Smart home from scratch

[Baterka]

In the coming months, I will be doing a completely new electrical installation in an apartment, and I haven't completely found out on the Internet what my options are if I want to do everything as a smart home.

I know that there is a low-efford solution where I have everything done "the old way" (standard wiring, switches, lighting, etc.) and subsequently buy Wifi/Zigbee/ZWave switches, sockets, bulbs, etc.... But it seems to me , that this solution is unnecessary when I can do everything from scratch and I'm trying to find out how it's done correctly these days. Is there anyone who can advise me on this topic before I contact a company so that I at least have an idea? If this is how it is handled as a standard, I would like to have, for example, switches via a low-current distribution and all switching and control would take place in the fuse box. In this way, I would not only get rid of unnecessary high-current distributions where they are not needed, but I would have the opportunity to choose any solution of the main unit, which would simply control all lighting (and possibly other devices) from one place. But I'm not sure if it's done this way these days and if it's allowed by law, for example.

[jaslion]

Pretty much do shit the old way and add some utp cable along it.

 

Just DO NOT EVER BUY INTO AN ECOSYSTEM. Use home assistant for EVERYTHING or a variant of it and DO NOT buy wifi smart devices.

 

Basically make sure your stuff is all going to a controller that can work offline (home assistant) and works like that.

 

Also make sure everything works without a smart thing. So basically like a normap light switch and stuff.

 

The less smart you need to make things the better as it only brings more issues with you.

 

Its important that the thing you choose works FOREVER. Like even if support drops you suddenly dont end up having no light anymore and stuff. Its why using current standard wiring strategies are HIGHLY recommended so you dont suddenly live in the dark.

[Baterka]

I am 100% not going into some cloud solutions or thing like this. I know thats path to hell  I will deffinitelly go with Home Assistant for my central unit.

I saw that there are systems like KNX or free@home that are basically just smart switches on rail and I can control them from IP, or by binary inputs. They are not cheap tho.

Another option I see is to just do normal electrical installation and then buy some Zigbee smart switches I put in place of normal 230V switch, but I am not sure if those can controll the lights and for example do dimming on them? Or those switches work also by communicating with the smart bulb and instruct them to do the dimming etc? 

 

[jaslion]

29 minutes ago, Baterka said:

I saw that there are systems like KNX or free@home that are basically just smart switches on rail and I can control them from IP, or by binary inputs. They are not cheap tho.

Network controlled relays are never cheap. Also like dont get generics that are cheap they WILL cause a fire thats a 100% product guarantee!

 

With electrical work basically always buy tried n true

 

31 minutes ago, Baterka said:

Another option I see is to just do normal electrical installation and then buy some Zigbee smart switches I put in place of normal 230V switch, but I am not sure if those can controll the lights and for example do dimming on them? Or those switches work also by communicating with the smart bulb and instruct them to do the dimming etc? 

They can HOWEVER you need to verify that the bulbs you use work either with power dimming from the source or use on board dimming features that the switch instructs to activate. Else you may end up with incompatible stuff. Basically research things that work togheter and also watch out for combo deals. Rather have a switch and dimmer next to each other on their own than combined usually

[Baterka]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Network controlled relays are never cheap. Also like dont get generics that are cheap they WILL cause a fire thats a 100% product guarantee!

 

With electrical work basically always buy tried n true

 

They can HOWEVER you need to verify that the bulbs you use work either with power dimming from the source or use on board dimming features that the switch instructs to activate. Else you may end up with incompatible stuff. Basically research things that work togheter and also watch out for combo deals. Rather have a switch and dimmer next to each other on their own than combined usually

Ok. Thanks. And last question I just cannot find an answer for... If I buy some smart switch that is basically rele connected to smart home network + hardware switch, does the hardware switch physically move if I turn the switch by remote? Or each time I use the remote control the ON/OFF state of the physical switch changes?

 

[voyager_]

I would stick to the tried and true method and wire everything to code and what is standard for your area. I deal enough with controls at work and systems like you're describing. I would not want that in a home environment, I would want something that works and if a switch fails i can either use it normally or easily replace it. By also wiring it using low voltage with switches and relays you are making the apartment worthless to the next owner. If you go that route make sure you look very closely at the laws/regulations in your area and talk to whoever would do the inspection to approve the electrical

[Kilrah]

4 hours ago, Baterka said:

does the hardware switch physically move if I turn the switch by remote?

Usually there isn't a physical switch, it'll be a pushbutton that toggles a relay on/off.

 

Like these, you've got 3 pushbuttons, they'll each toggle one relay, and will work even if connection's down. 

 

[Needfuldoer]

Why would you ruin a perfectly good dumb house with a bunch of smart junk?  

 

I agree that you should wire everything traditionally, since the vast majority of smart home products you'll find for residential installations will be designed as drop-in replacement retrofits. (And that's where the development seems to be focused.) I've seen a few bespoke, semi-smart systems in commercial installations, and they're obtuse and at best five years behind the curve.

 

The last thing you want is to buy into some hub ecosystem that goes away in a few years.