KNX is world standard
KNX, the home- and building automation standard that grew out of the fusion of Batibus, EIB and EHS, has now become international standard ISO/IEC 14543-3. The press announcement can be found here.
Choice of new programming language
If you are regularly programming in your work you should invest some time to keep your programming skills sharp. And one of the best ways to do that is to master a new programming language. I have now been through two major programming projects in Java, and am starting on a new one in Python. […]
Bug finding tools for Java
I came across an article in the 15th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (2004) titled “A Comparison of Bug Finding Tools for Java“. The authors, Nick Rutar, Christian B. Almazan, and Jeffrey S. Foster, have carried out probably the first detailed comparison of the most popular automatic bug finding tools for Java. They tested […]
“Ecobilans” software presentation
IBPSA-CH, the newly created regional affiliate of IBPSA for Switzerland, hosted on 19 October 2006 in Geneva a software presentation of so-called “Ecobilans” programs. These are programs that generally help an organisation assess its social and environmental impact. The programs that were presented were Ecoentreprise, Green-E and Eco-Bat. They all try to solve the same […]
IBPSA Swiss regional affiliate created
The first General Assembly of IBPSA-CH took place on 1 September 2006 in Lucerne, Switzerland, at the University of Applied Sciences. International Building Performance Simulation Association, the biggest international society of building performance simulation professionals, has now affiliates in sixteen countries or regions. This first General Assembly focused on presenting the goals and projects of […]
Energy-efficient appliances in Switzerland
Top Ten is a well-designed and user-friendly website that carries information on energy-efficient appliances and other equipment. It is mainly targeted at the swiss audience but I am sure most of these products can be found all over the european market. On this site one can also find information on alternative energy sources and pointers […]
Review: Decompiling Java
I just finished reading through Decompiling Java by Godfrey Nolan. You might ask, why would I mention a book on reverse-engineering bytecode in a weblog dedicated to smart buildings? What is the relationship between the intellectual property of companies writing Java code and home automation? The answer, essentially, is OSGi. An OSGi framework, in a […]
Vampires in the home
Referring again to the power consumption of “stand-by” appliances discussed earlier, I recently stoborrowed a WSE Wattmeter, made by Messtechnik Schaffhausen GmbH, from our laboratory, and measured the power consumption of the few appliances we have at our place after our recent move. Sony stereo player: 6 W. Aquarium, 60 L: 100 W with lighting […]
Raclette machine control with X10
This Saturday I turned on our new raclette machine at our flat from my computer. There is a fairly well-established home automation standard in the U.S. called X10, invented in 1975. It allows for the simple control of appliances, lights and other home equipment, using a communication protocol over the power lines. It has however […]
“Standby” appliances waste of energy
The BBC carries a story on the energy waste represented by household appliances kept on standby mode instead of being switched off. The UK alone wastes enough energy to send the population of Glasgow on a return flight to New York. The problem is that contrary to what most people (including me) believed, keeping an […]