European/Croatian House

Hardware
1

Greetings! Been using HA in America for a few years and now it’s time to go international.

I have a small house in Croatia that I am looking to add onto and as part of the build out would like to be able to instruct my builder on the correct wiring and the correct smart home products so that I may have smart light switches and other smart devices in the house.

The thought is that I would run unifi equipment for network and cameras and a VM for a HA instance. In the US. I have a mix of Z-wave, Zigbee, Matter and Lutron for sensors and switches. I also have hue bulbs. I use HomeKit as the smartphone interface in the US and HomePods (WAF) but am open to changing if the apple experience not as good in the US (which to say it’s HomePod experience is mediocre at best).

As a starting point, I am looking for any websites and or posts that discuss any building experiences u HA users have had with building out a smart home in Europe, specifically Croatia.

These topics can range from choosing the best types of light switches, lightbulbs, open/close sensors, temperature sensors, HVAC, equipment, Wi-Fi equipment.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as a starting off point because it will be the small differences between the US and Croatia/Europe standards that will cost me in planning.

Thanks!

2

Knowing both countries, I wouldn’t say, there is much difference. :slight_smile:

The voltage is different, but most devices are able to be used with both. The battery devices that are mostly taken in the US are practically the same here, as we Europeans rely on China as much as you do in the US… :laughing:

Even one of my favourites, Shelly, is from Bulgaria, but sold in the US as well.

Honestly, I wouldn’t worry to much about the devices, they should be practically the same, and you just need to check, if they can handle 230V. All that you mentioned above is what works here in the same way as in the US. Hue (Philips) is a European company, and Apple has found its way to us as well. :laughing:

But where I’d heavily advise against, is having the HA installation in the US. You’d rely on a working internet connection all the time, even if just a cover is to move. Or was “In the US” ment in regard to the devices from the next sentence? :wink:

Just to make my point more clear: the US aren’t the biggest market for HA, it’s Germany. Not in total numbers, but if you use the percentage, Germany has a much higher use of HA than the US. Meaning, a lot of what you read on here in the forum, is not from users from the US.
If you take Europe, not country specific, the market here is far bigger than the US.
So 99% of devices that are sold in the US are sold here as well and run the same as in the US.

The good old Sonoffs from years ago already had voltage input from 100V to 250V… :slight_smile:

What you should take into account though, are the non-smart things you need. An example would be a light switch. Where in the US these are mostly this up and down switches, in Europe the switches are more like a push button. If you already own a home in Croatia, you know what I mean. These things are totally different, I know from my manufacturer for light switches, that they have more than 30 line-ups that only differ slightly…

This is nothing, you’d need to take into account for your smart things though. Eg. a Shelly doesn’t care, what series of switches you use. And the Shelly is the same on both sides of the pond. :slight_smile:

3

Thank you for your well thought out reply and information. The HA deployment will be in Croatia (not in the US) for the reasons you stated. I have dabbled heard of Shelly but do not use it in the US. My understanding is Shelly primarily communicates over 2.4ghz WiFi (not matter, Zigbee or ZWave).

With a European house the walls are very thick and concrete (unlike American interior wood/drywall framing). This may be beyond the purview of HA, but I have been researching WiFi in these situations and it almost seems like I would need 1 AP per room (each room is 4m2) to ensure a strong 2.4/5ghz signal. I prefer UniFi so that I could adjust signal strength and prevent channel overlaps.

4

I doubt you’ll find that’s the case in real life. One (or at most two) strategically placed AP per floor would be more than enough.

Rooms have doorways after all, and a wifi signal will bounce around through them and into the next room, especially if you place your AP in a corridor.

5

Depends type of house and country. In southern europe walls are rarely made of concrete, more common in north-east.