The EnOcean Alliance , an international consortium of 120 companies from the building sector, has announced the publication of its first global, open specification for energy-harvesting wireless sensors. The guidelines ensure interoperability among devices of various manufacturers. Jointly produced by EnOcean Alliance members, the public specification is accessible to everyone and presently contains 50 equipment profiles supporting the development of a variety of solutions for building automation. Currently available EEPs (Enocean Equipment Profiles) include switches, remote controls, sensors, sensor combinations and data of every kind.
Currently, there are no other standards that offer batteryless wireless communications, with Enocean the only wireless standard that was developed from day one to operate with ultra lowest power.  Other wireless standards such as ZigBee require typically 30 to 100 times the energy of EnOcean and therefore cannot effectively operate without batteries or line power. In buildings says a spokes person for the alliance, "we have found that people do not want to have to maintain thousands of batteries - especially as this can now be avoided. EnOcean technology has now been successfully installed into over 100.000 buildings". The sensors in production harvest energy through mechanical, solar, vibration and thermal. Mechanical harvesting might happen through the click of a light switch, for example or the turn of a door know. Some solar sensors can operate for up to a week without exposure to sunlight. In the pipeline there are prototypes for sensors that operate through radio waves and air pressure changes.
EnOcean interoperates with multiple building control systems such as BACnet, LONworks, EIB/KNX, TCP/IP and if required also ZigBee. While active in the US many of Enocean's 130 members have offices in Asia such as Distech Controls, Siemens, Honeywell, EnOcean and partners in Singapore, Korea and Japan. The technology has now been approved and is now being installed in Japan and China.
Jointly devised specification
Graham Martin, chairman and CEO of the EnOcean Alliance, said, "Publication of the first specification for EnOcean sensors is extremely important for the EnOcean Alliance because it ensures continuing seamless interoperability between EnOcean-enabled solutions across the spectrum of manufacturers. Moreover, it's the first step taken by the Alliance towards formal recognition as an international standard."
The specification was devised by the EnOcean Alliance technical working group (TWG), which undertook the task of standardizing EnOcean technology on an international scale in order to assure full interoperability over a broad spectrum of sensor-based building automation solutions. EnOcean Alliance member companies currently offer 350 different products based on EnOcean technology, all of which provide true interoperability by virtue of their rigid adherence to firmly defined equipment profiles established in the EnOcean Alliance specification.
Non-proprietary communication
As a prerequisite for enabling equipment from different manufacturers to communicate and work together in building automation systems, interoperability demands adherence to clearly defined rules and standards. For example, all components must use the same data formats or protocols as set forth in the profile definitions. In a system with interoperable components that work according to a profile definition, it is possible to combine a receiver from manufacturer A with a sensor from manufacturer B and a sensor from manufacturer C performing the same function. In this way, non-proprietary, smart solutions for energy-efficient building automation are easily implemented on an enterprise-wide basis.
First open specification for energy harvesting wireless sensors
At present the published specification contains 50 EEPs describing different switching functions, remote controls, sensors and combinations of sensors for temperature, brightness, motion and humidity. Additional profiles are also defined for switching actuators, dimmers and other devices, with new EEPs under development, including Demand Response, Smart Grid and SMART ACK.
EnOcean Equipment Profiles define the functionality of EnOcean-enabled equipment independently of manufacturer. To ensure interoperability between all EnOcean-based products, every manufacturer must provide a binding declaration prior to product introduction demonstrating that their solution meets the EnOcean Alliance specification though compliance with one or more EEP.
The new document is the first official specification to compile and publish the EEPs, paving the way for global proliferation of EnOcean technology driving the development and manufacture of new types of equipment. For users, the directive means that they have an even greater selection and more implementation possibilities as a result of a growing number of products and suppliers.
