ᐅ Smart Home for Older Homes, Wireless-Based, Seeking Broad Compatibility

Hello everyone,

I have a question about smart homes.
I will soon be partially renovating / fully refurbishing my childhood home
- 10x10m (33x33 feet)
- 2.5 stories
- Fully renovated / refurbished in 1980

Partial/full renovation means some structural changes,
a new staircase, removing some walls and installing beams, new floors,
new ceilings, and new walls.

I want a smart home system that primarily controls topics such as
- Intelligent lighting control (motion sensors, people counters, etc.) and shading
- Efficient heating
- Control of air conditioning and decentralized ventilation units
- Garage door
- Integration of photovoltaic system with energy storage
- Charging stations
- And a few other small features

I would prefer a wireless solution because it’s not yet clear if the electrical wiring will be updated everywhere. Also, I want to be able to easily add future expansions.
My main requirement for my smart home is that once it is set up, it is smart because I don’t have to constantly turn lights on manually via an app; everything should be as automated as possible (in my opinion, using an app is not smart—smart means not having to actively manage daily tasks). 🙂
Also, having a broad, open platform is important to me; fully closed systems with severely limited actuators/sensors are basically out of the question.

I’m fine with openHAB or similar platforms—I think you can’t avoid them if you want flexibility (different technologies), right?
Now I came across “homee” combined with EnOcean, which sounds promising in principle.

Where I’m stuck and what my question is:

Would you go directly with a Raspberry Pi running openHAB or similar software and connecting different technologies, or would you use something else as the central controller?

Thanks for your brainstorming feedback, best regards
ruediger42

Old buildings and radio signals often cause problems right from the start. How thick are the walls and ceilings, and what materials are they made of?

Hi Mycraft,

good point, thanks for the reply.
Exterior walls are 50/60cm (20/24 inches) masonry.
Interior walls, with one exception, are 12-20cm (5-8 inches) masonry.
But relatively open; we don’t want many "separate" rooms, rather larger open areas.

Best regards,
Rüdiger

Generally, intermediate floors and, of course, the distances are a problem. At some point (very quickly), wireless communication simply stops being enjoyable.

Well, I would first plan for things like "service shafts" and intermediate distributors in your floor plan. These can be added later as a type of duct enclosure, for example, you could plan something in the stairwell since you want or need to do work there.

Before a Smart Home comes a Connected Home. From experience, I can tell you that it’s best to choose a (wireless) standard that is as "open" and "established" as possible. For example: my Tuya LED panels are going back on Monday! After a firmware update, the RGB function stopped working and without the app, the remote control is basically useless!

Enocean is okay—I use it, for example, with my roller shutters. However, pairing it with an iobroker and USB dongle requires a lot of (free) time. Zigbee is also fine. For example, I equipped my office floor lamp with a Zigbee smart plug, and now I can control it with a wireless switch or by Alexa voice commands.

Instead of homee, I would consider something like wibutler.

Also, check your flush-mounted back boxes (junction boxes) to see if they can accommodate wireless actuators and whether you have a neutral conductor available there. If in doubt, get some information about the current electrical installation.

Ok, got it, thanks for the info.
The electrical system is currently being checked, I’ll share more here later.

Question about wibutler:
1. It sounds great!
2. However, I have some concerns because despite using open standards, it only supports a limited set of about 200 devices.
3. I’m also a bit unsure if it can handle complex automation rules like “Control the shading based on sunlight on the house wall and ventilation based on CO2 levels, but only if someone has been in the room for at least 30 minutes,” or something similar.

Is that possible? Or are there alternatives for this?
Raspberry Pi and OpenHAB had (or have?) the issue that I can’t set up an OpenHAB controller on a Raspberry Pi that supports Z-Wave, Zigbee, and EnOcean, right? I mean without soldering directly on the board?

Best regards,
Rüdiger