Mid-range home automation for a new house build

• 

  bargaino on 07/09/2022 - 23:40

  +2

  If you are building, the first thing to sort in a smart-home is proper modern design, with passive heating/cooling.
  Automate the ventilation control and shade. The rest can be retro-fitted if needed.

  You have not mentioned your PV solar?

• 

  OldSchoolHarry on 08/09/2022 - 03:04

  +3

  Wired devices are always better than wireless battery powered (cameras, sensors etc.)
  Look at Home Assistant as your controller.
  Avoid those ecosystems you listed for lights, door sensors and instead look at Zigbee or Zwave sensors and smart downlighting based on Zigbee or Tuya.

  • 

    Chandler on 08/09/2022 - 07:52

    +2

    Wired devices are always better than wireless battery powered (cameras, sensors etc.)

    Yes

    Look at Home Assistant as your controller.

    Yes

    Avoid those ecosystems you listed for lights, door sensors and instead look at Zigbee or Zwave sensors and smart downlighting based on Zigbee or Tuya.

    Yes. And no.

    Avoid every ecosystem you can - they're all just a bad financial period away from either increasing/adding a subscription, closing their doors, or bricking their devices.

    Personally, I'd go Zigbee. ZWave is good (better, IMO) but with Matter on the horizon I think it will slowly die. And Matter is just improved Zigbee (over-simplification), so some Zigbee devices will work with Matter.

    Tuya whilst widespread is still proprietary - and they're still playing cat and mouse with hackers in preventing them from flashing to Tasmota. I've got some Tuya devices I would love to have as local control only (with remote/cloud control via Home Assistant), but I need to jump through several hoops to get some ID code off the devices to allow that. I'd much rather a Zigbee device I can pair with my own controller. Side note: if anyone knows a good, Austrlaian certified (RCM) Zigbee smart plug (preferably with energy monitoring), please let me know.

    • 

      Idontknowwhy on 08/09/2022 - 13:28

      I just bought this zigbee smart plug with energy monitoring, haven't received it yet, not sure on the certification

      • 

        Chandler on 08/09/2022 - 14:02

        Thanks mate - yeah, aliexpress means probably not Australian certified, and the images don't appear to show an RCM, not that that is necessarily a guarantee of compliance.

  • 

    iDroid on 08/09/2022 - 08:39

    While I'm a proponent of wired over wireless - wireless doesn't necessarily mean battery operated. For example, the shelly range of wifi automation devices are powered by the lighting circuit some don't even need a neutral (that is, no additional wiring required) and are controlled via wifi (hence IMO classed as wireless).

• 

  elgrande on 08/09/2022 - 05:56

  +9

  I have a setup to control my electric toothbrush via my iPad. Its very handy, all I need to do is log in (MFA) and turn it on in 3 easy clicks. Still need to hold it to brush however.

• 

  yokel on 08/09/2022 - 08:02

  First thing, get the house built. It would be silly if costs blew out but you were not cutting down on toys. Garage door is good bang for buck and the modules packaged with sensor beam could be added at the time of install to reduce cost.
  Camera wiring is a big one. I want to run mine on POE. Looks nasty to run cable in roof space with AC ducting filling it.

  • 

    iDroid on 08/09/2022 - 08:45

    +2

    Hmm, if you're going to be adding any wired controls or require any additional wiring, you absolutely want to get this in before your internal linings go in. The cost and effort after is several orders of magnitude more. Any wiring that you'd want in a wall cavity - do that now, even if it's just-in-case.

• 

  verio on 08/09/2022 - 08:57

  +4

  When building a house you want to future-proof yourself. Do not pick a smart home system yet, just make sure that you have everything in place to later use one.

