ABB brings energy efficiency to luxury living

ABB's i-bus KNX building automation solution is reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions by as much as 35% in a luxury apartment tower Le Rêve in Dubai. The building is one of the most exclusive addresses in Dubai, UAE and the first smart home built in the Middle East.
According to Institute for Energy Research, building technology is the largest consumer of energy after the areas of transport and power generation. Heating, cooling and lighting in residential and office buildings make up approximately 40% of the energy consumed in a building - a share that leaves a lot of scope for efficient optimization.On the Middle East front, the home automation level in building installations has reached a very high standard in the past few years. This is in part due to the green building initiatives rolled out by a number of governments over the years. Green buildings have become a major focus in the UAE. In Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, has made green building a top priority and launched a number of green building projects in the country. Supporting this initiative is ABB's smart home automation system, which has taken luxury living to new heights in the 52-story Le Rêve (a.k.a 'The Dream') Tower, which is home to a number of high-profile residents from across the globe. In control of comfortABB i-bus KNX is the intelligent installation system that meets the highest requirements for applications in modern home and building control.The system uses sleek, wireless touch screens to enable Le Rêve residents to control all the functions of their homes, including lighting, air conditioning, heating and curtains in any room, and from any room. It relies on sensors and motion detectors to determine when and how much light and heat are needed in each room. Specifically, a presence detector used for control of the room lighting can simultaneously switch the room thermostat to absent mode as soon as the room is unoccupied for an extended period. Heating or cooling energy can be conserved and energy saved up to 35%. The solution is based on the simple, yet proven KNX technology which is now accepted as the world's first open Standard for the control of all types of intelligent buildings - industrial, commercial or residential. Energy efficiency and climate control in home automation"The ability to control energy-intensive functions, such as air conditioning and lighting in each room, is reducing power consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by close to 35% in the tower. This makes the ABB system one of the most energy-efficient building automation systems on the market," says Tarek Zakaria, Head of ABB's i-bus KNX intelligent building automation systems in the Gulf region. "ABB's i-bus KNX system is one of the most widely used intelligent installation systems in the world, and the leading smart building system in the Middle East and Africa."Curtain (or blind control) plays an important role in climate control for the Le Rêve Tower. Closing the curtains on the facades of the tower on which the sun is shining in summer, can prevent the rooms from heating up - saving energy that would be needed to cool the working areas. In winter the opposite is true. Here it is useful to capture as much solar heat as possible in the rooms - this saves energy when heating rooms.In addition to Dubai's Le Rêve tower, the technology is currently increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy bills in top hotels across the Middle East, including the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, La Cigale Hotel in Doha, and the Four Seasons Hotel in Alexandria.ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 117,000 people