I need HELP with my new house...

[Douglas Mawson]

To Linus and the team:

 

Hi!

I'm a smart home technician in Spokane Washington. I have been doing this for over 5 years, and I work daily on houses like Linus'. I have some ideas for how he could make life easier on himself.

Here's one:
Look for smart thermostats that support remote temperature sensors. The wires to his existing thermostats would carry the temp sensor signal, and the thermostats themselves could be mounted in the mechanical room, right by the valves. This would NOT require changing valves! Even better, the Aprilaire 8501 sensor is a flush mount temp sensor that hides behind a super thin layer of drywall mud,  entirely hiding it once the wall is painted.

Second:
I would move the amplifiers for the distributed audio zones into the server rack in the mechanical room by running sprleaker wires from the rack to the living room media center and connecting them together (essentialy, extending the wire down to the rack) I would also run wire for any speakers in the living room, and put the Reciever in the rack as well, with control handled by a controller such as Control4.

I also recommend reaching out to Paradigm electronics, a Canadian speaker and amplifier manufacturer with a long history of innovation and research in sound reproduction. He or someone at paradigm might be interested in working with you. Fun fact, Paradigm and Martin Logan are sister companies, owned by the same prople. 

 

Please feel free to use me as a sounding board! I have lots of experience in the physical side of actually putting this stuff into houses, and experience on the config/programming side with Control4. I happy to share. My knowledge. ANYTHING to avoid the cringe fest that we had when Linus put speakers in his current house! Haha

 

You can find my contact information, and information my paradigm Rep in the email I send through the LMG website.

 

Duncan 

[jpmitri]

There is a pretty decent DIY approach if you are interested. It involves using a PLC (Delta SE series) and a custom .dll and API that i can provide to you though you have to create your own user interface (i can do that for you as well but it might take time) with the plc you can virtually automate anything so would be worth a shot.

Before people ask i am a software engineer with 10 years of experience in industrial automation and this is the current solution i have at my home (as long as the internet bill is payed i do not need to pay any third party subscription)

[YellowJersey]

Linus, mate, I thank you. You've made me never ever ever want to do IOT stuff ever.

 

 Also, this reminded me of something when I was looking to potentially buy a house: never renovate your house in order to sell it because there's a very good chance that the buyers will just rip everything out to suit their own tastes. Obviously, certain things make sense, like the roof, maybe the windows, repairs, and such, since these are things that may need to be done regardless of your taste. But when it comes to anything aesthetic, people will likely tear our whatever is already there and put in what suits their tastes, so little point in spending the money, especially when the cost of doing so isn't likely going to raise the selling price enough to make sense. Either that or I'm crazy.

[supers05]

I'm an HVACR tech in Ontario. I'd love to help out anyway I can. I'm extremely proficient at zoning systems, both water and air. I also volunteer my time on diychatroom.com. How on earth can I contact Linus? I've tried twitter, YouTube, and even the contact us forum on their website. 

[supers05]

8 hours ago, iamthepat said:

 

Linus, don't know if you'll see this or if it has already been mentioned, but smart thermostats can work on 2 wires - I got a nest for my hydronic baseboard heater which previously used exactly the same mercury switch. The key you're looking for is the voltage of those wires. If it is using 24v, smart thermostats should work. If it is line voltage 120v, you can still actually still use the thermostat, but will need a relay placed between the line voltage and thermostat

 

I am not an expert by any means, however, I suspect that since it is just controlling a valve for the hot water lines, it would not be running on line voltage like an electric baseboard heater. As well the gauge of the wires in the current thermostat seem a bit anemic to handle 120v

Those thermostats are 24v rated. Clear as day. There is no common, so the nest needs to "power steal", and it does a poor job at it. Emerson and honeywell have better options. In this case I'd recommend the 2 wire communicating honeywell stats. They are network capable. 

[supers05]

10 hours ago, echtogammut said:

For your hydronic system check out the Bosch CT100 series of controllers. For less money and more DIY, check out Tekmar's 561-563 series. These will all work with two wire t-stat controllers. I think the Bosch units are only available through installers, but I may be wrong (often am). 

 

As for Home Theater... this is a question for AVS Forum, which will lead you down the long road of wall treatments. Just post your room and Jeff Parkinson or any of the guys there will help... if you propose something crazy enough, Jeff may come of retirement.

Bosch is terrible for replacement parts. Tekmar is great if you have a contractor to pick them up. Honeywell also has good options. 

