Re: Siemens Instabus

[Michael Chau <mschau@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Guys,

I have just come back from a day EIB installation course on Tuesday and
have also booked the week long training course at the end of March. My
wife and I have decided to go for this system for our new house which is
under construction. We were thinking of using X10 for our home HA
system. Although, you can get a lot of X10 devices in America, but only
a limited number of them are suitable for the UK, especially we just
cannot find any decent wall switch. Then, we came across this EIB system
in Tomorrow's World program and recently the Dream House program.

EIB - European Installation Bus, has been well tested and used in the
continent for the last 7 years and has been introduced in the UK in the
last 2 years. It has been widely used in the Continent, eg. Oslo
Airport, Commerzbank Frankfurt, SBG Zurich Station for the control of
all lighting, air conditioning, sun blind, etc. Just heard that BSkyB
has installed EIB component in their Satellite set top box so that you
can control your EIB system on your TV. MK hasn't introduced any EIB
products as yet, but they are looking at it very seriously and they have
sent a lot of their engineers on the training course. They have also
purchased a lot of EIB products and stripped it down into bits. Guess
what they are trying to do ?!

Unlike X10, there are thousand of products you can choose from, wall
switch (1/2/4/8 gang), sensor (PIR/Light/Wind/Water/Temp/IR),
actuator(on/off/dim), scene module, blind control, microwave, oven, dish
washer, washing machine. You guys get the idea, you named it and you
will certainly find a manufacturer who makes it. The other thing that I
like is you don't have to use EIB wall switch, you can get a EIB device
to connect to your existing ordinary wall switch (or even a designer
wall switch) to control your EIB system. If you plan to rewire or new
wiring for your house, the system will cut down 30 to 40 percent of
wiring because only a single EIB bus wire is required. You don't need to
run power cable to the wall switch.

You can get Visualisation software to control and monitor your EIB
system running on the PC. If you get a touch sensitive monitor, then a
touch screen control.

Can you install this system yourself ? Yes you can, but you still need
to get a certified EIB installer to commission the system for you. I
suggest to get some one to design and commission the system. If you want
do the installion yourself.

What is the cost ? Similar to X10 products.

Where can you buy these products ? There are currently three suppliers,
they are Siemens, HH Electrical (MK equivalent in Germany selling Jung
Instabus) and ABB Electrical.

How to become a certified EIB installer ? You need to take a 5 days
training course and pass a written exam at the end of the course. Then
you will become a EIBA Partner, this enable you to buy the ETS (EIB Tool
Software) in order to design and commission a EIB system.
Contact Chris Glasow on 01932 841616 if you want to know more about the
training course.

--
Michael & Sylvia Chau

------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/ukha_d
Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com