ᐅ Consultation for Smart Home New Construction Wireless Systems

For planning the new build, I am currently exploring the topic of smart home systems. Have you consulted with a locally authorized dealer (for example, listed on the Fibaro website) about this? I’m trying to navigate through the smart home jungle at the moment. There is already a rough list of the desired features. However, I am wondering if a smart home central unit is always necessary, or if the actuators can also be controlled individually via an app?

Schneemann90 schrieb:

However, I wonder if a smart home central unit is always necessary.

No, because that creates a single point of failure (SPOF), which should be avoided whenever possible.

Schneemann90 schrieb:

Are the actuators also individually controllable via an app?

This should also be avoided, as it is usually ineffective and often leads to dead ends.

You should carefully consider in advance what and how you want to control. To what extent the house itself should make decisions and what should happen automatically without external intervention.

Then you look at which solution best and most simply fulfills your requirements, and then make your choice. Additionally, consider which system can represent the highest level of management and control, and use that to operate, monitor, and control everything—not through random apps.

In other words, think and plan first... then act, not the other way around.

KingSong schrieb:

Hello!

My entire house is basically controlled with Z-Wave. As dimmers, I can only recommend the ones from Qubino; they are much better than the Fibaro units. I have them as DIN-rail dimmers directly mounted on the distribution board and partly as dimmers in the wall boxes. The biggest advantage of these dimmers is that they can dim smoothly and flicker-free starting from as low as 1W load. Other dimmers cannot do this without a bypass. For the roller blinds, I use the Fibaro devices. In total, we have well over 100 actuators and sensors from various manufacturers installed. Everything runs smoothly...

Hello KingSong,

I am also leaning towards Z-Wave for my new build. So, you are satisfied with it? Since you have the dimmers on the distribution board, how did you handle the wiring? I imagine the cable runs might be quite long. Please correct me if I’m mistaken. Have you ever experienced any situations where a switch didn’t respond? I hear that this is the most common criticism of wireless technology.

Thanks in advance.

Hello,

unfortunately, I can’t tell you how the dimmers are wired on the DIN rail, as that was done by the electrician. Regarding the switches, I’d like to ask you a question in return:

How do you imagine it could happen that nothing switches after pressing, when the switch or switches are directly connected to the respective actuator by cable? The wireless connection is only used for communication with the smart home controller. However, this controller is not necessary for the actual switching function, which means that even if I completely disconnect the controller from the network, the switches and dimmers still work via the push buttons.

KingSong schrieb:

Hello,

I’m not able to tell you how the dimmers on the DIN rail are wired, as the electrician handled that. Regarding the switches, I’d like to ask you a counterquestion:

How do you think it could happen that nothing switches after pressing, when the switch or switches are directly connected to the respective actuator by cable? Communication with the smart home hub is only wireless. However, the hub is not necessary for the basic switching function, meaning even if I completely disconnect the hub from the network, the switches and dimmers still operate via the push buttons.

You are right; I phrased the question incorrectly. To put it differently: Does the signal in the app or visualization consistently update correctly every time I operate the switch? Does the actuator reliably respond every time I send a command via the app?

What I have also been wondering:
If I turn on the light using the switch (light is at 100% brightness), then dim it down to 50% brightness using the dimmer, and say after 20 minutes I turn off the light, what happens when I turn the light back on with the switch? Does the lamp start at 50% (the last setting) or go back to 100% brightness?

Thanks in advance.

You can of course decide for yourself how bright the light should be when pressing the switch. Either the previous setting is restored (which is how I operate it) or you set it anywhere on a scale from 1 to 99%. For example, my light actuators also have a dual function: if the light is dimmed to, say, 30% and I want 100%, I just have to press the respective switch twice quickly in a row, and it jumps directly to 100% without turning off in between.

So far, I have never had any problem with an actuator triggering correctly or the current status being displayed properly.