[jcgw22]

Linus. I work in the design team for a major smart thermostat maker in north America I know we have a smart solution for a system like yours. I would need to talk in my company to see what we can help you with. If you are interested please let me know. 

[Arika]

sad to hear that you're ripping out that amazing desk. I can certainly understand it that it's not to everyone's taste, but it is an absolutely beautiful installation

[Wh0_Am_1]

You could use Lumilor paint on that wall in the LAN center and put your LTT workshop to work on the art and make a few videos about it.

 

[Wh0_Am_1]

14 hours ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

Wow, Linus really needs this help i guess

 

May want to change the source of that image, did you post it from a cloud service?

[greenhorn]

Everything I had to say about the thermostat topic has already been said.

As far as the LAN room is concerned, maybe doubling up the floor to create a very small space to run cables through would be nice. You could then make the cables pop out of the floor exactly where you need them, which would allow for very clean setups regardless of the room's layout.
Whether that solution makes sense in your case obviously depends on things like ceiling height, how the current floor is built and whether you could live with having a small step at the room's entrance.

[dougle03]

DIY: Room sensor package with tiny screen for information and a knob to vary the temp (within limits) per space/room.

As each room only has two wires, we'll use these for power. Sending 12vdc then step down to 5vdc, Sending higher then stepping down deals with voltage loss over the cable run.

Key components would be: Tiny stepdown regulator 12v to 5v (So use the existing wires only for ULV power), ESP8266/ESP32 board with various sensors attached (Temp, Humid, Lux, motion), encoder wheel for local input (Set local temp), i2c OLED screen for local display, custom housing (3D Printed initially). The software on the ESP would be ESPHome that ties directly into Home Assistant via WiFi and would use NodeRed for smart automation. Total cost of parts; circa $20 per location - Time to make (varies on experience) - The first one might take a day or so to develop and prototype, duplication circa 1h (A little longer for the enclosure to 3D print).

 

 

Linus would probably want an off the shelf solution; that really leaves him with proprietary kit that'll have some level of lock in and limited upgradability, coupled with who know's what cloud reporting. I can't think of an off the shelf product that meets all of the requirements, but there are plenty of z-wave/zigbee temp sensors that exist but lack most of the potential functionality he'll probably want.

He also mentioned motion sensors for presence detection..... hahahahaha Can't wait to see what he does to solve that one, I'm still working on it, closest I've come is the "wasp in a bottle" principle of logic management, but even that is flawed....

[Helpful Tech Witch]

4 hours ago, Wh0_Am_1 said:

May want to change the source of that image, did you post it from a cloud service?

It was a link to a topic, this topic infact, but posted by James. The topic was deleted by forum staff

[Porpora]

For the home automation part, if I were you i would go for a professional system, like the one suggested by @mgltt. Specifically KNX. This way you can expand in the future the control using one common protocol, this way you can do quite complex stuff, moreover is a wired thing (that should be more reliable).

 

For the heating if i had the money i would go for heat pump + solar thermal panels (mostly for hot water but also heating).

[Winchester469]

11 hours ago, foxale08 said:

I don't think anyone has mentioned it but there are smart vents (in place of zone dampers) from Flair (what I personally use) and Keen that integrate with smart thermostats like ecobee (what I personally use) and Nest. Flair lets you use ecobee room sensors in place of their own for most room/zones. The flair vents do make noise (metal parts moving) when opening and closing but I've gotten used to it.

I did not know this. Very cool ill have to keep an eye out for this in the future.

[supers05]

12 hours ago, foxale08 said:

I don't think anyone has mentioned it but there are smart vents (in place of zone dampers) from Flair (what I personally use) and Keen that integrate with smart thermostats like ecobee (what I personally use) and Nest. Flair lets you use ecobee room sensors in place of their own for most room/zones. The flair vents do make noise (metal parts moving) when opening and closing but I've gotten used to it.

Keen is a really small company that I don't expect to survive. They have a promising product, but it's cheap and has some flaws. They can damage your equipment due to design limitations. 

[supers05]

10 hours ago, cwilde said:

This is an awesome and exciting project that I'm excited to play out. Very excited to see a crossover with The Hookup!

 

I'm a building systems design engineer out in Alberta who experiments with Home Assistant in my off hours. I'm not registered with EGBC so I can't stamp anything for Linus but If there is anything I can do to help on the controls or HVAC side I'd be happy to help.

 

I've been watching you guys since the beginning and have grown with your channel, it would be awesome to play a small part in a mega project like this.  