  Points to consider:
  • when doing light switches, ask your builder or its electrical supplier to get neutral cables to the light switches. That will allow you to install in the future smart light switches
  • add a double power point in your garage ceiling to allow for an extra power point for your garage controller
  • get ethernet cables to every location where you want to have a camera installed in the future (e.g. walls, eaves). Using wireless cameras instead of wired when you have a chance to get cables done is not smart.
  • pick an Aircon controller that offers integrations with Alexa/HomeKit/etc (e.g. AirTouch 4)

• 

  Chandler on 08/09/2022 - 09:16

  +1

  I want to hook up my ducted AC/heating, a significant amount of the lighting, garage door, some window blinds, a few power points, and optionally, a few security cams.
  I'm probably leaning towards a wireless system over wired, as it's an easier install, and doesn't lock me into a specific wiring setup.

  It's a new build, so a wired install is easiest to do now. As OldSchoolHarry said, avoid battery powered devices if you can: you'll get sick and tired of changing batteries eventually. There are things you can do to ease any future wiring changes if required (i.e. running conduit up the walls instead of just the cable/s, having spare capacity in said conduits, etc).

  It needs to be cloud connected, so I can monitor and control remotely.

  Do you want to lose your ability to control it if the internet goes out? Or if your chosen ecosystem ends up closing down? You're better off getting a locally controlled system you can pair with a remote-capable system like any of the currently available home automation platforms: Home Assistant, OpenHab, Hubitat, etc (I believe they're all cloud capable… Home Assistant definitely is).

  I'd prefer push-button switches that integrate with the standard electrical wiring.

  I'm the same. I haven't done so yet, but my idea for doing my house is to have the home automation controllers act as two-way switch. If someone hits the switch, the light turns on/off. If the automation system wants to switch the light on/off, it does. Status is reflected via LED on the pushbutton (rather than button positition), and the automation system gets feedback to know whether the light is on or not. I was actually wondering if there was a(n easy) way to have the automation system measure the resistance of the bulb to see if it is blown and indicate such.

  Something that can also be controlled from a central tablet (or two) placed around the house.

  Home Assistant.

  Must integrate with Google Home / Siri

  Home Assistant.

  A few ecosystems I've looked at already are:

  • MyAir / MyPlace
  • AirTouch / Zimi / Powermesh
  • iZone
  • Pixie

  To be honest, the only one of those I've heard of is Powermesh.

  Does anyone have these setups already, and could provide some critical feedback? Or, are there any other ecosystems out there that could be a good fit that I haven't mentioned above?

  I personally have Home Assistant running off a Raspberry Pi 3. Controlled via the app or Google Assistant. Although think about it: is it a home control system or a home automation system. Ideally, you shouldn't have to use a button, remote, voice command, app. The system should have the inputs and automations set such as the outputs are automatically done. Lights turn on/off for you, climate is kept within accepted limits. Cameras are automatically displayed when necessary. A lot of these "home automation" devices/systems are just "home control" systems. Google Home is a good example - very little "automation" in it.

  Google Mini's/Chromecasts, Arlec Grid Connect lights, TP-Link Kasa smart plugs and Broadlink IR controllers to control media, lights, devices, climate respectively. "Devices" being dishwasher & washing machine, and "control" being a notification or announcement when they're finished (based on energy monitoring).

  Climate controls are via the Broadlink devices, connected locally to Home Assistant. Home Assistant gets the temperature/humidity via the Broadlinks (sensor cable on the device), and can turn on/off the air conditioner in that room via infrared on the Broadlink. I've also got automations setup in Home Assistant to turn the A/C on/off depending on temperature. It can do this at set times, or variable times based on our phone alarm time; it can be told to not do it at all, or will not do it if the A/C in that room was last used to do the opposite operation (it won't turn the heater on when cold if the A/C was last used to cool the room: the thought process here being that if I last used the A/C to cool the room, then the weather/season is such that the heater shouldn't be required).

  Using an independent platform like Home Assistant means you're not tied to only automating things the way the device vendor (Google, MyAir, Zimi, etc) thought of or wanted: yes, you're tied to automating things the way that Home Assistant thought of/wanted: but it's automations are quite powerful, and you can tie it into other automation platforms like Node Red. Hell, it being open source means if you're so inclined you can program it to do what you want.

