EnOcean Self-Powered IoT Solutions

EnOcean is an energy-harvesting, wireless communication protocol that powers devices without the need for batteries or an external power source. EnOcean devices are self-powered, extracting power from ambient resources, such as solar power or kinetic energy. They feature low power consumption and reliable wireless communication in locations where it is difficult to run wires. Because these devices are low power, their wireless messages are limited in size and cannot support many of the features provided by BACnet. However, in their limited capacities, EnOcean devices can still be useful in a building automation systems (BAS).

Because most EnOcean devices do not require power or communication wiring, they are easy to install and can add functionality to an existing BAS. An EnOcean to BACnet gateway can seamlessly integrate EnOcean devices into a BAS to provide simple data, such as temperature, humidity, light levels, room occupancy. The BAS can use this data to optimize zone control, improving energy efficiency, and enhancing occupant comfort.

EnOcean devices typically cannot manage control zones directly, and they rely on the BAS to manage control functions, as well as alarms, schedules, and trends. A wide range of EnOcean devices is available to expand BAS capabilities.

EnOcean Rocker Switch

The EnOcean rocker switch is normally used to turn on/off EnOcean controlled lights or position blinds. However, this data can also be made available to the BAS for other purposes. There could be situations where you would like to have the ability for the occupants to be able to signal the BAS, for example to signal occupancy or enable/disable fans, etc. When controlling brightness of a light a rocker switch can be held down to make the adjustment. The BAS could utilize a similar behavior for analog values going to the BAS. A rocker switch does not require any wiring. It is powered by the physical act of pressing its buttons. It can be installed in a convenient location in the facility and the EnOcean gateway can receive this data and make it available to the BAS supervisor/head-end.

EnOcean Temperature/Humidity Sensor

The EnOcean temperature/humidity sensors also do not require any power, only light. These can be added to zones to provide more temperature data to the BAS than it is currently receiving. For example, when people are complaining about being too hot or too cold, an EnOcean temperature sensor can be installed and brought into the BAS supervisor for trending to help determine if the area is too hot or cold. The humidity feature can also be used when zones are lacking humidity sensors. This can be useful when the economizers are bringing in air that is too humid due to problems with the economizer sensors or other mechanical issues.

Occupancy Sensors

There are many types of EnOcean occupancy sensors that do not require power or communication wires. Most of these are powered by light. These make them easy to add to a facility. These can be used to enable/disable heating/cooling for a zone without needing to wire them to a controller.vPeople Counting Sensor

The people counting sensors, which require no power or communication wires, can be useful when providing cooling for a large zone that could controlled more accurately when the number of actual occupants are known.

Magnetic Sensor

Magnetic sensors, which require no power or communication wires, can be useful for facilities with windows. When the window has been opened the heating/cooling of the zone can be disabled. Adding this to a BAS can be much easier than adding wired versions.

Light Level Sensors

A light level sensor can be used to detect light from outside windows that may affect the comfort levels of a zone. These require no power or communication wires so they are easy to add to the BAS. The multisensor below provides light level and temperature/humidity sensing so this can be used to provide a combination of data for the BAS.

Lighting Control

EnOcean devices can be used to control LED lights. The device on the left is an EnOcean relay that can control the LED lights. It also has a 0-10V output to control the brightness of the light. The rocker switches can be used to turn the lights on/off and to adjust the brightness. The relay must be wired into the light but there are no communication wires. The rocker switches communicate directly with the EnOcean relay. An EnOcean gateway can be used to allow the BAS to control all lights in the facility. For example, during the day building occupants can turn on/off the lights. At night the BAS can turn off all lights that were left on.

Air Quality Sensors

There are many air quality sensors available that require no power or communication signals that can be easily added to a BAS to provide status of the air quality of a zone.

EnOcean to BACnet Gateway

An EnOcean to BACnet Gateway allows BACnet devices to receive EnOcean data from EnOcean input devices, such as temperature sensors, and to control EnOcean output devices through the BACnet objects it exposes to the network. Every EnOcean device registered with the gateway is given its own virtual BACnet device. Under this virtual BACnet device are a series of BACnet objects which for input devices, represent the data produced by the EnOcean device. For output devices, the objects represent the data that must be written so the gateway can transmit a full EnOcean message in order to control the output EnOcean device. Once the BACnet head-end or client has written all of the objects in the virtual output EnOcean device, it will transmit an EnOcean message to the output EnOcean device. The gateway supports remote commissioning, allowing it to be linked to the output EnOcean device via the gateway's webpages.

More Information

The EnOcean Alliance provides information for many EnOcean devices that are available to enhance your BAS. Go to www.enocean-alliance.org/products. If you are located in North America look for products that support 902MHz. For Europe use 868MHz. Japan uses 928MHz.