KNX Hackathon finalists demonstrate sustainability with KNX at KNXperience 2023

Sustainability has been one of the most important topics for KNX. Thanks to its ever-evolving features, versatile applicability and broad interoperability, the world's leading technical standard for smart homes and buildings has been the foundation for the most innovative and ground-breaking energy management solutions in the residential and commercial building sector. And while KNX is already widely recognised for improving people's lives and positively impacting the climate, the KNX Hackathon has once again demonstrated how powerful KNX technology can be when it comes to energy savings and to the reduction of the carbon footprint of smart homes and buildings.

The competition was open to anyone from all over the world who is able to demonstrate how to save energy using KNX. Any individual or team could participate, including students, hobbyists, professionals, scientific partners, manufacturers, etc. From all received entries, a jury of KNX experts selected five finalists with excellent solutions or projects that use KNX to achieve increased sustainability. The finalists had the opportunity to convince the jury and the community with an interview about their project during KNXperience on the 26th of September. Based on his convincing arguments how energy could be saved with KNX, Luc Vercruyssen from CDI Projects was selected as the winner of the KNX Hackathon.

The Luka Energy Manager can typically increase the consumption of self-generated power in a home with a KNX installation to 90%. LUKA connects to the KNX network via a KNX/IP router and takes advantage of KNX switch actuators and KNX gateways in order to measure energy flows and to control technical installations such as EV chargers, PV arrays, heat pumps, home batteries and other appliances. It also uses web services such as weather forecasts and electricity tariffs to collect all the information required to optimise energy flows. Using KNX to communicate with smart home components ensures a future-proof, flexible and reliable system. By using standard off-the-shelf KNX interfaces, no software development is necessary to control these devices.

xxter developed the KNX-based Smart Energy Manager (SEM) that not only monitors energy usage and production, but smart-manages it too. Based on the energy production forecast, which can be automatically predicted with impressive accuracy based on factors such as the weather forecast, dynamic pricing information and the customer's typical needs, the best schedule is created to minimise energy consumption from the grid, thereby reducing costs and the carbon footprint. An example of such scheduling would be to charge an electric car when there is a lot of solar energy available, or when the spot (hourly) electricity prices from the supplier, are low. The xxter SEM can also manage home batteries automatically in order to further improve the efficiency of self-produced energy.

Can’nX presented a tailored solution using PV panels and storage combined with their Can’nX Emergy’nX energy optimisation software. Hybrid inverters for PV panel production, combined with energy storage batteries were integrated into the existing KNX installation comprising hot water tanks, HVAC, pool filtration, pool heat pumps and electric vehicle charging stations. The energy optimisation software allows automatic control of major power consumers to be finely tuned, with priority orders chosen by the occupant, all without compromising their comfort. Based on fluctuating energy costs and PV production levels, it finely manages battery charge and discharge cycles and automatic operation of necessary equipment to create energy surplus, thereby minimising usage during periods of high electricity pricing.

LOCAL+ is an initiative involving architectural students from Aachen University of Applied Sciences. Its design challenge was to develop a building that produces excess energy through innovative and forward-looking systems: a so-called plus-energy house that is almost self-sufficient. A central hydrogen system, interacting with other components, was specified as the main source of energy, promising up to 65% self-sufficiency. Other components include an underground ice store, PVT collectors and a heat pump. In practice, the hydrogen system was dispensed with due to a short service life, and the ice storage facility was reduced in size due to underground construction constraints. Apart from these site-related limitations, the system was implemented in line with the plans and uses KNX devices connected via KNX IP Secure to the EisBaer Software PV Manager. In this project, EisBaer software provides the overall control solution for all of the services, including the HVAC, water temperature and energy management.

In 2019, the mission was to create a self-sufficient home. This was a gradual process that involves monitoring and analysing energy usage, integrating smart home technologies and using renewable energy sources such as solar panels. A crucial part of this project was using KNX automation and monitoring systems to improve how energy was used. By continuously exploring and expanding the automation and monitoring capabilities, they have transformed their home into a smart and efficient living space. This journey towards more specific automations and monitoring has empowered them to take greater control of energy usage and sustainability efforts.

The winner of the KNX Hackathon will receive a trophy and prize money of 3000 EUR and was invited to present the winning solution during the KNX Scientific Conference in Barcelona on the 10th of October. Until the end of October, you can still watch the KNX Hackathon finalists’ sessions on demand at https://knxperience.knx.org