Hello,
for our planned new build, I would like to automate as much as my budget allows. A central control system (touchscreen/app) for blinds, underfloor heating, and possibly indoor/outdoor lighting. Since I’m not familiar with this topic, I have two basic questions:
1). What approximate costs should I expect if about 170sqm (1,830 sqft) of living space including bathroom, toilet, hallway, 4 living rooms, and garage are to be automated? Of course, I understand you can’t give me an exact estimate.
2). How should I best approach my planning? Since I assume my budget won’t cover everything at once, I want to at least make all necessary preparations during construction. That way, I can add features later without having to open up walls. Sort of like preparing the roof for solar panels in advance…
Looking forward to your answers
for our planned new build, I would like to automate as much as my budget allows. A central control system (touchscreen/app) for blinds, underfloor heating, and possibly indoor/outdoor lighting. Since I’m not familiar with this topic, I have two basic questions:
1). What approximate costs should I expect if about 170sqm (1,830 sqft) of living space including bathroom, toilet, hallway, 4 living rooms, and garage are to be automated? Of course, I understand you can’t give me an exact estimate.
2). How should I best approach my planning? Since I assume my budget won’t cover everything at once, I want to at least make all necessary preparations during construction. That way, I can add features later without having to open up walls. Sort of like preparing the roof for solar panels in advance…
Looking forward to your answers
ONeill schrieb:
The cool thing is, with KNX you only have to buy what you want. So, just rain and lighting. Well, rain is at least free outside for the car :P
Otherwise, that’s not entirely true. You still have quite a lot of wiring to do, even just for lighting. And from what I’ve read here, it’s recommended to install plenty of “empty conduits” in the rooms since retrofitting is difficult otherwise.
Also, even if you’re not aware of it, you’re paying for a lot of functionality that you might never use yourself. I think the system, the bus, and the devices often have capabilities that are rarely fully utilized in a single-family home. So I would disagree with the idea that “you only buy what you want.” But it’s often the case that it’s not possible to get a completely customized product at a mass-market price anyway.
Mycraft schrieb:
The same was thought for computers, mobile communications, and many other things that are now everyday items. In industry and commercial sectors, nothing works anymore without bus systems. I have to disagree. Our office does not have any bus technology installed. What matters is the network connection and a phone. Of course, electrical power. There is no bus wiring in the office, nor is it necessary. We have a large window with a big venetian blind. It is lowered and tilted in the morning, and once the sun has passed, it is raised again. We use air conditioning, where temperature and intensity can be set. Lights are switched on and off as needed. People don’t move much at their desks anyway, so I actually appreciate that not everything here is automated.
Now, just about the venetian blind. The range of variables is so wide that adequate automation wouldn’t be possible. If my colleague is in a meeting, the blind might be raised at 12 pm instead of 2 pm. If she is on vacation, too. If it’s somewhat cloudy, we prefer to let all the remaining sunlight in. Depending on the sun’s height, there are different glare or no-glare situations. If I’m cold, I prefer to keep the blind up. If it gets warm, which can happen even in winter because of strong sunlight, the blind goes down. Wearing a sweater feels different than wearing a T-shirt. We like to run the air conditioning at full power during breaks, so it’s really cool afterward (and we might turn the air conditioning off then). But our break times vary every day. Conversely, the blind can stay up if I have a morning meeting. The blind should really only be down when someone is directly affected by glare. There is no problem with general heat gain, the air conditioning is powerful enough.
Now about the car’s light sensor: when brightness falls below value X, the lights turn on. Rain sensor: when it rains, the wipers turn on. These are not individual preferences or thousands of user scenarios. They are the simplest if-then scenarios, which are universal and the same for every user worldwide.
A personal example about blinds, since we also installed KNX: The weather station provides all the necessary data, from wind speed to outside temperature and humidity, as well as brightness from different directions. This data, combined with the house’s location, creates the exact basis needed for glare-free control of the venetian blinds. When it’s already warm inside and the sun is shining strongly, our slats are adjusted so that sunlight doesn’t cause glare, but still lets in enough light. If it’s cloudy, the blinds go up. When the balcony door is opened, one blind goes up. If you still want to let sunlight in, you just press a button and, for example, 2 out of 4 blinds in the living room go up.
Sure, there are sometimes cheaper proprietary products that only do one thing, such as a wind sensor for the blinds. But that only does that. My weather station, on the other hand, later provides data for controlling the ventilation system (such as heat protection, which mine can’t do by itself) and also controls all the other shutters in the house as I need.
There are also proprietary components for water damage protection. But if I integrate them into a standard system, I can link all the values together and have the alarm displayed on a switch or sent to my phone.
You have to experience a smart home — reading about it isn’t enough. And yes, none of this is really necessary; you can get by perfectly well the conventional way. But you also don’t have to build a house, it’s the same topic: it costs a lot of money—in a good way, you get more out of it—and it ties you to one location.
Why does my new car now have keyless entry, adaptive cruise control, a head-up display, automatic transmission, navigation with internet connection, and so on? Not because I need it, but because I want it, for comfort reasons.
Sure, there are sometimes cheaper proprietary products that only do one thing, such as a wind sensor for the blinds. But that only does that. My weather station, on the other hand, later provides data for controlling the ventilation system (such as heat protection, which mine can’t do by itself) and also controls all the other shutters in the house as I need.
There are also proprietary components for water damage protection. But if I integrate them into a standard system, I can link all the values together and have the alarm displayed on a switch or sent to my phone.
You have to experience a smart home — reading about it isn’t enough. And yes, none of this is really necessary; you can get by perfectly well the conventional way. But you also don’t have to build a house, it’s the same topic: it costs a lot of money—in a good way, you get more out of it—and it ties you to one location.
Why does my new car now have keyless entry, adaptive cruise control, a head-up display, automatic transmission, navigation with internet connection, and so on? Not because I need it, but because I want it, for comfort reasons.