Home Automation

So I’m ripping out my property back to brick at the moment and have started on the electrical plans for lighting, underfloor heating, alarm system, audio etc.

Instead of having lots of switches on the walls do any of you control these things from IOS or a piece of software so that you can set mood lighting or switch on your underfloor heating from your office and turn on your music from you bed…?

I’m looking into it at the moment and think it looks pretty cool. I’m especially keen because I have quite a complex lighting scheme and dont want lots of dimmer switches everywhere.

I’ve done this in my basement development I’m working on right now. It’s pretty slick stuff, but it’s pricey on a per device basis. For me, I kept the manual switches but also have automation and control via Android. Most systems will require a switch somewhere I think, but you could keep those in a discreet location rather than having dimmers everywhere. I’ve got all my lighting, floor heating, music/theatre set up in the system. I also have my own security system and flood/fire sensors that send me a text if anything is out of whack. We will see how much we like the setup before rolling it out to the rest of the house. It is expensive up front.

All I have are some Nest thermostats. They look nice and it’s nice to be able to adjust the temp if we’re coming home earlier than expected or forget to turn off when we go on vacation, but not that big of a deal otherwise. We also have some Intermatic stuff to automate external lighting, but it doesn’t have connectivity.

I have security, heating/air conditioning, and audio/video all set up and linked to ios. I was looking at lighting, but found switches to be much easier and practical.

My main suggestion is to choose equipment that can easily be replaced or upgraded. Do not lock yourself into a whole system. Replacing components instead of an entire proprietary system will save you over the long term. With the speed of updates and technology, something that you can upgrade through ios (or android) will keep you well positioned for years to come.

Enjoy.

^ This is great advice. And also why I went with the regular switches that also have automatic control: sometimes you just need to flip a switch and don’t want to fiddle with your phone to turn on a light. You’ll probably want some manual control, even if it’s just a base level of lighting and then your mood or task specific lighting can be separate.

what systems did you go with?.. a brand name would help me in my search.

thanks

I leave such petty details to my manservant numi.

Samsung SmartHub/SmartThings sensors and Leviton switches. Beauty app. Compatible with lots of different sensors and what not. I could swap devices or swap the hub with little trouble. I’ve actually been thinking this could be a great business opportunity but haven’t been able to get tabs on how many folks would actually be interested in a retrofit.

Oh and I don’t know if you’re contracting this out or doing it yourself… But… Make sure you use the biggest electrical boxes you can get where you’ll put these in. 3" deep boxes are best. These devices are bigger than usual switches obviously and things can get tight with wires + device for box fill. I had to switch out a couple boxes as things were too tight. Most switches too are 15A so keep that in mind if you’re running some 20A circuits too, keep those separate from your lighting runs. Obviously your local code requirements should prevail…

I wouldnt ‘built-in’ anything with Z-wave. I do have Z-wave automation at home (Front door lock) and planning to add more things, but this protocol won’t last another 3 years. Google/Apple are very actively working on new protocols.

Also, i have used Samsung smart things developer tools. It is easy to use, but buggy as hell. I truly expect google to dominate this space

^ I’m sure any Google hub will support zwave, no? So many will refuse to adopt a new Google framework if they can’t use their old devices. I’ve heard that the focus is on the ZigBee protocol now? I’ve never used the developer tools for SmartThings, everything I needed was available. I too expect Google to dominate as it always does, but as long as my switches are backward compatible I don’t mind switching out a $100 hub in the future.

No, google will not support Z-wave. They are developing their own propriatery protocol (http://threadgroup.org/about/thread-overview). It is unlikely googlehub would support thread, but it is likely Samsung’s will. Again, it is very difficult to say, but as you, i am using Z-wave and very happy with it

^ My switches are zwave, sensors are ZigBee. That’s the nice thing about the hub. I’ll probably be fine with my current setup for as long as I own this house so I guess I’m not overly fussed about longer term. You’ve just got the one lock? What are you using for a hub?

I use it for the lock, but i bought also some switches that i am planning to install. Lock is pretty sweet. Trackes all codes, can lock/unlock remotely - very nice