ᐅ Consultation for Smart Home New Construction Wireless Systems

I don’t understand the issue with getting locked out. Even with smart home systems, you still need to have your phone on you to get back inside. It’s the same with Somfy.
With a fingerprint lock, it’s almost impossible to lock yourself out 😉
It would be more useful to control everything by voice and not install any input devices like light or blind switches, or even thermostats at all. But who actually does that 😉

The company I work for manufactures devices and sensors for building automation. Currently, we are developing a system that tracks users’ smartphones using an iBeacon signal. This way, for example, it can detect how many users are in a room to inform the ventilation system how much fresh air it should supply. In the event of an evacuation, it shows where people are still located in the building.
At airports, for instance, you’re automatically guided to your gate based on your e-ticket, and so on.
That is smart and useful. The fact that, during a field test at a large German corporation, half the employees left their smartphones at home on the second day so their boss wouldn’t see how often and how long they stayed in the break room is another story :p
For single-family homes, these systems are just very costly and, in my opinion, unnecessary installations and nice gimmicks for technology enthusiasts 😉

Alessandro schrieb:

Well, you can take the risk if you rely on reputable manufacturers. In the worst case, you end up with wireless actuators like EnOcean, Zigbee, etc.

Yes, these functions (except for the washing machine) are nice @gmt94, but when you compare the installation and commissioning costs, you could run the dryer, heat pump, and dishwasher for decades at a cost of 0.50 Euro per start.
Such a partial, isolated solution is never worth it...
Not even if I’m an eco-enthusiast, because the production and disposal of the individual appliances do not match the amount of “green electricity” generated from the photovoltaic system.
It gets even worse when an energy storage system is involved.

And: I can already set start times for the dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, etc. directly on the appliance.
What’s the point if the appliances only turn on when the photovoltaic system is generating power, but I need the laundry, dishes, etc. right away?

Of course, there will always be scenarios that require immediate use of an appliance.

I’m not trying to overwhelm those situations with this kind of idea.

My definition of smart is that it should support people as much as possible without isolating or patronizing them.

My dishwasher from Siemens, for example, is Wi-Fi enabled and can be accessed via an API. The only thing you still need to do manually is start the machine and press the button to enable remote activation. From there, I can start the appliance using a smartphone or the API.

If you take this further, and in the future all household appliances have Wi-Fi—which will definitely happen—you just need one system in charge.

All you need then is a Raspberry Pi running iobroker (which is free). iobroker can now connect so many devices together, it’s incredible. And more are added all the time. There is also a huge community behind it providing support.

It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Alessandro schrieb:

I don’t understand the locking out part. Even with smart homes, I at least need to have my phone with me to get back inside. Same applies to Somfy.

Completely the wrong way of thinking. As you yourself noticed, the phone is not the right solution at all. Sure, there are people who can’t part with it. But most prefer to leave it somewhere inside the house. Therefore, the shutter/blind should not close as long as the residents are still in the garden.

In a smart home, you shouldn’t have to remember to take your phone with you before going outside. The required technology should work as unobtrusively and securely as possible, ideally invisible and with almost no manual intervention.

Alessandro schrieb:

With a fingerprint lock, I almost never lock myself out 😉

A possible approach to solve the problem, but you still have to walk around the house. Which again is not very smart.

Alessandro schrieb:

It would be better to control everything by voice

That is also not a complete solution but works quite well nowadays. Unfortunately, most solutions have privacy issues. Still, it is a good addition, since many tasks are completed faster than you can say the command.

Alessandro schrieb:

and not to install input devices like light/shutter switches or thermostats at all. But who actually does that 😉

Here you are getting closer to the point. That’s exactly what system integrators have been doing for decades: as few control points and thermostats as possible, which are basically obsolete in many places and only exist because of conventional wiring. Many also realize immediately that having a big panel on the wall neither looks good nor is very functional.

If you eliminate conventional wiring, you also gain much more flexibility regarding control points.

Alessandro schrieb:

In a single-family house, these are just very costly and, in my opinion, unnecessary installations and nice gimmicks for tech fans 😉

The actual additional cost is often lower than one might think. Because you always have to consider the entire trade and need a proper company that knows what they are doing. Naturally, there is still heavy pricing in this area for as long as possible. Just looking at some of the numbers posted here in the forum (regardless of the system used) makes you shake your head.

Still, such an intelligent home is contagious and you get used to it quickly. You also receive much more information about the house and its systems, and many functions run automatically that you would otherwise have to think about.

gmt94 schrieb:

If we take this further and in the future all home appliances have Wi-Fi,

Well, Wi-Fi probably not. Too insecure and power hungry, etc. Most likely some other standard will prevail.

There are simply some things in a single-family home that will never go out of style. I include light switches among them.
Similar to the volume knob in a car (which has also been attempted to be replaced by buttons), users instinctively reach for it to turn the lights on or off.
It is ALWAYS the user and their personal preferences who override a well-automated building, making automated controls redundant.

I maintain my position: to make a single-family home truly smart, you end up paying a fortune relative to the total construction costs!

I still don’t understand your example of locking yourself out.
How is that supposed to work without sensors in the garden? Window contacts are not an option, since many people leave their patio doors open for insects.

Alessandro schrieb:

There are simply things in a single-family house that will never disappear. I count light switches among them... users instinctively reach out blindly to turn lights on or off.

Not exactly, you don’t have to blindly reach for anything when the light is already on because you entered the room. Try it out. If the sensors work well, you can easily avoid those unnecessary movements. You simply walk through the rooms and the light "follows" the person; if you use predictive sensors or algorithms, the light in the room or area the person is heading to even comes on a little earlier—before the actual entry.

In my case, we have 8 switches in the 11 rooms of the house. Of those, 4 are used regularly, 2 rarely, and 2 not at all. It turned out that in a household of 4 people, many switches are simply unnecessary.

So, in my opinion, far too much importance is attributed to the light switch. Most people can’t imagine how it could work because they often lack imagination or insist on maintaining supposed control over everything.

Therefore, yes, I only partly agree with you. The light switch will never disappear completely, but it will most likely only be used where it is truly necessary.

Alessandro schrieb:

It is ALWAYS the user and their preferences that override a well-automated building and make regulations redundant.

Sure, there will always be exceptions to the rule. But many of those can also be anticipated and integrated in advance. Good automation adapts and is not set in stone.

Alessandro schrieb:

I still maintain: making a single-family home truly intelligent costs a fortune relative to the total construction cost!

We’re no longer in the 1990s. Technology and electronics have become so cheap that what used to cost as much as a mid-range car now costs about as much as a scooter. One advantage of a networked building is that you don’t need many duplicate devices (unlike standalone solutions); many devices take on multiple functions, which can drastically reduce costs.

Again, take our example: the total cost for electrical work was about 10% of the construction budget. Of course, you can push the costs much higher and spend five times as much if you want—but that’s not necessary.

Alessandro schrieb:

How is that supposed to work without garden sensors? Window contacts aren’t an option because many people leave the patio door open for the insects.

It’s always a combination of several input factors. It’s never just a single parameter representing the residents’ behavior. Window contact sensors are naturally part of that mix. Garden sensors make the system even more precise (and easier to implement), but it’s possible to manage without them if necessary.

Well, of course I can equip everything with motion detectors or presence sensors, but I often have situations where, for example, I don’t want the light to turn on when entering the room. Typically in the children's room.
As mentioned before, I work professionally with building automation, where everything you describe can be implemented. However, different requirements apply there, which can only be partially transferred to a single-family home.
The devices have indeed become cheaper in some cases, but commissioning by a professional is getting more expensive...
The fact is, unfortunately, that licensing for KNX is also becoming more expensive!