With all this Xiaomi smart home equipment going on sale, it's made me think about how I could implement this into my home which is about to start being built.
I'm an electrician so I can wire everything easily including electrical, data, security and cameras.
Is there something better or similar to what Xiaomi offer that is more permanent (not wireless, not using batteries).
I want to control lighting, cameras and music but I'm also interested in what else I can do.
Thanks for your help
I have a mate who is talking about starting his own company for this sort of thing. THere's just not a good system that really pulls it all together
Yes, exactly. This means custom integration so maintenance and support fee for the system integrator.
There is nothing out there for Joe Blow with basic knowledge to interface lighting, audio, airconditioning and IoT together out of the box.
For sure a good business idea, in my mind i have complete access to everything via a tablet which is to stay in the house and also externally so i can keep an eye on whats happening when im not there.
I found that too, they tried to sell me on CBUS but i knew all about it already and knew they were very locked down and arent integrated into other smart home devices.
CBUS is great though, especially on double story house. You can link all of your lights and switches anyway you like and have full control on your phone or ipad. You will need a Wiser unit as well then you will have better chance to integrate with anything.
I'm in a similar situation, ie building a new house and wanting to make it smartish, but not too complex. I have seen many such systems end up so complex that you need an IT degree to use it (and fix all the intermittent problems). My current media setup I find very easy to use, but my wife gets frustrated and wants the new one to "be easy and just work all the time".
The other problem i am having is that I want to run CAT6 everywhere, but my builder wants to charge an arm and a leg and wont let me bring my own electrician and do it myself….
Run conduits in the wall from the roof space to where you want the network points to be and then run the CAT6 cable between the patch panel and the points yourself after the building is finished. I think ACMA requires accredited technician to terminate them since they will connected to the outside world, but they also accept if you are being supervised by one.
Yes I am thinking of this as well, but the house is double story which make this tricky.
Would you run from the ground floor into the roof space?
with a double storey you only have 1 chance at accessing everything with ease. run conduits from wherever you think you will eventually want power or data and the run it back to an accessible area. For data cabling i'd run it to the garage or office depending where you would put your patch panels. For power id probably aim near the switchboard and get an access panel cut in above it and then have spare conduit run for future access, the next sparky will thank you!
Any questions don't hesitate to ask :)
ACMA rules are you must have at least a restricted cablers license.
A restricted cabler must be supervised by someone with an open cablers license.
Edit: for terminations only, if the cable is being run in a conduit, you can run the cables and leave them for term by a cabler.
The problem with building anything into a house is that the technology will, eventually, become overtaken by something else. We put ethernet wiring through our house but now everthing we use runs wireless.
I hear ya! But I believe wired is always best for anything that has the ability to do so. Too much on wireless and it becomes flaky.
It doesn't need to be cutting edge, i just want the ability to watch security cameras, control lights and maybe voice commands. That will still be handy even if it's out of date in 5 years time
I hear ya too. We have overhead fans that have winter and summer settings that we have a speed switch for, but the winter/summer setting is on the fan itself - 2o feet above floor level means we have stopped changing them.
You could take a look at proprietary systems like Control4 or Fibaro but you may be better off waiting until HomeKit or Google Home products become more prevalent.
You should wire some cable for electric blinds. ;)
I'm doing a fair bit of research into smart lighting at the moment.
If you only have a few bulbs in the house then smart bulbs are the easiest. However if you plan to have many (downlights, etc) like i do, then smart wall switches are the best bet. One thing to note is that most of those require a neutral wire to be available in the switch box. This isnt common (which sux for me) but if you're building then it's a good opportunity to run neutral wires to your switch boxes and then most smart switches will be compatible. Insteon make good ones, but there's many others. There's some that are direct wifi, or some that use "smart home protocols" such as zigbee and z-wave, which need their own gateway device ($200-$500). You can control those through Alexa or Google home often.
wow, that sounds a bit better than just a few smart lights!
New houses are generally wired with and earth and neutral at the switch (well for every company i've worked for does) so i'll have to confirm if it will be.
I'll start looking into this more
I have not found technology out there than can seamlessly control everything.
I have Clipsal CBUS for lighting, but does not interface well Google Home or Apple Home. CBUS install is best done while you are building.
Other technology are basically "add-ons" and can only be done after your home is finished. For example, Phillips Hue, WeMo, etc they interface better with Google Home or any other IoT (Internet of Things technology), but they are not well hidden so to speak.
I am interested in what others do in their homes with this kind of stuff.