Hi everyone, I’m designing a new electrical system with Home Assistant integration for a 120 m² apartment with 8 rooms. I’m currently trying to decide on the best approach for the control boards.
Would you recommend using a single central control board (e.g., Kinkony KC868-A32) to manage all lights, sockets, and other devices, or would it be better to install multiple smaller boards (e.g., Sonoff) distributed around the apartment to keep wiring shorter and more efficient?
Any suggestions or examples from similar installations would be really appreciated!
My idea is to manage all the lights, shutters (roller blinds), and some power outlets through relays and digital inputs via ESPHome.
I’d like to have a setup where each circuit (lighting, power outlets, and shutter motors) is controlled from these boards instead of using traditional wall switches with direct wiring.
The reason I’m considering multiple boards is mainly to reduce cable length and avoid having to route all wires back to a single central cabinet, which could get messy and expensive. But I’m not sure if having several smaller distributed boards might make maintenance or system integration more complicated.
I am in the process of building and for all the “public” type rooms I have got all the lights, blinds and light switches coming back to a central cabinet. Here I have a load of patch cables that link the input (switches) to outputs (lighting) circuits through a bank of DIN mounted Shelly Pro Dimmer 2s etc. They are working great. By having central it helps with diagnostics and also if I wanted to revert back to a “dumb” system then it is simply a case of re-patching the various circuits removing the Shelly drivers. Ideally never need to remove light switches etc.
The additional wire requirement is minimal.
To clarify, what I mean is that one is not normally allowed to make significant wiring changes in an apartment. At least where I am (Canada). The definition of “apartment” may also vary.