ᐅ Best overall smart home system

TaiiTvv schrieb:

So you wouldn’t recommend Free@Home to me at all?

Honestly, no. It has several disadvantages, and the biggest one is that it’s more expensive than KNX! Considering all the discussions here in the forum about KNX and its prices, which most people already find too high, the question inevitably arises... Why does Free@Home still exist at all and hasn’t been discontinued or at least reduced in price by 50% (or even more)?

Okay
How can we effectively retrofit KNX when the electrician installs the electrical wiring conventionally and also runs the bus cable?

How can KNX be retrofitted in this case?

Well, theoretically, you could also use KNX with flush-mounted actuators.

Disadvantages:
- Price per channel: For example, an MDT blind actuator costs about €75 (approximately $82) per channel instead of around €32 (about $35). If you have 10 blinds, that’s an additional hardware cost of around €400 (about $440) without installation (disclaimer: retail prices used just for illustration!).
- These devices are installed somewhere inside a flush-mounted box instead of the distribution board.
- And you end up running electrical cables where you don’t actually need them... 😕

And then people keep saying KNX is so expensive 🙄

For someone who doesn’t know what they want, why, or for what purpose, any HVAC system is simply money thrown away...

DaHias81 schrieb:

And then everyone says KNX is so expensive 🙄

Yes, I wanted to have it centralized, but the electrician is not on board with that.
Maybe the star topology wiring is too much effort for him, so he refuses or would charge exorbitant prices for it.

He sold it to us like it’s no problem for him to lay the bus cable, which would also make us extremely flexible and allow us to easily replace components or install F@H later on.

RotorMotor schrieb:

For someone who doesn’t know what they want, why, or for what purpose, any bus system is just wasted money...

We have a rough idea of what we want.
We just don’t know the best way to implement it.

We want to make the following things smart:
- Roller shutter control with automatic shading and astro function
- Window sensors for safety against being locked out or to set roller shutters to ventilation mode (preferably invisible, but reed switches are not an option)
- Lighting control and scenes via app, voice control, or wall switch
- Ability to switch a few sockets, e.g., for lighting on the entertainment unit or a floor lamp
- Possibly use some motion detectors in the hallway and stairwell
- Weather station for automatic shading or lowering shutters during heavy rain

Now we just don’t know how to approach this.

Should we simply have the bus cable installed alongside conventional wiring to later retrofit KNX ourselves?

Or should we go for a wireless system, like Matter?

In my opinion, Matter looks and seems quite promising, as almost all manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon, even Fritzbox with DECT.

With Thread, you get a self-healing mesh wireless system.

Do you have venetian blinds or roller shutters?

With simple roller shutters, there isn't much you can do.

And if reeds aren’t an option, you're using wireless controls anyway, right?

You can control some lighting with Hue.