Yeah mine got upgraded awhile back
Hey everyone.
We’re planning to build a house, down here in Invercargill.
What are your experiences building a house, what is a “must”, what is a “don’t”, and what have you done differently?
For now what I have on my list:
- every room will have at least two double LAN connectors, each with 3 CAT6 cables (1 for backup)
- prewiring for at least 3 AP’s
- prewiring for CCTV
- as many power outlets as possible
- prewiring the house for EV charging
- ground mounted variable tilt solar panels + battery
- bathrooms with underfloor heating
- ducted heat pump, with one return vent positioned above the wood burner so I can also use it as heat transfer system
- heat pump hot water cylinder
Regarding HWC does anyone have experience with any good brands/models that easily integrate with HA?
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Ensure neutral wires are run to every light switch.
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Daikin is a built in integration (and is what I use)
For EV charging, HA automations are way cheaper than dedicated chargers.
I have my EV chargers (8A and 16A) on with “excess” solar and during “night rate” hours
(Shelly now have 25A WiFi relays)
Regarding batteries for your solar system, consider these factors:-
Water heaters store energy, as do EVs, e-bikes, e-scooters and battery powered tools.
At least one power company (Genesis) now pays more for “exported” power than they charge on “night rate”
Consider a sub-board for DIN mounted switches for HA
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Hey All, any issues with adding details/stuff that people in NZ are selling to this thread? (Obviously smart home / HA related).
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Cat6 to every room is overkill. Wifi is easily sufficient for everything up to 4K video.
From the data rack, run cable to TV/AV systems, PCs/APs/printers, MSB & sub-boards, Inverter, house battery & EV/charger. Run cat6 to each device and, to be very cautious, a minimum of two cat6 to a location (1 for backup - you can put a switch/hub on the end to gain more ports, if needed)
Strongest advice is for 3-phase power. Next, build to reduce air infiltration as much as possible (passive haus standard would be the aim in Invercargill). Design the roof for maximum north-facing PV. Include a
32A circuit to the garage for EV charging.
Above all, enjoy the process (compromise is unavoidable).
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Thanks for the input. The roof orientation and design is not a priority, although WAF is still required. In the neighborhood we’re building, the mind section size is 4000sqm. I am planning to have the array ground mounted, so I can change the tilt at least 4 times/year.
I am planning to go with 3 phase and Sigenergy.
Great - if you have the space for on-ground PV, it’s a good option. Sig is also a good choice.
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How difficult is it to get Watercare to install a digital meter and is there a charge?
Its raining so this is what I automated today…
We have heavy material roman blinds installed by Harvey Furnishings. I spent time thinking about how to automate them because I couldn’t find any other solution. It takes a great deal of force to pull them up. I actually bought a grunty servo and controller and started to design a solution using ESP Home but it was just too hard.
Then I automated a standard pull curtain on rails using a Tuya Curtain motor. This was tricky but worked really well so I wondered if I could repurpose the Curtain Motor to open and close the blinds. I had some aluminium track and other parts left over and bought another Tuya Zigbee Curtain motor.
I thought that I would need some form of block and tackle to have enough force to lift the blinds but initially just bought a pulley. Then I used a spare section of the aluminium track and the associated curtain track fixings to come up with this Heath Robinson solution.
https://youtube.com/shorts/uhEs2lSSx-A?feature=share
It is (more or less) hidden behind a bed and works well. The motor has decent holding power to keep the blinds up.
I have set up morning and evening automations to open / close the curtains and blinds, turn lights off / on and play the radio.
My best HA project to date.
Total cost about NZD100.
These motors could be used in all kinds of ways as they are very strong, the fittings are readily available and they integrate well with HA / Zigbee / Alexa etc. I could see them opening and closing shutters and even windows for instance. Note that newer (but more expensive) motors are available that are shorter and there are battery powered versions.
Happy New Year everyone.
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I don’t think you can get them to replace your meter if there is no other related work required at your connection.
I had to relocate my meter as it was sitting on the boundary where I wanted to install a fence, so there was work and costs involved.
NEMA14 36mm round Pancake Motor $6
Diver $5
ESP32
3D Printed Planetary Gearbox if you want more torque
Effort vs time vs difficulty. For instance I was concerned that the servo would slip and not hold the very heavy blinds at the top of the travel. I was also going to have to track the position of the cord / use some sort of endstops. I bought servo controllers that monitor current use and can signal when you are at the end of the travel but I couldnt work out how to integrate with ESP Home etc. Anyway gave up on using discrete parts and very happy with this. $60 for all the electronics is cheap.
the motor you linked only has 1.2Nm torque where that round pancake motor has 5Nm torque although i don’t blame you i once used a zigbee water stop value to do a similar thing, using it to open and close a door / flap under the kitchen units for a robot vac because it gave me everything i was after in one ease of package
before fixing / hinge bound
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I know the opower integration dropped Mercury a few months back. Has anyone found an alternative option at all? I contacted Mercury asking what was required to use the api and their CS team didn’t even know they had one…
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HNY all! There were some awesome deals on robot vacs over the xmas period in NZ, so we got ourselves a Roborock Qvevo C Pro. Thought I would share my automation for cleaning the “other floor” 
Hands down one of the best appliances I have purchased! Cannot recommend enough.
Cheers,
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Hi All, to get motion/light/temp from outside, I have been using Hue Outdoor Motion Sensors connected directly to ZHA and they have been rock solid, but one got the front cracked and water killed it.
Any thoughts on anything Zigbee to replace them as they are quite spendy?
I see the EM6 from Codyc was archived a few days ago and HACS wants to remove the repository. Is it likely to keep operating normally with a read only repo? I’ve only got it integrated with my solar in the last 2 months and would miss it if it stopped working.
As the integration is installed locally, nothing should stop working.
Otherwise you can fork the integration yourself and then use it as a custom repository but I assume someone else will step in soon.
I personally just ignored the warning for now