KNX Provides Inspirational Guest Experience and Control of Zero-carbon Tourist Accommodation in New Zealand

Camp Glenorchy Eco Retreat is an accommodation facility located at the head of Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand. Revolve Energy is a building automation integrator and renewable energy consultant focused on high-performance buildings in New Zealand. The clients had the target of building a zero-carbon tourist accommodation facility that used half of the energy and water of a similar facility, whilst inspiring and delighting its guests.

The system was to integrate various systems including lighting, heating including a stratified thermal store, heat pumps and solar water heating, ventilation, water management including potable and grey water, EV car charging, composting toilets, guest timed showers.

Involving guests in the drive to save energyRevolve Energy provided an extensive solution to manage energy, water, and most importantly, guest comfort and experience. The system controls the heating/hot water plant, underfloor heating, lighting, shading, irrigation and waste water discharge. Furthermore, integrating the system with the guest booking system, ensures that energy is only used when required by heating the rooms and water, based on bookings.

The buildings also provide guests with displays in each room to help them learn about and control their own energy and water use during their stay, and to see how it compares with others on site, and with previous guests who have stayed in that room.

KNX products are extensively used throughout the building for switches, motion sensors and lighting control. KNX was chosen thanks to its functionality, ease of integration, wide range of choice and ability to be serviced in the future.

As the control system integrated with most of the key systems on site, extensive coordination with the design team, suppliers and contractors was required to ensure a successful outcome. In addition, a very systematic and structured approach was taken to the documentation of the system, its components and assembly.

Dealing with such a remote locationOne of the key challenges was the remote location of the site. Camp Glenorchy is nestled in the mountains; a two-hour flight from Auckland and a further one-hour drive. Most of the installation contractors had no prior exposure to KNX, so an engineer was onsite full-time in order to train staff during the early phases of the installation.

Hardware was labelled and programmed offsite in order to increase the efficiency of the commissioning process.

Revolve Energy operated a proactive program of fine-tuning for six months after opening in order to fix bugs and improve the operational efficiency of the system.

Part of the solution included the implementation of an online data management platform for storing time series data for 1600 unique data points in the cloud. This platform has been powerful in allowing ongoing analysis of the site's performance and system tuning.

KNX delivers a unique guest experienceKNX is instrumental in delivery the high levels of sustainability and a high quality unique guest experience. It demonstrates the flexibility, and power of a control solution based on an open protocol.

One of the key aims of the project is to educate people about how technology can be used to improve operational efficiency, comfort, and well-being. Guests can experience this first hand by staying at Glenorchy or by attending one of the regular tours of the site. People who cannot visit can learn from the online resources and live streaming data.

Project: Camp Glenorchy

A project by: Revolve Energy

Contact: Shay Brazier