i am a hass user which uses hass not for production purposes i have it running with a few integrations and google assistant, currently controls yeelights (yeelight cloud), webos, asuswrt, printers, plex monitoring, a wifi plug. So nothing very serious. Whatever connectivity i have on hass can be achieved either offline or via other smart apps in case HA goes down. of course HA achieves tasks that cannot be done with google home (turning on/off lg tv via webos)
in a few months i will start building my new house and wondering what kind of automation to implement to achieve the following:
lightning control (switches with dimming)
monitor a security system, (i will make sure that it can be controlled over wifi with any proprietary app and that there’s connectivity with ha.
monitor power consumption and power control devices that are not smart like oven, fidge, etc
other integration achievable by ha
i am confused on which technology to go and i have some concerns that i would like to express and i would appreciate your comments:
knx wiring, this i guess is expensive and is not that customisable, it’s reliable but it will need an integrator and not very expandable in the future without involving an expert? correct?
z-wave switches, pir, etc controlled by my current raspberry pi with aeotec z-wave usb stick. for this i have some questions:
how reliable are z-wave on the long run?
switches can have a wired power but the rest of the z-wave sensors are not, so every few years i should change batteries on door, window, motion, smoke, sensors etc? this is a hassle that i don’t want to have
wifi devices like sonoff wifi wall switches with dimming. how reliable are they in the long run? with tasmota or using their cloud?
Any other idea that you can provide it will be appreciated.
Basically i need a stable hassle free system that will be easily expanded in the future. i dont mind being “not-pro/diy” as long as it’s stable. i don’t mind having everything on the HA, we just need to control the switches without HA in case of HA failure.
what do you think? any other people that build a new house? what did you use?
I am not an expert / professional who self-built his house with wired Knx. I would say it’s highly customizable and expandable but it has a quite steep learning curve and is indeed expensive.
Wiring has to be done right for this system to shine - so it’s kind of all or nothing and better suited for completely new installations.
I’d do it again - it works really reliable and I will never have to replace batteries or raspi sd cards for my house to work.
In my opinion KNX is the most customisable system you can get, I have yet to see equipment with more options than KNX equipment. You can somewhat easily do it yourself, you don’t need an installer to program. The equipment itself is pretty close to Z-wave in price (especially considering more equipment supports for instance dimming 8 channels on one unit). Would condsider combing with DALI though. Wiring adds cost, and also the need for an ip-router, power supply and software, but for a new house, that is not that huge of a cost. KNX is extremely stable in my experience, more so than Z-wave, as long as it is set up correctly, I don’t think I have lost a single command in 10 years.
I’d argue that an Ip interface is probably enough and saves ~100€ in comparison to an Ip Router.
But you are right with the Software - ETS Professional is ~800€. Maybe consider ETS Inside.
Yeah, or just get the basic, buy it from other people or just obtain it some other way, the fact that the software costs money is stupid, and I can’t really fault people for not paying for it.
KNX is a very expensive way, I think. I don´t have experiences with that. I have a lot of Z-Wave devices, most from Fibaro (9 smoke sensors, 10 wall-plugs, 4 water sensors, 1 motion eye) one Aeon Laps repeater and sirene, but also Homematic devices and a few others. A few weeks ago I found the Gosund Wall-Plugs (wifi-based). It was easy to update them with Tasmota. They are working quite well and cost fourth of the Fibaro ones.
With Z-Wave I sometimes have connections issues (connected to the Fibaro HC2). If you do not have the base you cannot update the firmware of the z-wave devices, so this is an issue to keep in mind.
With KNX I think you should exactly know what you want. It is difficult to adjust set up after a few years. Moving wires isn´t that easy …
I use quite a lot if different types of components, dimmers, switch actuators, temperature, co2, humidity, fire alarm, motion sensor, wall switches and so on.
You can use KNX-RF to adjust, but most things needs rewiring to adjust anyway, if you are moving a lamp, the wires need to change and so on, wireless definitely has its upsides, but when it comes to flexibility for later changes the upside is mainly important for some types of devices.