Everyone sees the sockets and the switches — whether a smart home runs reliably is decided in the distribution board. We plan KNX control cabinets, elektrofabrik builds them in the workshop: wired, labelled, tested.
With us a distribution board comes about in the planning, not on site. We size the meter cabinet and the sub-distribution boards to the actual demand: KNX actuators, network equipment, shading, heating control — including the heat load, the cable routing and the separation of mains and extra-low-voltage wiring. The result is a cabinet that fits the house rather than the other way round.
The cabinets are built in the workshop of our sister company elektrofabrik, not under deadline pressure on site: defined wiring, tidy cable trunking, every core on the right terminal. Every outgoing circuit, every fuse and every KNX component is permanently labelled — in ten years' time any electrician will still find their way around straight away.
A smart home keeps developing: a wallbox is added, a PV system, an actuator for the new garden lighting. That is why we plan in free DIN rail positions, spare terminals and capacity in the power supply from the outset. Retrofitting then means one move inside the existing cabinet instead of a new distribution board.
smartfabrik plans, elektrofabrik builds and installs — working from the same drawings and the same standards. Nothing is lost between planning and execution, and every cabinet is tested before it reaches the site.
Building with your own electrician, or abroad? We supply KNX control cabinets fully wired, tested and documented — your team makes the connections, we are alongside you for commissioning.
Whether an installation is still maintainable after ten years is decided in the distribution board. We regularly open cabinets in which actuator channels are used but unlabelled, bus cables run parallel to mains cables and no terminal plan exists — one extra lighting group then costs half a day of searching. That is why every cabinet of ours is built complete in the workshop before it ever sees the site.
The size of the cabinet follows from the equipment list, not from a minimum dimension. We count channels: switching actuators, dimmers, DALI gateways, blind and heating actuators, power supplies, routers, terminal blocks — and work out module widths per row, wiring space and cable outlets beforehand instead of stacking things at the end.
Every core ends on a terminal, not directly on the actuator. Feed-through, disconnect and fuse terminals grouped cleanly, potential distribution over cross-connectors, cross-wiring in the trunking instead of straight across the cabinet. That way every circuit can be isolated, measured and replaced on its own, without touching its neighbours.
Equipment designation on the device, number on the terminal, printed ferrule, circuit designation on the fuse — all following the same key as the drawing and the KNX parameterisation. Whoever opens the cabinet years later finds their way without having to ask, even when we are not standing next to them.
Power supplies, dimmers and DALI gateways generate waste heat. We add it up, check the heat removal at the installation location and plan in ventilation grilles, filter fans or spaced-out rows — instead of filling a windowless technical room with no air supply with electronics and then explaining sporadic failures in the first hot summer.
230-volt outgoing circuits, KNX, DALI, network and video run in their own trunking at a defined distance, crossings only at right angles. The bus is run continuously and terminated separately — otherwise you pick up interference that comes back later as sporadic telegram errors that nobody can trace to anything.
We think of protection in stages: incoming supply, sub-distribution board, sensitive end devices. Bus and DALI lines, the network and every outdoor connection — camera, weather station, garden irrigation — get their own arresters. The most expensive damage rarely happens in the cabinet; it happens on the cables that go outside.
We plan in free module widths, free terminals, free trunking and empty conduits. A later wish — an extra lighting group, a charge point, pool control, shading on the extension — should cost one device in the existing section and not a second cabinet next to the first.
Assembly happens in the workshop of our sister company elektrofabrik: mounted, wired, labelled, measured. On site all that is left is to position it, feed it and terminate the cables. That saves dust, temporary arrangements and the familiar night shifts in which cores get fitted in half-darkness that nobody documents afterwards.
Every cabinet is measured through, energised and tested functionally before delivery: outgoing circuits, actuator channels, bus voltage, DALI lines, forced positions and interlocks. Faults should show up while the cabinet is still open on the bench — not when the finished house is switched on for the first time.
