Luxury Family Home, Primrose Hill

Simple intuitive control

This home had become a little dilapidated, but in 2015 work began to completely renovate the house. A 2000 sq. ft basement was added whilst preserving the architectural integrity of the structure. The house was originally designed and built in 1902 by William Willett, an early pioneer of Daylight Saving Time. His motives were to extend daylight hours, increase daylight recreation time and decrease the time needed to light people’s homes in the evenings, thus making their homes more energy-efficient.

Fitting then that in 2018 an energy-efficient KNX system was installed to manage control of lights, shades, heating and cooling.

Simple intuitive control was the first request.

Automatic shut off for lighting in vacant rooms. The client’s children were known to leave lights on as they moved around the house, or when they left for school. We were tasked with monitoring vacant rooms and then shutting the lights off automatically.

Timed WiFi. Internet access was to be restricted to certain devices at certain times. Other devices like parents’ phones and iPads would have 24-hour internet access.

Minimalist design for the AV system. TV’s were to be hidden behind moving panels where possible, ceiling speakers were to be the invisible ‘plaster in’ type. The AV system was to be invisible upon entering the main living space.

Our client’s brief was made easier by the fact that he and his family had been using Gira for home control since 2013. We had already commissioned 4 properties for this client so his understanding of Gira was fine-tuned based on years of experience in his own home.

At the top layer of control, the Gira HomeServer provides visualisation of every part of the KNX system. The status of every lighting circuit in the house can be checked from the app, as well the position of the blinds in every room, the temperatures and the current mode of the heating and cooling systems. A sensor in the bathroom tells the occupant if they’ve left the bathroom window open. If so, it can be closed from a button press on the Gira app.

Gira light switches were chosen in a contemporary Esprit White Glass, with matching electrical sockets and video entry stations giving an unrivalled aesthetic for wall mounted fittings.

Presence and motion detectors by Gira were selected to monitor movement in the kids living spaces and shut down any vacant rooms. The extensive basement used a series of motion detectors to create a light scene as you entered the basement and shut down all 8 rooms when they were vacant.

Automatic lighting was also used for external areas, front and rear gardens. Lights automatically switch on at sunset and go off when requested by the client. A side walk way was protected with lights triggered by motion detectors and an alert sent to the owner.

This luxury home is a considerable property at 670 sq. m. It features 5 beds all with en-suite, a cinema to seat 8 people featuring a Dolby Atmos sound system and 4K projection. The wine cellar, gym, golf simulator and swimming pool complete the extensive basement. The ground floor living spaces feature a TV concealed by moving panels and invisible speakers.

With over 150 lighting circuits, 15 zones of heating and cooling spread across 670 sq. metres and motorised curtains and blinds on every window KNX was the 1st choice for the control system.

All lighting circuits were trimmed to 80% brightness within the KNX dimmers. A small change to the human eye, especially in rooms that had several lighting circuits, but a considerable saving in the amount of energy needed to completely illuminate the spaces.

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