Climecon MyAir – always high-quality indoor air Advanced technology developed in Finland automatically adjusts, optimizes and balances ventilation in every apartment of a building. This makes for happy tenants, not to mention major savings in energy, maintenance and renovation costs. Climecon MyAir can also detect problems and respond to them in real time. Case Climecon MyAir Expertise Embedded Systems Adjusting the ventilation in a traditional apartment building is laborious and time-consuming. And even in the best-case scenario, the outcome will only be average, as outside temperatures and wind conditions affect the ventilation, and tenants don’t live their lives according to how the ventilation functions at any given time. Poor indoor air quality is one of the most common problems in apartment buildings. Bad ventilation causes not only disgruntled tenants and health problems, but also unnecessary energy costs, maintenance work and even moisture damage and costly renovations. “The basic problem with traditional ventilation systems is their rigidity. The system is blind to changes and can’t react to them. Ventilation should be increased, for example, when a resident takes a shower or dries clothing. When the ventilation doesn’t work as it should, the tenants will try to adjust it themselves. This can snowball and eventually cause the ventilation in the entire building to go out of balance,” stresses Product Manager Jani Nieminen from Climecon Oy. Climecon is a Finnish company that specializes in ventilation and air purification. Climecon decided to bring ventilation control for apartment buildings into the present day in one fell swoop. World-class experts as designers “There are good grounds for replacing traditional, manually adjusted exhaust air valves with smart ones. The system should be convenient and easy to start up and maintain, so laborious wiring is usually not an option. Other needs include functional automation, smooth remote monitoring and so on,” says Nieminen, listing the basic requirements for the system. “Right from the start it was clear that a key challenge of the project was the wireless, smart exhaust air valve. The valve must work smoothly for years without maintenance and without an external supply of electricity. Those are tough demands for the equipment and software,” says Project Manager Eero Heikkinen from Etteplan. “We realized that implementing such a system would require very extensive expertise in several areas of technology. We decided to turn to Etteplan.” Jani Nieminen, Product Manager at Climecon Oy Demanding software requirements Lithium batteries were chosen as the power source. They have a high energy density and can last up to ten years. Wireless connections to the building’s central unit will employ an 868 MHz LoRa radio, which functions reliably in a reinforced concrete building. The electronics include, among other things, flow and moisture sensors, and the smart functionalities are built into a low-power ARM chip. “At the core of the implementation is software that carefully optimizes energy consumption, especially that of the regulating motor, drive and data transmission. Each MyAir valve component is turned on only when absolutely necessary,” says Heikkinen. “The tests indicate that the batteries will last for years,” he adds. The valve must function very reliably, as maintenance visits will be costly. The schedule also set challenges for the software developers. “We needed the best possible tools to develop the software. The ARM Mbed OS system was decided on for the embedded software. ARM Mbed met our requirements with flying colors. We will implement our future Arm projects using this system,” says Heikkinen. Etteplan also created the software for the building’s central unit. End result in a class of its own “Climecon’s MyAir can typically be installed in one stairwell of an apartment building in one work day. And the adjustments are fine in one go,” says Nieminen. Climecon MyAir automatically adjusts, optimizes and balances ventilation in the apartments of a building. MyAir ensures the correct volume of air in every individual apartment and that the indoor air is clean. In terms of balance, MyAir is also aware of the pressure difference in the entire building envelope and the impact of the wind and the stack effect. In the event of a problem that the system cannot resolve on its own, maintenance calls and alarms are automatically sent. Two such examples are if a valve becomes loose or blocked. “The feedback from tenants, building managers, experts and maintenance personnel has been positive. The automation works, and in the long run we expect significant savings,” says a pleased Nieminen. “The goals of the project have been met. We are very pleased with Etteplan’s work. The design of the equipment was exceptionally fast, and collaboration on the project was otherwise excellent,” Nieminen sums up.
VTT and Etteplan Partnership Paves the Way for Finnish MedTech Innovation VTT is one of Europe’s leading science and technology organization. We are owned by the Finnish state. We advance the utilisation and commercialisation of research and technology in commerce and society. Through scientific and technological means, we turn large global challenges into sustainable growth for businesses and society. We bring together people, business, science and technology to solve the biggest challenges of our time.
Balancing the energy grid with Fortum Spring Fortum is a European energy company with activities in more than 40 countries. Fortum provides their customers with electricity, gas, heating and cooling as well as smart solutions to improve resource efficiency. Fortum wants to engage their customers and society to join the change for a cleaner world. Fortum is the third largest producer of CO2-free electricity in Europe. With approximately 19,000 professionals and a combined balance sheet of approximately EUR 69 billion, Fortum has the scale, competence and resources to grow and to drive the energy transition forward.
Development of precise positioning accelerates Kalmar’s research project – Etteplan Rugged Evaluation Platform in action Kalmar offers the widest range of cargo handling solutions and services to ports, terminals, distribution centers, and to heavy industry. Kalmar is the industry forerunner in terminal automation and in energy-efficient container handling, with one in four container movements around the globe being handled by a Kalmar solution.
Creating a digital era dental robot Rayo 3DToothfill aims to improve the lives of billions of people with affordable, high-quality dental health. Their solution provides the best results with comparable costs for the dentist and for the patients. To ensure their solution is usable in different surroundings, it is simple and easy-to use.
EOT 2021 (Electronics of Tomorrow) TekPartner exhibits at EOT 2021 and becomes officially Etteplan from September 1st, 2021 Read more about EOT 2021 (Electronics of Tomorrow)
