Whinstone View is home to no ordinary log cabins. Guests at the lodge in the North Yorkshire countryside demand a touch of luxury and Carlo Gavazzi’s Dupline smart building system makes sure their stay is a comfortable one.
The owners of the holiday cabins have provided every possible amenity for a memorable stay. The luxury lodges come equipped with their own hot tub and Carlo Gavazzi’s Dupline smart building system is at the heart of a control system whereby residents can use a tablet computer to set their preference for heating and lighting scenes and take control of audio visual devices. “The owners already had a previous generation of our Dupline system, but they were keen to add some additional features,” says Kevin Sheldrake, business development manager for fieldbus solutions at Carlo Gavazzi. “This latest upgrade means that the system is now linked back to the reception area, so that they can set welcoming lighting scenes and switch the heating on remotely for when guests arrive.”
The refurbishment has been designed, installed and commissioned by controls specialist Tim Munn. “We have kept the existing cabling but replaced all modules and increased the functionality,” says Tim Munn. “Previously, lights could only be switched on and off; now we have control of lighting based on lux levels as well as heating control, with the reception able to take control via the network.”
As well as scene-setting lighting and warming up the cabins to welcome guests, reception can now drive energy efficiency at the site – an important consideration. For example, reception can override settings if temperatures have been left too high when guests are out for the day or have left the lights on. “We’ve configured the networking so that the lodges are accessible from the site network via the new fibre optic link between the lodges and the reception,” says Munn.
“The system is very straightforward to install and programme,” confirms Kevin Sheldrake. “Our software configuration tool is geared to allow the installer to do the commissioning – unlike some systems, you don’t need an expert from the manufacturer on hand.”
Modules used on the system include light switches, lux control and temperature controllers. Heating is provided by individual gas boilers in each lodge, with a combination of LED and halogen lamps providing the lighting. The control network also takes charge of external lighting around the lodges, again with increased functionality. Path lighting used to simply operate on a timer clock, coming on early in the afternoon – fine in winter, but a waste of energy in the summer. Tim Munn has added daylight sensors to the network so that lights only come on when necessary. This will improve energy efficiency and save money for the owners.
Bus-powered sensors and actuators for the heating and lighting circuits can be connected to the same Dupline bus, eliminating the need for two separate networks and allowing data sharing at the field level. The SH2WEB24 controller is the brain and central unit of the system. The controller includes dedicated functions for automation such as lighting and temperature control, blind control, alarm and energy monitoring.
The robust and noise-immune bus runs on an unshielded 2-wire cable with no need for end-of-line cable terminations. Several hundreds of metres of cable length can be achieved depending on the load of bus-powered devices and cable dimensions.