2020 KNX Award Energy Efficiency Winner: Gold LEED Installation in Brazil

The administrative headquarters of Sanepar, the Brazilian water and waste management company, is a new office building located in Curitiba, Brazil. The aim of this project, which won the 2020 KNX Awards category for Energy Efficiency, was to make the building as energy-efficient as possible. Arqtech Automacao, a family-owned and -operated integration business, was commissioned to provide a solution. The installation has also been awarded Gold LEED certification.

Project brief

The brief was to make the building as energy-efficient and safe as possible through sensors and automation. This included DALI lighting, PV generation monitoring, and control of blinds, shutters, HVAC, water consumption and recycling and air quality.

Solution

The building was fitted with PV to generate electricity, with pumps and motors to help with water recycling, with sensors to monitor CO2 for air quality and renewal control, and with light sensors for continuous office dimming, including twilight sensors on the façades to monitor external lighting. A weather station was also fitted, as well as 147 presence detectors in all areas around the building including toilet facilities.

The control system was based on KNX TP and KNX IP, and all of the different technologies were integrated into a BMS workstation SBO server. The solution provided efficient control of 1600 lighting ballasts as well as 50% of the building's electrical sockets which are scheduled to switch off during given times for further energy savings.

There are 50 custom building scenarios, with local control through switches, and a visualisation system with a plan for every floor as well as a dashboard for monitoring energy generation and consumption, water use and recycling, and CO2 levels.

Benefits of using KNX

KNX was considered as the ideal choice as it provided the ability to integrate multiple technologies, such as ModBus and BacNet, DALI, Hitachi and Somfy Animeo IP RS485.

Key products and technologies used

ABB EAE Teknoloji Schneider ElectricVivo SuisseApricumAlbrecht JungSomfy

Project: SANEPAR

A project by: Arqtech Automacao

Contact: Thais Giordani