone clad dining room. The current owners of this grand property have carried out extensive refurbishments and invested in modern amenities that have been optimised to save energy.
The latest refit, facilitated by global associates, includes a Trend controller on the main boiler plant, and wireless (LoRaWAN) TRVs on each of the 123 radiators. The Trend controller and TRVs are integrated via globals’ LoRaWan to BACnet gateway to guarantee maximum comfort while providing energy efficient performance.
Before this significant upgrade the heating was controlled by a single thermostat with just one temperature sensor in a second-floor hallway. Recognising just how inefficient the existing setup was, the owners of the property asked Global Associates to deliver individual controls over each of the four floors, enabling them to better regulate boilers, pumps and hot water.
By fitting each radiator with LoRaWAN enabled TRVs, Global was able to improve on the brief and deliver direct control over individual zones rather than single floors. With a range of 10km and battery life of 10 years, LoRaWAN enabled devices have emerged as highly reliable, low cost radio technology. Global’s gateway feeds the BMS with information from the smart TRVs, allowing demand-based heating by shutting off pumps when they aren’t needed. Each smart TRV installed at the Westminster property features a digital display and precisely controls the flow of hot water into the radiators, allowing the occupier to heat the house more efficiently and avoid wasted energy in heating unoccupied rooms and spaces.
Global not only integrated the smart TRVs into the BMS but also provided integration to the customer’s Control4 home automation system, allowing them touch screen control of all heating, lights, blinds and AV systems.
James Palmer, head of sales and IoT at global associates, commented, “Properties of this type can often be inefficient and difficult to refit due to their scale and listed status. By fitting wireless solutions we were able to avoid having to run cables or alter layouts, delivering supreme levels of efficiency and exceeding customer expectations in enabling independent control over multiple zones within the property.”