I think together at could help him pick some great solutions. 

[Dravas]

https://www.techhive.com/article/3572640/audio-advice-free-online-tool-can-help-plan-your-dream-home-theater.html

 

 

This software looks neat and helpful.  For home theater carpet and rockwool is the best.   

 

For experts look to these forums

https://www.avsforum.com/forums/ 

 

[zdog16]

What he should do is get a full Building Automation System or BAS.

They're more commonly used in commercial applications but I with all the stuff he want's to put together it would be the best solution.

I work for a BAS contractor here in the US and we have products to solve every automation issue he brought up in the video.

All of the heating valves can be controlled with an IO controller and the 2 conductor wire to all the zones would just be used for zone temperature sensors tied back to the BAS.

Furnace and AC would be hooked up to similar IO controllers and the thermostats would also be replaced with room sensors. Everything could be controlled via a webpage or through Node-Red integration to whatever service(s) you want. We even have wall-mount touch screens to control everything. I'd love to help design a system to integrate everything!!

[Egg-Roll]

19 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

Little bit of a rant here, but I genuinely have an issue with pink, especially hot pink. Not in the color itself but how it's portrayed and stereotyped in culture.
1. It's the color most viciously shoved down peoples throats as a gendered color. Sure you've got blue for baby boys, but once that baby boy gets older he can like green, purple, red, black, pretty much every other color and his sister can like blue without being questioned. But if he likes PINK, heaven forbid parents are assuming sexuality. Pink has been made into a girls color through and through (Barbie for example) and it's so annoying for my next reason. 
2. PINK IS NOT PINK!!!! It's red, guys, it's just light red, no different than sky blue or light green or lavender purple. It's just a tint of an existing color, but people act like it's got it's own spot on the color wheel. Should it bother me so much? probably not, but it does. 

1. No complaints there, I hate stereotyping yet everyday I see it esp towards babies/kids, personally I hate pink in the real world (I rather purple) outside of annoying people with it 

2. Brown  For the color wheel I wouldn't let it bother me, most have pink but some don't the purpose of a color wheel is to show where a color range belongs between the three colors, however might I point out the 3 colors themselves are technically lies as those colors are based on our own eyes and not what actual color is.

[KouKouKaChu]

14 hours ago, dogwitch said:

so am not sure on this. so in lan room he said was a window.

is that  even the the ground?

i could not tell in video. i would triple check to seal that thing. and also see where the water running off.

seeing also if it freezes.(i dont know if it freezes at said house).

but any window near ground lvl always need to be triple check. leaks etc.

 

Vancouver BC doesn't get to freezing or below that often, but it does happen every year.

[Wh0_Am_1]

7 hours ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

It was a link to a topic, this topic infact, but posted by James. The topic was deleted by forum staff

Ah fair enough

[Jtalk4456]

6 hours ago, Egg-Roll said:

1. No complaints there, I hate stereotyping yet everyday I see it esp towards babies/kids, personally I hate pink in the real world (I rather purple) outside of annoying people with it 

2. Brown  For the color wheel I wouldn't let it bother me, most have pink but some don't the purpose of a color wheel is to show where a color range belongs between the three colors, however might I point out the 3 colors themselves are technically lies as those colors are based on our own eyes and not what actual color is.

fair enough with brown, but i'll forgive the mental interpretation of color as everything begins to break down as the entire world technically becomes a mental interpretation, then the possibility that I see blue different than you, etc. 10 min later we sound like we're on weed

Edit: then you get into the difference between visual colors of light and pigments. the fact that pigment absorbs color and you're not seeing just green being reflected, you're seeing other colors being taken away, leaving ranges behind reflecting that combine to look like green

[dogwitch]

14 hours ago, KouKouKaChu said:

 

Vancouver BC doesn't get to freezing or below that often, but it does happen every year.

ah. yeah i know issue with pipes and windows in texas burst etc.

[Egg-Roll]

10 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

Edit: then you get into the difference between visual colors of light and pigments. the fact that pigment absorbs color and you're not seeing just green being reflected, you're seeing other colors being taken away, leaving ranges behind reflecting that combine to look like green

Yea when typing I completely forgot about pigment, but a creature with a different color, more, or less cones than us could see a different color still so it's possible the colors we see from the pigment is still unique to us, however that is unlikely esp creatures with more cones. Tho the creatures with more cones might have better color accuracy if a cone is in the middle of the 3 we have.

Life is weird