It rarely starts with a plan: the new LED flickers on the old dimming actuator, the range for the broken push-button is no longer made, an actuator fails — and its successor carries a different order number. The common denominator is a system that has done its job for fifteen or twenty years and whose distribution board in places still says EIB. Modernising here does not mean full replacement — the bus cable stays, and whatever runs reliably and is needed stays with it. Operation, lighting, heating control and the ETS project behind them are brought up to today's standard. We plan this on the existing project, device by device, and also tell you where the effort is not worth it.
The incandescent bulb has been replaced, and the LED flickers, hums or has a dead zone at the lower end of the scale. The cause sits in the distribution board: dimming actuators from the incandescent era expect a minimum load an LED never reaches, and use a dimming method that does not suit the lamp's driver. On the old device there is usually nothing to adjust — this is where the modernisation of the lighting begins.
A rocker is broken, the frames are yellowing, or the range has been discontinued. Ordering a replacement reveals that new push-buttons do not simply fit onto old bus coupling units — depending on the device, both need replacing together. An accessory becomes a small planning question: which control points are affected, and what should they be able to do in future?
The faulty actuator is quickly found, and so is a successor — only it is not an identical model: its own order number, its own application program, a new parameterisation. Very old application programs sometimes also exist only as plug-ins for earlier ETS versions. The swap becomes a project question, and it is bound to arise again, because the remaining devices date from the same year.
In the hallway a motion detector switches the light hard on and off, the valve drives cycle as they were set at handover, the distribution board still says EIB. The system does what it should — at the standard of the year it was installed. The trigger then is not a fault but the gap between what it can do and what is possible in the same place today.
We go through your ETS project device by device and hold it up against what the system should deliver in future. Each device gets one of three decisions: it stays, because nothing speaks against it. It is replaced, because load, function or spare part availability speak against it. Or it keeps its place and merely gets new parameters. If the project file is missing, the route starts on a different page — with the system readout.
Modern dimming actuators are designed for LED loads and manage with far smaller minimum loads; where many luminaires come together or the colour temperature is to be controllable, the route often runs via a DALI gateway and luminaires with their own control gear. Which lamp sits on which channel is in the project — we plan the transition channel by channel and manufacturer-independently. The swap takes place in the distribution board — by elektrofabrik or your own contractor.
Whether a new push-button sensor can keep using the existing bus coupling unit depends on manufacturer and generation — where it cannot, the pair is swapped as one unit and reprogrammed. We plan the assignment at the same time: what goes on which button, where one scene helps more than individual switching functions, which rooms manage with fewer control points. The programming is done by us; the change at the back box is handled by elektrofabrik or your own contractor.
In many places the mounting position stays and the function makes the leap: a presence detector in the place of the old motion detector picks up even small movements and measures brightness at the same time; a heating actuator with its own controller replaces the old valve drive logic and works with a continuous control value instead of pure open-and-close operation. The bus cable to that point stays; elektrofabrik or your own contractor swaps the device, and the parameters come from us.
A project state from ETS 2 or ETS 3 is migrated to a current version, sometimes via intermediate steps — with known breaking points: application programs that only ever existed as plug-ins, and product data that can no longer be obtained. Before the migration we identify the devices this affects. Afterwards the project state is current; the deviations the review turned up have been incorporated — and both are handed over to you.
The layer behind the devices belongs in the review too: the KNX power supply and choke have run continuously since commissioning, and after years of small changes the labelling and order in the distribution board no longer match the project everywhere. The distribution board is opened by our own electricians at elektrofabrik — our sister company — or by your own contractor; whatever changes there, we carry into the project and the documentation.
In commercial properties too, modernisation often starts with the lighting, now that fluorescent lamps have been phased out EU-wide — in functional buildings the route then usually runs via DALI gateways on the KNX, and planning proceeds in stages, area by area, so operations continue during the changeover.
What needs bringing up to today's standard and what carries on running reliably is decided by the project state and the devices installed — not by age alone. Four questions, then we sort it out together.
Even "in your case this is not worth doing" is a result we will tell you. Both cost you nothing.
Rather talk straight away+49 211 838 66 870No. The bus cable stays, and devices from different generations work together on the same bus — which is why modernisation can proceed in steps. Whatever runs reliably and is needed stays — even though we would earn more on a swap; devices are replaced where load, function or spare part availability argue against them; some only need new parameters. To put it in one sentence: modernising means replacing or updating what exists; if something new is added — a room, a heat pump — that is an extension; if the foundation is missing, it is a reconstruction. Both neighbouring cases have pages of their own, and we tell you openly which one you are in.
If an identical replacement exists: yes. It is loaded from the project with the existing application program and the existing parameters; with a complete project an electrical contractor versed in KNX can do that too — you do not need us for it. It is different when the device is discontinued: the successor comes with its own application program and is reparameterised — and for very old devices the question arises whether their application program can still be maintained in a current ETS at all. By then at the latest, a review of the whole project pays off, because a system was built in one generation: what hits this actuator is bound to hit its neighbours too.
Yes, especially then. EIB is the predecessor of KNX and was absorbed into it; devices with EIB printed on them and today's KNX devices work on the same bus. So nothing has to go because of the name. The limits lie elsewhere: with application programs that can only be maintained in earlier ETS versions, and with devices without a replacement of the same design. The review of the project settles both. And it may also find that little needs doing: a system that switches and dims and is meant to do exactly that can stay as it is — then the modernisation is limited to maintaining the project.
It is migrated to a current ETS, sometimes via intermediate steps, and this migration is part of the modernisation: only with a current project state can future changes be planned. We name two breaking points beforehand: application programs a current ETS no longer opens, and product data no manufacturer still provides — these are the points where it is decided whether a device stays or is replaced. The migrated project and the updated documentation go to you. If no project state can be found at all, the route starts one page earlier — with the system readout or the lost project file; both have pages of their own.
Before the review no figure can honestly be given, so we give none. The effort depends on the device list and on how the three decisions per device turn out — keep, replace, reparameterise — and on which of them you want to tackle first: a modernisation can be planned in stages, say the lighting first, the control points later. After the review you receive a list in which every item is justified, including those we talk you out of. Two invoices, two roles: planning, programming and documentation are on ours; devices and the work in the distribution board on elektrofabrik's — or on your own contractor's.
Modernising is one of several routes for a system that already exists. The overview sorts them by your starting position — from extending to the case where documents are missing.
To the KNX service overview →smartfabrik is a smart home planning practice based in Düsseldorf (Reisholzer Werftstr. 31A). We plan for private clients and companies in Cologne, Düsseldorf and across North Rhine-Westphalia — and, where wanted, nationwide and internationally. A selection of the places we have already planned and delivered in:
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