A reputed forex trading training institution decided to automate its class room to improve comfort for the trainees, power efficiency and operation productivity. The technophile principal decided to automate his event room as a pilot project.

The Z-Wave automation system includes door-lock, lighting control, air conditioning and the outdoor yard lighting. CCTV security camera is also another feature of his classroom automation.

Air-con can be turned-on in advance before the start of the event which gives most comfortable temperature when the first participant arrived. Yard lights can be turn off automatically when not in used. Room door can be checked, lock and unlock remotely. There is no need to get back to the room to off the light and appliances if the last person who left the class has not done so.

As users start to aware of the benefit of automated system, some of our clients bring the automation concept into their office. It is not just for the sake of productive but it has its benefit in business operation. We will gradually share with you about what they do to automate their offices.

There is no doubt that a well prepared contents is the most critical factor for making a successful business presentation. However, there are also many presenters overlook the important of creating a right atmosphere by the good meeting room setup. For example, Lower the projector screen, dimming the room lights, lower the window blinds, turn on the projectors are all automated by a single press of button. This not only impresses your audiences but helpful in getting them ready to give you their attention quickly.

The following is one of our installation in an city center office.

Electromagnetic lock is a good solution to situation when door needs to be open and close hundreds of time in a day. It does not have any moving mechanism therefore it is very durable in such usage. There are version which could have a holding power up to 1200lb. Practically, it is impossible for anyone to pull it apart.

Electromagnetic lock is usually deactivate (unlock) by pin code device, RFID tag or finger printer scanner from outside and using a simple push button switch to unlock it from inside. L3 installed a number of this lock integrated into Z-wave home automation system with a Fibaro modules. This allows the door to be deactivate by smart phone or computer wherever you are.

One clients has a special need. At some exceptional hours normal access from outside the door is denied. Whoever need to enter the office need to phone him to request for access. This is part of the office security system offered by L3.

This solution is also very useful for retrofit the existing lock. Once the z-wave module is integrated with the lock, it gives the convenient to add additional access control points without rewiring the internal unlocking switch location.

This is an example of the use of Fibaro RGBW module. Our client uses it to drive the RGB LED strip light.  Each day, when the wakeup alarm is sound, it set the LED to a different color at a different day of the week.

The Fibaro RGBW is inserted between the LED driver unit and the LED strips. Fibaro RGB module has a total power output capacity of (144W @12V). This means there is a limit to the length of the LED strips which can be used.  In this installation, we used a RGB strip which has a power  consumption of 7.5W per meter and the white LED strip of 4.5W per meter.

If only single LED power consumption is given (usually 0.08W for while or 0.24W for RGB), you need to calculate the consumption per meter by the following calculation.

(no. of LED per meter) X (Wattage per LED) = Power consumption per meter. 

Choose a LED driver which is about 120% higher than the expected power consumption but not excessively higher. It is important to invest on a high quality LED driver as poorly designed LED driver could general high inrush current, which is harmful to other electronics equipment connected on the same power line. In worst case, it trips your circuit breaker occasionally when you switch on your light.

Improve your lifestyle
Improving your quality of life
With sensors, apps and timer programming, interesting scenes can be created. The following is one of my favors scene.

I wake up at different time on most of the days. Those market ready timer plugs are not intelligent enough to meet my needs. The following scene is created using the VeraLite controller.

10 minutes before my alarm sound, the water heater tank is turn on. When the alarm is activated, the air-con is off, the fan is off (I believe there are someone like me sleep with both air-con and fan on together), the living room light are on and dim to a comfortable level to greet me good morning and my coffee machine start working. After my hot shower, a cup of hot coffee is waiting for me.

We will introduce and share with you more other interesting scenes in near future.

Office Monitoring

If you have a sizable office with 30 rooms in two or more levels, you will probably have to stick up “turn off” reminders everywhere.

The poor supervisor will probably has to spend 15 minutes checking each room and store rooms for its light status before he knock off from the office.

A simple solution is here now. See all your device status on one panel. You can also turn off any light or appliances without rushing back to the office during the weekend. You could reduce your waste to the minimum.

In order to reduce your energy consumption, the first step is be able to monitor the usage. The second step is to cut off unnecessary waste. The smart home system could do the following;

- Alert you when there is an abnormal consumption of certain appliances.

- In full control of the status of each power consuming devices even when you are outside

- Program to deactivate devices at specify timing to save energy and cut waste.

As shown in the left, your home energy consumption for a period of time is in a glance.

Using various kinds of sensors and camera, you could – monitor your home/office at all time – know the activity happening at home while you’re outside,

• an intruder to your home
• Alert you when there is an emergency situation is developing, such as fire, gas leak, water leakage, etc.
• When someone pressed your door bell while you are thousand miles away, turn on your camera to see who is there.

There are three major things that smart home system could do for you.

• Security of your house
• Energy reduction and be environmental friendly.
• Improve your quality of life and living in style.