• 

  boomramada on 08/09/2022 - 09:47

  +3

  Mid-range home automation for a new house build

  Idea of automation is;
  Turn off the lights, when you not home, but randomly turn it on when you not home at night.
  Water the garden, when its not raining.
  Turn on the TV, when you get home for news.
  Lock the front door, if you forget to lock when you not home.
  Turn on the heater, when temp get 12c, when you home in winter.
  My best, notify when you forget to close the door but your AC is on.

  Above features would be your end game, so your house need to have fair number of sensors, controls and good integration to support that.

  Probably what you need is,
  Application such as HA, and hardware that can connect to HA, switches, AC, sensors etc.

  In my OP, " central tablet (or two) placed around the house" is just a show off tool, which you hardly use when everything is automated. You don't need a giant remote on the wall when you sitting in the couch.

  What ever you do, pick one ecosystem, either google/amazon or apple if possible.

  Before picking pretty push button switches, better to pick if you gonna use z-wave or shelly etc.

  Make sure to keep things simple, not every one in your family is IT savvy, so it can easily update or fix when you not around.

• 

  sane on 08/09/2022 - 09:52

  +1

  I'd point out that the hardware side of home automation is less important than, well, the automation part.

  Think about what you want your home to be doing for you - then work out how to do so without locking yourself into any particular supplier (something they all want to force).

  • Do you want it to reduce your energy use and make better usage of solar power (a smart move at present IMHO). As such control of washing machines, etc. would be high up the list - and not something that's usually well served - as would being able to monitor the solar power delivered. AC control fits in there (use solar to cool the house down before you get home). Similarly, turning off, or down, lighting when not in use can do a lot. People often forget that running a bulb at 50% only uses 50% of the power.

  • Automation of lighting - turning on when you get home, turning on when the morning alarm goes off, etc. is one of the most obvious use cases. The idea is you DON'T want to be having to think to turn them on or off or down.

  • Presence detection and knowing who is where, when, ties in with the above, but is hard to do well. Some people use cameras and local face detection, which seems like overkill, but is at least flexible.

  • Tying in a security alarm to detect intruders and react is sensible, as is it then alerting you via mobile phone.

  • Recipes in the kitchen and entertainment around the house are also wins

  The idea is to make your home better and more automated, not the electronics.

• 

  KeplersLaws on 08/09/2022 - 10:28

  +4

  some of my proudest automations are:

  -closing the garage when i leave home by car, opening when i arrive home by car, but not when going out for a walk or run
  -opening/closing blinds at sunrise/set, with audio prompts beforehand
  -security cameras indoors that turn on when i leave, outdoors always on, both only give alerts when person detected and no one is home
  -bin day reminder light that flashes green/yellow if it's recycle week and green if it's just general waste, doesn't fire if i've taken out the bins already on that day
  -washing machine/dryer reminder light flashes blue when they've finished via smart power monitoring plug
  -power monitoring plug cuts power to escooter charger when consumption falls to ~0W
  -turning off all lights when i leave home, turning them on when i return (if night), huge timesaver
  -hand toggling a bedtime routine that turns everything off and puts the nightlight super dim and puts my aqara hubs in night mode where any motion detected will wake me up and play an alert
  —-auto turning off the night mode at either sunrise or when my phone alarm goes off, whichever is earlier
  -playing a sound in the house when my front gate opens, but only if there wasn't motion detected in my porch in the last 2min (a.k.a. myself)

  this is all done via a HomeKit / Aqara ecosystem, but some of my complex automations require 'dummy' switches that act as things that store states (e.g. garage opening when arriving home while driving requires an 'out driving' dummy that remembers whether I left home while driving. I use Home Assistant to bridge these dummies over into HomeKit.

