Hello everyone,
Please don’t take this thread too seriously – but I’m curious to see where the discussion goes.
I’m about to build a single-family house with 1.5 stories, including private and commercial space, around 150 m² (1,615 sq ft) just for myself.
When the plan started to take shape, it was clear to me – of course Flo is going to do smart home, being tech-savvy, formerly working in IT, and naturally wanting everything connected and automated, because that’s what you need these days.
And it would be silly not to include smart home features in a new build in 2022, whether you actually need them or not.
So I looked into it and especially the costs.
$20,000 plus normal electricity costs (whether KNX or Loxone) are no small expense, so I decided to first see what a smart home really can do and whether I even want it.
Ventilation control – NO (I don’t have ventilation)
Shutter control – NO (I don’t need to control it from anywhere in the world)
Window open/close – NO (window motors alone are too expensive)
Alarm system – NO (I don’t have one)
Door intercom – YES, but this is covered by the intercom provider, and since I’m alone, the app is enough for me.
Weather sensors – NO
Mailbox – YES, that would be cool: like having a display at the entrance and a sensor in the mailbox so you don’t always have to open the door.
Surveillance cameras – YES, but those are covered by the camera provider.
Heat pump / photovoltaics / underfloor heating monitoring and control – YES, that would be nice, but does it justify the cost?
Switchable sockets – YES, that would actually be the first thing I really want.
Lighting control – NO for scenes. YES for motion detectors and different brightness levels for day and night.
So I came to the conclusion: no real smart home, I’ll wire everything conventionally.
Hallway, bathroom, utility room, guest toilet, pantry will have motion sensors, but without adjusted lighting levels – that’s about all I can do.
Now, feel free to share your thoughts. As I said, I’ve more or less given up on the topic.
But if anyone has an intermediate solution, I would still appreciate hearing about it.
Best regards
Flo
Please don’t take this thread too seriously – but I’m curious to see where the discussion goes.
I’m about to build a single-family house with 1.5 stories, including private and commercial space, around 150 m² (1,615 sq ft) just for myself.
When the plan started to take shape, it was clear to me – of course Flo is going to do smart home, being tech-savvy, formerly working in IT, and naturally wanting everything connected and automated, because that’s what you need these days.
And it would be silly not to include smart home features in a new build in 2022, whether you actually need them or not.
So I looked into it and especially the costs.
$20,000 plus normal electricity costs (whether KNX or Loxone) are no small expense, so I decided to first see what a smart home really can do and whether I even want it.
Ventilation control – NO (I don’t have ventilation)
Shutter control – NO (I don’t need to control it from anywhere in the world)
Window open/close – NO (window motors alone are too expensive)
Alarm system – NO (I don’t have one)
Door intercom – YES, but this is covered by the intercom provider, and since I’m alone, the app is enough for me.
Weather sensors – NO
Mailbox – YES, that would be cool: like having a display at the entrance and a sensor in the mailbox so you don’t always have to open the door.
Surveillance cameras – YES, but those are covered by the camera provider.
Heat pump / photovoltaics / underfloor heating monitoring and control – YES, that would be nice, but does it justify the cost?
Switchable sockets – YES, that would actually be the first thing I really want.
Lighting control – NO for scenes. YES for motion detectors and different brightness levels for day and night.
So I came to the conclusion: no real smart home, I’ll wire everything conventionally.
Hallway, bathroom, utility room, guest toilet, pantry will have motion sensors, but without adjusted lighting levels – that’s about all I can do.
Now, feel free to share your thoughts. As I said, I’ve more or less given up on the topic.
But if anyone has an intermediate solution, I would still appreciate hearing about it.
Best regards
Flo
i_b_n_a_n schrieb:
We use "Controllinos" and "Smartmanager," both of which are not DIY solutions but industrial implementations of Arduinos and Raspberry Pis. When you take a closer look at everything a Raspberry Pi controls (in industry), no one doubts anymore that a Raspberry Pi can also manage a single-family home (and actually gets bored most of the time ;-))
We maintain proper documentation and clear labeling of all hardware so that "knowledgeable third parties" can continue, adjust, or modify the system at any time. If necessary, you can remove the Controllinos and control the relays (industrial relays, of course ;-)) directly, as described by @Hannes S.
The Controllino firmware for each residential unit is securely backed up on a server, so replacements can be made quickly. The Raspberry Pi with OpenHAB and IOBroker is programmed universally with many variables, allowing it to be used in all four residential units (one is kept as a spare), with only the IP address needing adjustment. So it takes only a few minutes. By the way, we are currently considering moving the Raspberry Pi logic (OpenHAB and IOBroker) to the cloud (future "fog" computing). For example, 1-wire temperature sensors cost about 1.xx € (I think 5 pieces for 6€). The 1-wire combined humidity and temperature sensor costs around 6€ net. Wiring runs directly to the Controllinos (as well as all standard Gira 55 push buttons). The logic with long-term logging is handled by the Raspberry Pi (soon with cloud backup). I hadn’t considered Controllinos and Smartmanager before. Sounds very interesting. I have some reading to do again 🙂
I wanted to chime in again, after all, I started this thread ;-) haha.
As the title and my opening post already mentioned, I’m not looking for a super serious discussion here. I hope you’ll forgive me if I sometimes share silly ideas, and even better if you can add something constructive to those.
So far, that’s been the case – everything’s good.
Now I’m drifting more and more away from smart homes; I’m just not (yet) the right person for that.
Even though I know I’ll probably regret that in 10 years at the latest.
But these points keep sticking with me… and I wanted to ask how you would solve them if you were retrofitting an older building? Many small individual solutions, or do you really need a system?
Shutter control – via weather sensors or manual
Mailbox – is there mail inside?
Switchable sockets – 10 units inside/outside
Light control – entrance, guest toilet, stairs, gallery, utility room, walk-in closet = motion sensor + office, living/dining/kitchen area, terrace, bedroom, bathroom, attic = switches (all with adjustable brightness for day/night)
Best regards
Flo
As the title and my opening post already mentioned, I’m not looking for a super serious discussion here. I hope you’ll forgive me if I sometimes share silly ideas, and even better if you can add something constructive to those.
So far, that’s been the case – everything’s good.
Now I’m drifting more and more away from smart homes; I’m just not (yet) the right person for that.
Even though I know I’ll probably regret that in 10 years at the latest.
But these points keep sticking with me… and I wanted to ask how you would solve them if you were retrofitting an older building? Many small individual solutions, or do you really need a system?
Shutter control – via weather sensors or manual
Mailbox – is there mail inside?
Switchable sockets – 10 units inside/outside
Light control – entrance, guest toilet, stairs, gallery, utility room, walk-in closet = motion sensor + office, living/dining/kitchen area, terrace, bedroom, bathroom, attic = switches (all with adjustable brightness for day/night)
Best regards
Flo