Sorry if this is off topic a bit as most of what I have been reading here is geared more towards home automation but there seems to be alot of knowledgable folks here that hopefully can point me in the right direction.
I have been a HA hobbyist for about 5 years and have enjoyed installing a Homeseer and ELK system in my house and continuously tinkering with it. Over the years I have become familiar with scripting in both vbscript and NET.
My full time job is electrical engineering, service, testing & maintenance, and project installations. Our service division has individuals that are quite fluent in PLC and electrical controls. In these tough times I am looking to widen our services to include energy management and building automation. A few of our customers have inquired about these services in the past and I have sub'd out the design, hardware, and programming to the Trane's, Siemens, and Johnson META-Sys folks.
We installed and wired the components only to have them program, test, and eventually take over the customer with a maintenance service contract for their product.
My goal is to eventually provide all the above services in house. I have an upcoming opportunity with a few small office buildings.
I intend to start small with control of lighting systems in a small office park I see as the biggest problem. Eventually adding some HVAC controls by integrating with an outdated electric heat control system. Then onto monitoring and control of electrical usage.
Ideally, I am looking for an open architecture hardware systems capable of expansion and simplicity of programming and maintaining. Solid products that others have used with great technical support from the manufacturer.
I appreciate any help getting me started.
I have been a HA hobbyist for about 5 years and have enjoyed installing a Homeseer and ELK system in my house and continuously tinkering with it. Over the years I have become familiar with scripting in both vbscript and NET.
My full time job is electrical engineering, service, testing & maintenance, and project installations. Our service division has individuals that are quite fluent in PLC and electrical controls. In these tough times I am looking to widen our services to include energy management and building automation. A few of our customers have inquired about these services in the past and I have sub'd out the design, hardware, and programming to the Trane's, Siemens, and Johnson META-Sys folks.
We installed and wired the components only to have them program, test, and eventually take over the customer with a maintenance service contract for their product.
My goal is to eventually provide all the above services in house. I have an upcoming opportunity with a few small office buildings.
I intend to start small with control of lighting systems in a small office park I see as the biggest problem. Eventually adding some HVAC controls by integrating with an outdated electric heat control system. Then onto monitoring and control of electrical usage.
Ideally, I am looking for an open architecture hardware systems capable of expansion and simplicity of programming and maintaining. Solid products that others have used with great technical support from the manufacturer.
I appreciate any help getting me started.