A complete set belongs to every cabinet: circuit diagram with cross-references, terminal plan, equipment and parts list, distribution board layout, and the allocation of circuit to room and KNX address. Filed and handed over digitally, so that an electrician who does not know the house is able to work straight away in ten years' time.
For the villa in Riyadh we assembled, tested, documented and delivered the complete control cabinet from Germany — including the control of around 800 DALI luminaires across 1,200 square metres. We make the same production available to external projects and to fellow contractors.
When the system goes live we go through the cabinet together: which circuit is where, what to do in the event of a fault, where the spare capacity sits. Plus remote access for diagnosis, named contacts and a layout in which replacing a device takes minutes rather than half a working day.
A control cabinet is well built when a stranger can open it in ten years' time and carry on working without a single question.
A distribution board without documentation is only half finished — which is why the documentation is part of the product.
Meter cabinet and sub-distribution boards to demand: actuators, network, shading, heating, multimedia — calculated with the heat load.
Manufacturer-independent, chosen on quality and on what the project requires — from the actuators to the cabinet system and the terminals.
Defined wiring, tidy cable trunking, every core on the right terminal — labelled unambiguously and permanently.
Free DIN rail positions, spare terminals and capacity in the power supply — for everything still to come.
Testing to standard with test records, before the cabinet leaves the workshop.
Circuit diagrams, terminal and allocation plans, KNX project data — documents any specialist contractor can work with.
We record what the distribution board has to do today and should be able to do tomorrow — from the KNX actuators to the wallbox and PV — and size it with defined spare capacity.
Circuit diagrams, how the cabinets are split up, the separation of mains and extra-low-voltage wiring, manufacturer-independent choice of components — all of it settled before the first terminal is fitted.
elektrofabrik builds the cabinet under controlled conditions: wired, labelled and tested to standard before it goes to site or, on external projects, is shipped.
You receive the drawings, the records and the KNX project data. When the system is extended we keep the documentation up to date if you wish, so that drawing and cabinet never drift apart.
The complete distribution board delivered fully assembled — on site it controls 800 DALI luminaires, among other things. The local team made the connections, commissioning was done with us.
Complete electrical installation in an existing building with Occhio, DoorBird, shading and a smart office — every trade comes together in the distribution board.
A private house in Oberhausen: we took over the existing KNX installation and made it maintainable again — the value of clean documentation, proved in an existing building.
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:
Every trade comes together in the distribution board: circuits, KNX actuators, network, shading, heating control. Every function you use in the house later is switched here. A carefully planned cabinet decides how reliably the system runs, how quickly faults are found and how easily the house can be extended. That is why we treat it as a trade in its own right — not as a by-product of the electrical installation.
The planning comes from smartfabrik, the building is done in the workshop of our sister company elektrofabrik. Both work from the same drawings and the same standards, so nothing is lost between planning and execution. After it is built, every cabinet is tested and documented before it goes to site or — on external projects — is shipped.
Yes. We plan and build KNX distribution boards for projects we do not install ourselves — for instance when you are building with your own electrical contractor, or when the property is abroad. The cabinet arrives fully wired, tested and with complete connection drawings. For Villa Riyadh we delivered the complete distribution board this way, including the control of 800 DALI luminaires.
That depends on the project, but the direction is always the same: considerably more than the first construction phase needs. In our experience a wallbox, a PV system, additional actuators or a second network cabinet get added later. We plan in free DIN rail positions, spare terminals and capacity in the power supply from the outset. What that means specifically for your house we settle in the planning.
You receive circuit diagrams, terminal and allocation plans, the labelling documentation and the records from testing to standard — plus the KNX project data for your system. With those any specialist contractor can work on the distribution board later without having to ask us. When the system is extended we keep the documentation up to date if you wish, so that drawing and cabinet never drift apart.
Ask us about your KNX distribution board — for a project with us, or delivered fully assembled for your own electrician.
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