  • 

    Chandler on 08/09/2022 - 15:49

    +1

    Was going to ask you how you did some of these, then noticed it's all in HomeKit / Aqara… :(

    doesn't fire if i've taken out the bins already on that day

    How are you tracking the bins?

    auto turning off the night mode at either sunrise or when my phone alarm goes off, whichever is earlier

    I actually use my and my partners phones charging state for this - if they're both unplugged, then we're both out of bed (or "out of bed" enough to take the house out of sleep mode). Although if you're in a house by yourself, then your method would probably be better.

    turning off all lights when i leave home, turning them on when i return (if night), huge timesaver

    My automation checks the suns elevation for this - if it's low enough, it'll be dark enough (or close enough) to turn on the light (you might do it this way too). I also have it automatically dim the light after ~4 minutes as a way of saying that the light will turn off in another minute. If you change the brightness at any point, it won't dim or turn off at all: my way of making it stay on if I'm unloading the car or something.

• 

  Euphemistic on 08/09/2022 - 18:21

  +2

  Don’t bother. It’s not that hard to manually do stuff, and it ALWAYS works.

  My experience with technology is that it requires more effort to keep it running smoothly than it does to get to the manual controls.

  Combine that wit concerns over security of web connected devices - renowned for offering backwoods into a network.

  • 

    JIMB0 on 09/09/2022 - 13:48

    A lot of the people who are into this sort of thing seem to enjoy constantly fixing and adjusting the various devices and systems. Kind of like a hobby.

    • 

      Euphemistic on 09/09/2022 - 14:00

      +1

      I love tinkering and upgrading stuff, but stuff you can actually physically change and update. I’be had my days of tweaking settings and rebooting over and again just to make something connect only to have it work successfully for a short time and drop it again. Now I just want technology that works and preferably stands alone.

      • 

        yokel on 10/09/2022 - 09:39

        I share the same view as @Euphemistic. I do have some smart stuff which is rock solid and it makes a large difference in day to day life such as garage door opener. For basic stuff like blinds IOT does not stack up, it’s just easy to hand operate it.

• 

  joshd on 08/09/2022 - 22:27

  Thanks for this huge amount of feedback - super interesting!
  A few comments in response:

  Yes, I'll have Solar PV installed as well, and down the track, I'm planning to add batteries

  @OldSchoolHarry - Home Assistant - I've had a quick look into this, it looks interesting, super flexible, but may be overkill for what I want. The house will be an Airbnb (as well as myself using a good chunk of the time), so I'd want something simple for guests to use. I have a tech background, but I don't have much interest in configuring the hub to that extent

  Wireless vs Wired - I am definitely laying Cat6 to many places in the house, including a mesh Wifi network, security cameras, tvs, and bedrooms. I want to future-proof myself. With "wireless" I was probably referring to something like Zigbee, Powermesh, in that these light switches don't need to be wired back to a central hub (like MyLights requires)

  @Verio - Good point on the Neutral cables to the light switches - I'll ensure they do this. Also already have a double powerpoint specified for garage door. Ethernet is in most locations, including eaves for security cameras. And yep, I'm leaning towards Airtouch 4 (even if I integrate that with Home Assistant instead of Zimi/Powermesh)

  @Chandler - Good point re: cloud connected. I don't want to be tied to a system that is proprietory and may close down. I'll look into this and ensure I keep it in mind
  Also - I've looked into various switches. I like Powermesh, because they are still physical pushbuttons (without on/off position), as opposed to the Zigbee switches I've seen on sites such as OzSmartThings, which are touch-capacitive, and don't appear to have a physical button. Does anyone know of any Zigbee switchs that are physical (and have the light status as a LED on the switch?)

  @boomramada, @sane, thanks for those thoughts. They are good points to consider.

  @KeplersLaws - love it! I can only aspire to those kind of automation levels!

• 

  scotteth on 24/09/2022 - 07:27

  I really like the Shelly add-ons to the lighting circuit. They allow you to use the normal light switches as well as the app/Siri etc. Gives you consumption data also.

  Not sure you'll be able to get the led on the light switch working with it but I've not tried.