I’m new to the whole home automation thing and I’ve decided to go with HA. Right now I have a Fibaro Sensor, 1 Firabo 2x1.5 Relay Switch and 1 Fibaro 1x2.5kw Relay Switch all controlled by HA in a docker using a z-stick on a Synology 716+.
My new house is being build right now and will be finished by the end of this year.
My target is to control using HA: A. heat B. air conditioning C. lights
and optionally all other devices(TV, sound devices).
House:
ground floor: living-room + kitchen + 1 small bathroom
first floor: 2 bedrooms + 2 bathrooms
second floor: 1 room + 1 bathroom (this will be my play room )
A. I have underfloor heating controlled by an Ariston central heating which also provides hot water. (Gas powered)http://www.ariston.com/ro/egis_plus
B. I need a standard air conditioning(external unit + internal unit) in each room.
Using the setup from A. I would use IR transmitter or maybe some wifi air conditioners(Samsung, Daikin). Question 3 Anyone can recommend an air conditioner?
C This should be easy I think
Question 4 I was thinking to buy a smarthing hub and use it as a secondary controller to extend my network to zigbee and other devices not supported by HA like my Samsung J6500 soundbar(supported by smartthings).
Using https://github.com/stjohnjohnson/smartthings-mqtt-bridge will give me access to all things connected to smartthings hub?
Question 5 Samsung announced that all TVs release in late 2016 will be smartthings compatible. You will be able to control everything from your TV. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks to anyone who can answer to so many questions.
I have in floor heating on 3 floors all poured concrete slabs connected to a geothermal system. I use a Tekmar system to control it. It is very smart and basically set and forget. I considered adding “smart controls” and connecting to HA. The issue though, at least in my case, is in floor heat does not like to move up and down. It works better if it is set at one temp and left there. So controlling with HA was minimally useful. Not sure if yours is the same but you may want to consider this.
I have Lutron bridge, Philips Hue bridge, Wink, Now useless TCP Connect bridge but not a Smartthings. I’m using the Wink basically to connect the Lutron Casetas to HASS. I’ve moved everything else off it. If I had to do it again (and I had neutrals in all of my switch boxes.) I would steer away from Wink or Smartthings. I just bought a Z-wave controller for my Pi. Gonna see how that goes. Basically I’d try to stay away from proprietary systems. Not to say that Smartthings is that but it might also be putting too many eggs in one basket.
Brings up a point. Make sure you get neutrals in all of your boxes. It will make life so much easier and open up many more options. I have a relatively new house, 7 years. Don’t assume. Deep boxes if you can get them might be worth it too.
Check the controls of the AC units. Many IR controlled ones (mini-splits and the like) aren’t very friendly with HA. I had planned to use a Logitech Harmony to tweak mine a bit but no go. Many of these units send their complete configuration to the head each time you make an adjustment on the remote. That’s too much for many 3rd party IR controllers even learning ones. If you can wire it you may have more options.
IMHO home automation is about automation. Controlling things from a TV is not easier than using a switch. Same thing with using your phone to turn on/off a light. Not easier than a switch. You’re on the right track looking at HASS. The goal is to make your home react to you and it’s environment. My wife has been giving me grief for a long time. The other day she was telling some friends about how nuts I am with HA stuff and she realized that she hadn’t touched a light switch in a long time. Yes! She gets it.
I know it’s a bit contrarian these days but consider hardwiring in some passive infrared and door sensors. DCS security panel and Envisalink board are now supported by HASS (thanks @Cinntax ). The reaction time is great. I can actually use them now to trigger events. My battery PIRs were not sensitive enough and too slow. That’s a bit of Wink’s fault too.
My final note would be consider voice. Amazon Echo is best option out there as far as I can see. It’s a game changer for the smart home. I hope that Google Home will be as good. Siri won’t be useful until you get her off the phone.
Sorry I was bored and not interested in my work this afternoon. Also not sure where you live. I assume Europe somewhere based on those links. Some of my suggestions might not apply.
Thanks for taking the time to reply and for you insights.
Yes, you are right, I live in Europe, to be exact Romania so not all products are available. Some of them I can order online but I need to be sure what I’m doing
So, Tekmar solution is not available for me. I’ve recently found this which is available: http://www.salus-tech.com/ but it looks like it’s based on zigbee and proprietary solution but should do exactly what I want for the floor heating.
More details about heating( not 100% sure, I need to find more info from the constructor): 1. ground floor (3 heating zones):
livingroom: 1 zone
kitchen: 1 zone
bathroom: 1 zone 2. first floor (3 heating zones):
room1+bathroom: 1 zone
room2+bathroom 1 zone
hallway: 1 zone second floor (3 heating zones):
1room: 1 zone
1 bathroom: 1 zone
not sure about the 3rd zone
The boiler which provides the floor heating + hot water is located in the kitchen at the ground floor.
Heating is one of my favourite topics. I’m not a professional but I have studied a lot and have a fairly unique system for which I was very involved with the design.
Do you have any idea of what the design temperature (temp on coldest day) is for your area? Looking at some data online I can see that average coldest in might get to is into the -5°C range?
