EnOcean is a German wireless, energy harvesting technology used primarily in building automation systems, based in Oberhaching. It is not set out for international, European or national standardization; however, EnOcean GmbH is offering its technology and licenses for the patented features under license within the EnOcean Alliance framework. The concept was developed to enable batteryless sensors and switches for building automation.
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EnOcean technology is based on the energetically efficient exploitation of applied slight mechanical excitation and other potentials from the environment using the principles of energy harvesting. In order to transform such energy fluctuations into usable electrical energy, electromagnetic, piezogenerators, solar cells, thermocouples, and other energy converters are used.
The EnOcean products (such as sensors and radio switches) do not need a battery and are engineered to operate maintenance-free. The signals from these sensors and switches can be transmitted wirelessly over a distance of up to 300 meters. Early designs from the company used piezo generators, later replaced with electromagnetic energy sources to reduce the operating pressure (7 newtons), and increase the service life to 50,000 operations.
Packets of data are relatively small with the packet being only 14 bytes long and are transmitted at 120 kbit/s. RF energy is only transmitted for the 1's on the data, reducing the amount of power required. Three packets are sent at pseudo-random intervals reducing the possibility of packet collisions. Switches also transmit additional data packets on release of push-button switches, enabling other features such as light dimming to be implemented.[1] The transmission frequency used for the devices is 868.3 MHz.
One example of the technology is a battery-free wireless light switch. Advantages are that that it saves time and material by eliminating the need to install wires between the switch and device, e.g., a light, and that it also reduces noise on switched circuits, as the switching is performed locally at the load.
Another application is an audience voting system developed by EnOcean's UK distributor. Each member of the audience is given a four-button remote with an EnOcean transmitter, and the signals are decoded by a receiver connected to a computer. This avoids the need to manage batteries in many remote handsets, and each handset is uniquely identified, so the "quizmaster" or presenter can see each individual answer from each member of the audience.
EnOcean GmbH is a venture-funded spin-off company of Siemens AG founded in 2001. It is a German company headquartered in Oberhaching, near Munich, which currently employs 35 employees. It is a technology supplier of self-powered modules (transmitters, receivers, transceivers, energy converter) to companies (e.g. Siemens, Distech Controls, Seamless Sensing, Zumtobel, Omnio, Osram, Wieland Electric, Peha, Thermokon, Wago, Herga), which develop and manufacture products used in building automation (light, shading, hvac), industrial automation, and automotive industry (replacement of the conventional battery in tyre pressure sensors).
The company has won awards for its performance and technology including the Bavarian Innovation Prize 2002[2] for its globally unique technology, the award "Technology Pioneer 2006"[3] by the World Economic Forum and the "Top-10 Product for 2007" award by Building Green.[4]
In July 2007, the company announced technology to allow transmitters to be powered from Peltier devices with a minimum of 2 degrees Celsius temperature difference on each side of a 15 mm square Peltier panel.
In November 2007, MK Electric, the largest manufacturer of consumer electrical fitments in the UK, adopted EnOcean technology for a new range of wireless switches.
A group of companies across Europe and North America including EnOcean, Texas Instruments, Omnio, Sylvania, Masco, and MK Electric formed the EnOcean Alliance in April 2008 as a non-profit, mutual benefit corporation which has the formal purpose of initially developing the specifications for the interoperability of the sensor profiles[5] for the wireless products operating in unlicensed frequency bands and subsequently to apply for ratification as an international standard at the appropriate standardization committee, and of helping to bring about the existence of a broad range of interoperable wireless monitoring and controlling products for use in and around residential, commercial and industrial buildings.
Market research company WTRS announced that EnOcean module shipments will reach $1.4B in 2013.[6]
EnOcean is newly perfectly supported by Fhem.[7] Fhem is a GPL'd perl server for house automation. It is used to automate some common tasks in the household like switching lamps / shutters / heating / etc. and to log events like temperature/humidity/power consumption. Fhem runs as a server, you can control it via web-frontends, telnet, command line program or TCP/IP directly.
In order to use Fhem you'll need a 24/7 server (PC, MacMini, Fritz!Box, NAS, QNAP.[8] etc.) with a perl interpreter and some hardware to access the building automation devices. In case of Enocean, several Transceiver are available (e.g. based on TCM310 [9] or TCM120) with serial or USB interface.
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