KNX ASSOCIATION In 1980 a number of European Construction Companies realized that the evolution in Building and Home Automation was the development of a single and open protocol, which would be truly inter-functional and eliminate the dependence on third party manufacturers to interconnect different systems, which was unprofitable and not in the interest of the customer.

To this end, the EIBA (European Installation Bus Association) was created.The EIBA was founded as a “Social Organisation” under Belgian Laws, by a number of leading European companies in the field of electrical installations. The sole purpose of the Organization was to create specifications suitable for any form of building control, to create the necessary Software for Design, Configuration and Procurement. Within a period of time all of the above and more were achieved.

The “ETS” software is used by all EIB certified installers worldwide (over 8000 installers). Supporting software tools were also created to enrich and complement the ETS. A certification department has been set up to check all EIB products entering the market. It also ensures that the products have been thoroughly tested for EMC and functionality, as well as for quality and longevity.

All manufacturers must be ISO9001 registered. In June 1996, HIBA (European Installation Bus Association), (BCI) BatiBUS Club International and (EHSA) European Home Systems Association started a “convergence process” to arrive at a common protocol covering all building and residential electrical and electronic applications in the commercial and residential market.

In April 1999, nine European Companies from the Electro-technology and Building Management Industry signed the statute of a new Organisation. Konnex Association. The purpose of Konnex is to merge the technical skills and resources of the three existing European organisations (EIBA, BCI, EHSA) and to promote a single open protocol as a standard for Building and Home Electronic Systems. In June 2000 Konnex signed an agreement with the European Committee for Electrical Standardisation (CENELEC – Brussels) to become a partner of CENELEC to submit part of its standard as a European Standard in the EN 50090 series. In May 2002 the first version of the KNX specification was published.