Let me chime in with yet another (very) different option:
If you are designing your house from the ground up and it has not been build yet (or you are doing a major renovation for example), consider getting the electrical wires for all switches as well as light fixture points to one central point in your house.
A normal house (at least in (most of) Europe), has a star shaped distribution, getting all power wires to a central box, often located in the ceiling, and from there there is a line to the corresponding switch. Those kind of setups will require wireless transmitters/receivers like zwave to make them smart. and get them into home automation.
With all switches and all light fixtures (and other outlets you want to be able to control, coming to one place, you can then connect those up to a PLC for example (Wago, Siemens), and that can communicate over modbus to HASS. It allows you to get away with just normal (impuls, not toggle) switches and (dimmable) light bulbs, without the need for further wireless technologies.
Wired is faster and more reliable and if need be, you can still create a separate circuit wiring the corresponding switch and light fixture together without any connections to a home automation system.
Another thing to consider is to thing beyond switches and light fixtures. I think that a good home automation system should be perfect in presence detection, so consider placing many PIR and radar sensors to detect presence in all the places you want to detect that. Means people dont have to touch the switches as much. Additionally, with RGB leds and led strips becoming more and more easy to come by and work with, you may want to keep your ceiling nice and clean and consider using indirect led strip lighting with floor standing lights for example.
As an inspiration, have a look at this guy who did very similar things in his house when renovated an old farm house. It is all in dutch, but the images and cable pr0n speak for themselves, I think
Thanks, I’m definitely going to watch this (being Belgian makes it no problem to watch the dutch :p)
We’re probably going to do a lot ourselves over time, since our budget is a bit limited, this also makes it easier to integrate certain stuff I think (since I can choose not to finalise some rooms in the beginning untill I have the time/money)
another thing i would consider is getting 5V everywhere.
a few years ago i would have said 12v but nowadays so much is working on 5v that its wise to consider a 5v grid in the house. for sensors, lighting, etc.
Agreed although 12v and 24v still have a lot of use when powering led strips for example. Keep in mind though that you do not want AC mains powerlines running though the same conduit as you DC power.
Oh, and of course when you start integrating a PLC into your home for example, you know you will be spending a lot more time figuring that stuff out, which may be fun to you or hell
I have moved into a new (to me) house about 6 months ago, and thought about really thoroughly redoing a lot of stuff to make sure the home automation stuff is working fantastically, but the truth is that there a lot more pressing things at hand than having the rgb light strips changing colour depending on the weather predictions So, I have decided to make sure I pull wires everywhere possible now that i have easy access, but will wire and program things up at a later stage.
Just in case you do want to consider a PLC like construction, I am looking at getting a Railduino, although it is not a very commonly used device yet. I will hook up PIR and radar sensors to the inputs and switch DC PSU’s for lighting led strips and other lights and some valves for automatic watering of the garden. So, I am not actually hooking up wall switches because of existing wiring.
And since you are in Belgium (howdy neighbour!), the guesthouse of that farmhouse in that video above is available for rent via AirBnB or through their own site, in case you want to get inspiration.
the use for that is going down rapidly. there are already 5v powered ledstripes and more and more i run in to 5V.
a few years ago i thought i was clever creating a 12v grid in my garden. now i often have to use stepdown to power things up.
haha, very true! In case of led strips only, I find the (din rail) high amp psu’s seem to be better available in 12/24vdc than 5vdc, which is handy when working with longer lengths. But, we’re getting off topic. You’re right that 5v is all starting to be all the rage as well as 3.3v for diy electronics
As a first step, I’ll make sure to run Ethernet cables to where ever I imagine myself needed it (TV, speakers, perhaps a central/multiple touch panels, …). Would it make sense to also run these cables to my switches and lights?
The more I read about it, the more I get lost in the possibilities a bit
Figuring out the PLC should be fairly easy, I’ve worked with them in High school as well as during my university time, although some stuff will have changed.
I thought about getting a Loxone system, it looks quite extendible and well supported. It seems they don’t have the regular On/Off push buttons though…
I also looked at Niko Connected Switch, which looks interesting and promising, but I can’t find a direct API or library to use. This means integration with HA might not be possible (soon)
I’m currently still doubting a bit between using a PLC, a KNX system or different tools brought together in HA.
They all do the same, but which would be the easiest to setup, and most importantly, to maintain?
So, I’ve been looking at all the options a bit. What I’m still wondering is, how easy would it be to integrate non-device stuff into PLC or KNX systems? Like for instance, calendars, or weather services?
i think you need to make a connection between PLC and a controller like HA for that.
i would see the PLC as a HUB that needs to be connected to a controller.
but maybe there are PLC systems that have modules for stuff like calender and weather services ready.
So we’re a bit further in the process, we almost got our plan worked out.
I’m already planning placement off all my devices etc.
I will be wiring CAT6A cable wherever I could remotely see it needed in the future.
For a few ideas, I’d put light strips on the walls, those would need low power DC voltage, at first I though I can run them all to a central location, and connect them to an arduino (or similar), to actually control them. However, if the led strips will be pulling 10A, the voltage drop over the distance might be way too big. Now I’m wondering, should I run 230V AC to the ends of the strip (to an in wall distribution place), and there convert it down to 5V/12V? There where mentions regarding a DC grid in house, but how does this practically work? Most of the info I found on this is that you either need quite thick cables, or you need to account for a power drop in all the lines?
i think you are right with the problems for an DC grid.
i would love to put in 1 myself and i am trying it for the garden, but to get it from 1 point is almost impossible.
when new designing i think i would go room by room for the lighting.
1 central point for transforming ac to dc and at that place 1 arduino (or alike) to control that room.
