CentraLine, Honeywell's partner brand, offers with MERLIN NX a freely programmable Niagara 4 BACnet MS/TP room controller that can cover all requirements for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) as well as the additional control of light and shading systems.  In order to understand the benefits that this integrated solution offers for greater energy efficiency and comfort, CentraLine has developed a public webinar in which all interested parties can participate.

Experts for integrated room management

The webinar will be held on two dates: Wednesday, 19 June and Friday, 19 July, each from 9 a.m. (CEST). The webinars will be conducted by CentraLine Senior Product Management, held in English and last around 60 minutes.

Contents of the webinar

The focus is on the MERLIN NX and how the controller can improve the performance of room control. Among other things, it will be demonstrated on how the highest energy efficiency class A of EN 15232 can be achieved by integrating HVAC, lighting and shading across all building types, from office buildings to hospitals, hotels and educational institutions. Other topics include innovative application creation and flexible adaption after commissioning, as well as the possibility of offline and live engineering. In addition, the MERLIN NX’s master-follower-concept enables a simple and fast way of commissioning a large number of rooms.

Registration

More information and an opportunity to register for the webinar can be found at centraline.com/merlinnx.

CentraLine by Honeywell is launching MERLIN NX, a programmable Niagara 4 BACnet MS/TP room controller that enables integrated room management and offers outstanding application engineering and installation advantages.

Enhanced energy efficiency

Being freely programmable, MERLIN NX can work with most applications, from heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), to lighting and shading. It can communicate energy demands to the plant control level, optimizing not only energy use for cooling and heating but also overall energy efficiency.

Using CentraLine’s Niagara eXtended (NX), the room controller is part of the Single-Tool-Engineering throughout the building management system, thereby also offering consistent and flexible handling options for the building operator – from room and plant control to supervisor level and even cloud-managed solutions.

With common control strategies across HVAC, lighting and shading, MERLIN NX ensures the top-level classification A of the EN 15232 standard and helps to meet EU CO2 reduction targets. The use of state-of-the-art function blocks enables both efficient engineering as well as maximum energy savings. The function block “shading”, for example, supports height and slat angle positioning. It has inputs for emergency signals (e.g., strong wind), manual settings, and application-specific settings (freely programmable). With all relevant information included in the function block, application engineers do not need to know all the details regarding the sunblind positioning. They can focus on customer specific application logic like activating the blind for solar heating if a room is unoccupied.

Engineering advantages

Niagara eXtended offers a multitude of engineering advantages for room control applications:

·      Single-Tool-Engineering through NX applies throughout the whole building management system (BMS), thereby seamlessly integrating room control strategies.

·      Offline Engineering minimizes the time spent on engineering at the project site. The CentraLine partner can prepare everything in the office, saving time on the construction site and enabling the entire project to be handled efficiently.

·      Live Engineering enables easy application optimizations without any need for downloads. This includes display of live values from controllers on a function block level. A special algorithm allows fast differential downloads.

Cost-effective installation and commissioning

MERLIN NX uses BACnet MS/TP a simple 2-wire cabling that can be used for installation. This greatly reduces costs not only for new construction but also for refurbishments where the 2-wire cabling often already in place can be reused. To cover different installation requirements, the controller can be universally mounted on DIN rails, small installation housings and onto walls, including optional terminal covers.

The installation costs are minimized further as the controller offers 24 VAC aux. output voltage, allowing direct connection and powering of field devices. Furthermore, the Master-Follower-Concept enables the fully automated rollout of application changes from a master controller to all other networked controllers, allowing quick adaptations whenever needed. This is a particular advantage in buildings with numerous similar rooms, such as those found in hotels or large office buildings. This enables faster programming and commissioning as well as simplifies subsequent changes.

Future-safe investment

The free programmability of the MERLIN NX makes adaptations to future application needs easy. Its vendor-independent offering (Niagara, BACnet) keeps all options open for the future. New Connected Building Management services can easily be utilized via the integrated cloud connector on plant control and supervision levels.

MERLIN NX is available in 24 VAC and 230 VAC versions and with various input/output options.

More information can be found on www.centraline.com/merlinnx.

What is Niagara eXtended?

CentraLine, Honeywell's partner brand, introduces an all-inclusive new edition of the freely programmable BACnet controller EAGLEHAWK. Its high-performance capability makes EAGLEHAWK NX ideal for the control of heating, ventilation and air conditioning applications as well as for the integration of other building applications such as lighting, shading, and much more.  It is built on the CentraLine Niagara eXtended platform, is flexible in installation and easy and secure to use via browser.

Upgrade to the latest cloud-enabled technology

The EAGLEHAWK NX now has an optional HMI (Human Machine Interface) that meets specifications for network-independent emergency operation, embedded Input/Output modules that minimize installation effort, especially for smaller systems, and dual Ethernet ports that save the costs for network switches and cabling. The controller makes it easy to upgrade to cloud-capable, connected technologies. Further advantages are the space-saving installation and low installation and operating costs.

Minimal operating costs – optimal conditions

In all buildings, whether schools, office buildings, shopping centers or airports, the seamless integration of heating/ventilation/air conditioning, lighting/shading and other applications is essential for achieving minimum operating costs and optimum working and living conditions. The EAGLEHAWK NX is based on the latest Niagara and web technologies and, in conjunction with the CentraLine application library, achieves maximum energy efficiency across different applications with intuitive and user-friendly operation. A scalable IO concept offers maximum flexibility.

All-On-Board

The EAGLEHAWK NX can be mounted on the wall, on a DIN-rail or in standard fuse boxes. The two embedded Ethernet ports enable daisy-chain wiring; alternatively, BMS networking can be carried out separately from company IT networks.

By default, all EAGLEHAWK NX controllers include an integrated web server, enabling secure, Java-free, and intuitive plant operation via browser, either on-site or remotely from any networked PC, tablet or smartphone. The controller is ideally suited for use with the CentraLine energy management software, which records, archives, analyzes and displays a building's energy data and thus makes a substantial contribution to saving energy costs.

Connect ­– Integrate – Embed

In addition, the EAGLEAHAWK NX acts as an integration platform that links a wide variety of devices and systems in a building. The open building management system allows the integration of the most common BMS protocols such as BACnet, Lon, M-Bus, MODBUS, oBIX, KNX, EnOcean, DALI, et cetera. The easy migration of older installations is also possible. Applications range from simple fieldbus connections (for example, Modbus for refrigeration or M-Bus for consumption data entry) to the integration of complex subsystems for lighting control (KNX/DALI), video surveillance, intrusion detection or access control. Furthermore, the wireless Easyclickpro system is supported, which enables the useful integration of light, blind and temperature control via EnOcean technology.