ᐅ Lighting and Electrical Planning in New Construction

Tarnari schrieb:

60,000 € is a lot of money. You’ve read my breakdown of what we achieved with this amount. Keep in mind that some of it isn’t related to KNX at all.
Our architect had originally estimated 20,000 € for a traditional electrical installation. However, since she (and we respect her, seriously) didn’t have much knowledge of modern electrical systems, I believe that was very optimistic. With those 20,000 €, we would never have been able to implement our current network installation, the audio/video door station, or the camera surveillance. Nor had she accounted for “extras” like centralized control of lighting and blinds/shutters, or outdoor motion detectors.
If you consider all of that, 20,000 € is completely unrealistic.
So I can’t say we paid 60,000 € just for KNX. Rather, we paid 60,000 € for an advanced electrical setup including KNX.

Yes, I understand that. But for now, the 20,000 € is the budgeted amount for the electrical installation. Everything else comes on top. Even though I don’t need an audio/video door station or camera surveillance, I’m wondering if I should just let go of the nice idea altogether... I’m definitely looking forward to the first quotes from the electrician!

One more question: how often did you have to adjust the programming over the years? Or do you handle that all yourselves? I would like to dive into it myself, but I don’t want to spend every weekend redefining lamp groups... ;-)

AllThumbs schrieb:

That really says it all about your post 🙄

Everyone has to decide for themselves. But for ME, the additional costs and the added benefits of such systems are not proportional. At least when it comes to private home construction.

Hendrik1980 schrieb:

How often did you have to adjust the parameterization over the years?

That really depends on you and your needs. The range goes from never to weekly or even daily.

The more often you want to make changes, the more frequently you’ll have to work on it. But it can also be set up once and never touched again. You can think of it like a modern model train set. You can use it as it is, or you can keep tweaking it all the time.

The big advantage is that you can make changes relatively quickly and easily, without any mess or dust. Try adding 2 or 3 more lighting groups (scenes) to a regular light switch over time—it won’t work. It only has one cable connected.

K1300S schrieb:

It’s the same here (currently and going forward). That’s why there’s no Wi-Fi transmitter there 😉 Instead, there is a central access point (hallway) on each floor. Of course, these are connected by cable to the main distribution board/utility room. Depending on the size of the house and the floor plan, you might even need a second transmitter if good coverage with 5 GHz is important to you.

Ok, thanks!
So I could, for example, place the existing FritzBox in the utility room and then run LAN cables from there to the respective access points on each floor, right?
Or I could position the FritzBox with the telephone centrally at the ground floor entrance and then only need the connection to the additional access point on the upper floor?

K1300S schrieb:

If you’re comfortable with the model choice and are already using a FritzBox anyway, that would be the easiest option, with the disadvantages mentioned here that, however, might not be an issue for you.

As a non-expert user, that might be convenient for me—just adding a suitable access point to the FritzBox; I don’t see what my system would need to do beyond what the FritzBox already handles. Ease of use is more important to me nowadays, as I no longer enjoy tinkering around—it just has to work simply and reliably. Pushing the last 10% of performance out doesn’t bother me.
Which would be, for example, the matching model of access point from AVM or another brand?

pagoni2020 schrieb:

So, I could have the existing Fritzbox in the utility room and then run LAN cables from there to each access point on every floor, right?

Correct. 🙂

pagoni2020 schrieb:

Or I could place the Fritzbox with telephone function centrally at the ground floor entrance and then only need the connection to the additional access point on the upper floor?

That works too, but generally I find it more practical to consolidate all cables in one central location. In your case, that would mean bringing the DSL line (?) into the hallway, running network cables from the hallway back to the utility room, and also from the utility room to the hallway on the upper floor so the access point there is connected as well.

Should the Fritzbox also handle telephony via DECT? Or will the phone connect by traditional wired connection? In the latter case, additional cables (from the utility room to the hallway) will be needed if the Fritzbox is placed in the utility room.

pagoni2020 schrieb:

Which access point model from AVM or another brand would be suitable for that?

That depends a bit on your requirements. 😉 Basically, nowadays I would recommend a device with 802.11ax, which leaves only the Repeater 6000 as a suitable option. Only the smallest Repeater 600 is not suitable because it functions purely as a repeater and cannot be used as a wired access point. Otherwise, you have a free choice.

Hendrik1980 schrieb:

Even though I don’t need an audio/video door station or camera surveillance, I’m wondering if I should just give up on the nice idea altogether...

We were at the same stage, ending up with standard electrical installations without KNX.
BUT all switches and outlets are connected with 5-core cables directly from the distribution panel, and window and door contacts were installed.
According to our electrician, it can be upgraded to a smart home system anytime, as money or interest allows.