Automated villa from 70’s uses UniPi 1.1 as a control unit.
Project introduction
Anders Kjellström, the author of the whole project, is politically committed to stop or reduce global warming by improving energetic consumption efficiency. As a showcase of such approach, his villa built in 1970s is fully automated and uses electricity only to power all devices needed for a comfortable living. Our UniPi 1.1 is then used as a central control unit.
Along with our technology, Anders utilized many gadgets and technologies from the field of home automation, his project thus included both modern wireless and wired devices. As a software, our EVOK open-source API is used along with Anders' custom-developed BehovsBo system. Both EVOK and BehovsBo are described below.
The residence itself is located in Sweden and originally, it suffered from ineffective insulation - the annual electricity consumption was as high as 35 000 kWh. Anders' goal was to lower the consumption by 20% to 28 000 kWh. However, thanks to thorough insulation and complete automation, Anders managed to reduce the consumption by nearly 70% to 10 000 kWh - 28.6% of the original value.
System features
Temperature measurement is handled by Dallas thermometers placed in each separate room and communicating via a 1-Wire protocol. One sensor is also placed outdoors. All temperature measurements can be accessed through the BehovsBo interface.
The villa uses two main sources of thermal energy for heating. On the roof, four solar collectors are installed to collect Sun's heat during the summer. During the winter, a geothermal pump placed in the basement, transferring the heat to or from the ground - in the summer, the system then uses the ground as a heat sink.
In the building itself, hydronic underfloor heating is used along with an FTX unit. Air used by the FTX unit is preheated via underground pipes and filtered to remove dust, fumes or moisture. As a result, the residence is supplied with fresh and healthy air.
As for the internet connection, the villa is connected via optic fibre. The internal network then consists of BehovsBo, computers and surveillance cameras. All doors and windows are equipped with magnetic sensors and for security reasons, motion sensors are installed as well. Security systems are connected to BehovsBo, which has the "Not at home" mode. When this mode is enabled, any visitor of the residence is detected and a warning e-mail is sent to Anders automatically.
Worth mentioning are also other features such as dimmable LED lights, central vacuum cleaner system and automated shutters, which can change their settings depending on the sunlight intensity. In the garage, there is also an induction charger for charging Anders' electric car.
The schema of residence connections taken from BehovsBo Homepage.
Control software
As mentioned before, Anders has developed his own proprietary software called BehovsBo. Originally the system was not open-source, but later, Anders decided to publish the source code on GitHub. Two languages are available - English and Swedish.
BehovsBo is also connected to the FTP server of Nord Pool monitoring electricity prices. When the price is low, the system automatically buys the energy. BehovsBo's interface is web-based and through it, users can view the indoor temperature of each separate room as well as outdoor temperature.
Wireless devices in the residence are using IPv6-based 6LoWPAN protocol and the IEEE 802.15.4 radio standard. BehovsBo can be also integrated into Thread - a modern technology for smart home mesh networks
BehovsBo web interface
A gallery of screenshots showing the BehovsBo demo web interface.
BehovsBo Demo – room temperature settings
BehovsBo Demo – admin settings
BehovsBo Demo – electricity spot prices overview
Useful links
For more info, here are some useful links to start:
