ᐅ Consultation for Smart Home New Construction Wireless Systems

@Mycraft I think I basically understand what you mean!
Still, when reading about this topic, I keep coming across names, terms, and situations that are unfamiliar to me, even though I’m not completely out of touch.
In the past, I found such challenges interesting and didn’t give up easily, but nowadays I get annoyed just setting up my new phone and prefer to hand it over to someone else. Times are a changin’….. 😀
But since I am basically interested, I will ask the electrician what he can tell me about it, and in parallel, I’ll do some reading myself.

Mycraft schrieb:

The risk is the same with the chimney builder or the paver. They can have lots of positive reviews and many jobs, but in the end, you might just get their Monday project.

That’s true, although I can usually tell quite quickly if something is going wrong. When it comes to all those cables, I already get a rash just looking at them.
You have to remember that this is apparently a topic you are more familiar with. The function of a controlled residential ventilation system, for example, is easier to grasp than the complex topic of KNX, especially because it offers so many possibilities.
How should I sensibly design a single-family house like mine with regard to KNX? Which functions are at least important as a standard and should be installed with future-proofing in mind? My electrician apparently offers KNX, but how can I tell if he really knows what he’s doing? The risk is much greater for me in this area because I have no insight—I’m basically just guessing. Or are such plans also offered online?
I’m afraid these might be dumb questions… It’s just completely outside my knowledge. It would be best if there were some straightforward educational videos for me.

My humble opinion on this is that it’s just like with many things. Everyone has their own priorities. Some have a standalone solution, we chose KNX, some have a BMW 5 Series, we have a Skoda, some have an Occhio lamp, others one from Ikea. In every case, you could say you don’t need it or it’s too expensive, or the other way around, the things are worth their extra cost.
So what. In the end, probably everyone is right. At least from their own perspective.

@pagoni2020

It’s like with any other trade. There are specific technical terms. Like with masonry, you have the bond beam and the trowel, and with roofing, there’s the purlin and the fascia board. Building automation is often mistakenly considered trivial nowadays, both by homeowners and electricians who have only taken a short course. However, the topic is actually very complex and leaves plenty of room for costly mistakes. The reading material recommended to you is quite good and highly recommended.

pagoni2020 schrieb:

How should I design a single-family home like mine with KNX in a sensible way? Which functions would be important at least as standard and should be installed with future-proofing in mind?

There’s a simple rule: connect as much as possible to the green cable and run that same green cable to every corner and every location, including all socket groups, etc. The cost here is quite reasonable (cable price about 0.3€ per meter (0.3€ per yard)) and you’ll need the NYM cable everywhere anyway, so why save on the green cable? This way, you already have a basic framework/skeleton where you can add or exchange devices or sensors years later at any time.

KNX really shows its strengths only when everything is interconnected. Only lighting control and only shading control is just “lighting” and “shading.” The rest still has to be operated manually and remembered, and honestly, at that point, you might as well not bother installing lighting and shading control.

Half-measures don’t make much sense.

Only by integrating all components and devices (or nearly all) do possibilities and connections arise that you wouldn’t even think of in a “manual house.” It’s like with a car or a smartphone.

Without cameras or sensors at the front, a car can still drive just fine, and the driver has everything in view. But with those, you additionally get lane-keeping assist, automatic distance control, and emergency braking that also warns other drivers behind you.

It’s the same with an intelligent building: the more devices you integrate and the more sensor data you provide to the system, the greater the benefit you usually get in the end. In other words, you can leave all repetitive tasks to the technology and focus on other things. It hardly matters which system you use. KNX has major advantages in every respect. It’s mature and high-standard. You can’t say that about many others.

But to come back to a meaningful basic installation, I would definitely connect these components:

• Indoor/outdoor lighting control
• Shading
• Sockets
• Heating
• Ventilation
• Air conditioning
• Occupancy detection
• Door and window contacts and lock sensors
• Smoke detectors
• Weather station
• Media control and scenarios

In a further expansion phase, you could consider the following:

• Meters and consumption monitoring
• Visualization
• Keyless access and automatic doors/gates
• Video surveillance
• Machine learning and adaptive algorithms
• Irrigation
• And of course, integration of household appliances like robotic lawn mowers, washing machines, etc.

This list can be extended indefinitely and is by no means complete. As I mentioned before, every building is basically unique and tailored to its occupants like a bespoke suit. Otherwise, you end up with what alessandro describes: the person becomes a disturbance factor, and the relationship between human and machine quickly breaks down. For this reason, “smart home packages” are more or less a contradiction in terms. You cannot build a smart home following a one-size-fits-all approach.

Regarding HVAC, you always have to consider what is sensible. There’s no point in reinventing the wheel. It’s always a case-by-case decision to what extent integration is possible or necessary.

pagoni2020 schrieb:

When I built my first house, I was lucky to learn that having an interior designer by your side is essential. Often, you know one or there is someone nearby who can create one or two rough initial drafts for a reasonable price. All your wishes and needs should be included in these. The floor plan has to work for me; everything else is, in my opinion, just details. The implementation and creative ideas are something a trained interior designer has in their pocket. Only then would I start working myself and customize the many small details to suit my needs (or have them customized). I am currently planning/building with aging in mind and am doing the same again. We keep drawing and planning all the time, but the basic idea comes from someone else, based on my wishes and requirements.

This statement can be applied almost directly to building automation. Just replace the professional title roughly as follows:

When I built my first house, I was lucky to learn to have a system integrator by my side. Maybe you know one, or somewhere nearby there is someone who can create one or two rough initial drafts for a reasonable price. All your wishes and needs should be included in these. The implementation and creative ideas are something a trained system integrator has in their pocket. Only then would I start working myself and customize the many small details exactly to suit me (or have them customized). I am currently planning/building with aging in mind and am doing the same again. We keep drawing and planning all the time, but the basic idea comes from someone else, based on my wishes and requirements.

@pagoni2020, where exactly is "nearby"? Maybe someone knows someone...

@Mycraft Thank you for your effort; this gives me a good starting point to make some basic considerations. As I mentioned, I am taking—or rather giving myself—enough time for detailed planning of our house, including colors, furniture, etc., even though in the end, some things may be implemented quite simply. However, I like to know the available options and appreciate innovations, so I can see if they might make sense for me.

Of course, I don’t need it, just as most things aren’t strictly necessary, but we’ll see. In any case, it’s interesting to explore this topic at least once... thanks again for your effort!

@untergasse43 Greater Dresden area...