Personally I think in floor heating is overkill at those temperatures. It gets colder than that where I live. I would not do in floor heating again. I’d put my money into a good envelope (insulation and windows). Then heat with an air source heat pump with a bit of electric backup.
I like the tankless boiler for domestic hot water. In Canada, where I live, we can’t mix the 2. I have a separate system to do heating and domestic hot water. I do preheat the DH in the winter with my geothermal but that’s a bit off topic for this discussion.
The advantage of the above system is you have one setup for heating and cooling. On top of that it’s very responsive. Setbacks would be very doable. In floor heat is just too slow. Could take hours to get back to comfortable temps depending on the design.
Here’s a good article on the setting back in floor heat:
Back to the home automation side. I’m not sure of the advantage of connecting using z-wave over hardwire in a new build situation. If your heating control system is doing it’s job you should be able to leave it on and let it do it’s thing.
I might consider using HA to close and open blinds if it’s hot and sunny and you get a lot of thermal gain from the sun. Sorry I just don’t see where using z-wave to control zone valves is an advantage.
Personally I would keep it simple. Use new and good thermostats. If you want these to be connected (z-wave?) so you can see temps and have some control, great. I would use traditional valves (or better yet circulator pumps) to open and close the zones.
But that’s just me. I think the system you’re looking at is pretty cool and should do a great job. If it’s like mine though, I rarely look at it. Just saying.
Thanks for the link. Very interesting, indeed.
Unfortunately, I do not have an option on choosing the heating, it’s already there. I will only choose the air conditioners. It is also very well isolated(if I believe the builders )
Strange, on all sites the average temperature for Bucharest during winter is -5 but I can tell you for sure we have -10 or even -20 but no for more than a month, depends on the winter. My house is near Bucharest in a more exposed area so the the temperature is a little lower.
Anyway, I will have HASS controlling the lights + the sensors for temperature/humidity for the air conditioner so for the heating all the actuators, relay switches will cost me an extra 700$ which I think is worth the effort compared to a system integrated by a company.
My effort is not about saving money but about having constant temperature in all rooms. I know for a fact from friends that they this issue. Wife complaining it’s too cold, they turn the temp up and then it’s too hot at the 2nd floor where they “play”.
I’d say if even heat is most important (It should be) then a good control system is even more critical. With in floor you are heating the mass of the house. Not the air. One thing I added was floor sensors. They work in tandem with the thermostats to even out the temperatures by ensuring that the floor slab stays at a minimum temperature. This helps especially if you have a fireplace (we have a 27000 btu propane fireplace) or get a lot of thermal gain from the sun. Once the external heat sources are removed it takes less time for the main system to react.
Another thing to consider is your ventilation. By building code here we have to have air exchange. Most people use a heat recovery ventilator HRV. They are usually about 80% efficient at returning your heat in the fresh air stream. However a lower temps their efficiency drops off a cliff. So consider this. At 80% if it’s -10° outside and you like 20° in your house there is a 30° difference in temperature outside to inside. 80% of 30° is 24°. -10° + 24° = 14°. That’s the temperature of air coming into your house. Since you’re heating the mass and not the air, you’ll feel a chill.
A great use case for home automation. Turn the HRV off when temp goes lower than say 0°. Use a z-wave plug or in my case I use a WeMo Maker. I’m sure there are other options.
I use an energy recover ventilator ERV instead. I won’t get into why here unless there’s some interest but the main reason is efficiency. I get 96% over all temperatures.
All of my bathroom fans run through this system. I use HA to activate a WeMo Maker that turns the ERV into boost mode to get 220 cfm to keep the bathrooms dry when the fans are on. I used to use IFTTT for this but HASS is way more responsive and reliable. A huge improvement.
Thank you. You’ve convinced me
I will add ventilation for sure but I will try to do as much as possible myself
I’m reading about HRV/ERV and how to implement. Do you have any good reference?
Glad I got you thinking of ventilation. Is it not required in Romania? Honestly it’s not something I would take on myself.
The main idea however is you need to duct the whole house for removal of stale air, usually from bathrooms, (never the kitchen that should go outside directly) and the introduction of fresh air from outside. That’s usually in every room other than bathrooms.
The system needs to be in balanced otherwise you can create a high or low pressure situation in your home. That’s not good. Both air streams meet at the HRV/ERV. There heat is exchanged. The warm air from inside your house heats up the cold fresh air. This happens in a heat exchanger.
It is an amazing system. RecoupAerator® 200DX. There is a lot of good information on their site.
My suggestion is to find a good ducting/ventilation person and look into pricing. One thing to make sure of is sealing the ducts. Make sure they/you do a good job. A huge amount of air can be lost in your walls if the ducts are leaky.
Ventilation is not required yet but it will be because UE from 2021 for residential houses so it would be a good time to install it.
I’m not sure if I will do it myself or get a company (the price is so high).
I will get back to this forum for questions for sure
Hi! I have an Ariston Clas One with Ariston Sensys Net thermostat, and one Ariston Lydos WiFi. Have you figured out how integrate Ariston with the Home Assistant?
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