Blinds chasing the sun

Has anyone heard of a cbus installation where the blinds chase the sun. for example in summer on a western wall in the afternoon as the sun goes down so does the blind?????? Can this be acheived without using a PAC. You would need two PE cells too. Any idea or answers would help.

 

I plan to do this, and I think a sunrise/sunset calculation would allow you to do it on a simple level and date, and then add the light level to indicate a sunny day as opposed to overcast.

I cant answer the question if the pac can do it, but I would expect it to be able to.

Mick

 

Chase The sun

I saw this demonstrated by EBM Systems....

Tony

 

Try the following:

For a lux sensor, when it is so bright, it dims the load to 1% (not off). when it dark, it takes the load back to 100%.

Now, if the lux sensor's application is "Trigger", or you have a b&w touch screen (thus you have have "lighting" as trigger application), you can trigger a "blind down" scene when level is 1%, and "blind up" scene when level is 100%.

A lot consideration is needed on the disable/enable of the sensor, what level when you need blind down or up and never have a case of auxilating.......

That's what I can think of, but you need to try and tell if it works....

 

Chasing the sun

In Europe we have actually done this quite often, even light guiding systems (basically a reversed venetian blind which trows the light at a defined spot on the ceiling to provide indirect lighting, with 255 positions in Height and another 255 position for tilt for each of the positions in height)

From elero there is a special motor available in a technique called SMI, which allows the motor to be positioned at any specific position (not by timer, but by a counter built into the motor, elero is pioneering this technology since 1997)
Unfortunatelly, there is no direct actuator for the C-bus system available, but you also could run the motors via ASCII signals (one ASCII interface could handle 16 motors since the are subaddressable).
More info can also be found on this website, which also lists other manufacturer of these types of motors:

www.smi-group.com

 

How its done

The motors are only one part of it.
There are different systems out there how to do it:

Light sensor on inside and outside:
The blind is simple lifted/ adjusted until the desired level is reached. Since the outside value is known, the maximum value achievable is also known.


Facade light sensor:
Only a simple light sensor on the outside for each facade direction. For each brightness level a specifc blind position is defined

Central light sensor with yearly timer:
A timer knows the exact position of the sun throughout the whole year for every minute of the day.
Together with the measured light value and orientation of the window the exact position of the blind is specified.
This technology is certainly the most advanced, but also requires a lot of knowledge and experience.
2 Blind manufacturers in Europe (that I am aware of) are practising this technology:

(German only, no technical details about the electronic products at all...)
www.hueppelux.de

(Sorry: German, Italian or French only)
http://www.griesser.ch/public/products/default.asp?LNG=de&LND=CH&mnu=4&sub=12&ID=STE&det=EASYCOMFORT

Just for some thoughts

 

I'm confused

I was talking with someone the other day that used to be Elero Australia and he claimed that he had shut up shop and EA was not more - and then I see these posts.

Does Elero Aust still exist?

Mick

 

There's life in the old dog yet

To be exact, yes elero Australia is currently shut down for management and company restructuring.

At present deliveries to Australia are still happening directly from the Headoffice in Germany (where I am currently located) at preferred conditions.

However, plans for a new elero Australia are on the way and hopefully back to operating in Australia end of this, beginning of next year.

Long live the dead! ))

 

Tracking the Sun

Shade Factor can supply sun tracking devices, that enable slatted products to be rotated relative to the position of the sun (calculated with an algorithm), after entering longtitude and latitude. The device can be used as an input to C Bus.

 

I know nothing about this but I would certainly look at technology used in solar power since people go to the trouble of rotating panels to improve output.

If I had to do it on the cheap I would use a ball of PE sensors masked by black cylinders. The cylinder with the highest voltage is the one with greatest positional alignment with the sun.