Blank canvas in Drenthe

[Boswachter]

I have recently moved from a large city to a small town in the province Drenthe (Netherlands). Me, my girlfriend and our shepherd dog now own a small house and several outbuildings, located in a beautiful forest. Both the house and the outbuildings need a lot of work and will be stripped down to the bare minimum in a month or so. So I will have a great opportunity to add wiring for domotica in the next few months. However, since this move has come sooner than I expected, I do not have a complete plan at this time. So I would like to ask you - experienced domotica users - to help me. What would you do if you had a blank canvas like me?

Let me paint a picture for you. The house is pretty small, but large enough for me and my girlsfriend. It is approx. 50 m2 ground floor and 45 m2 first floor. We have a large barn with great looking wooden pillars, which we want to convert to an office. This space is 200 m2 ground floor and about 80 m2 first floor. We also have a open barn, which we might want to convert in the future (160 m2 ground floor) and we have a small garage (45 m2 ground floor). The house has all fittings, all outbuildings have power, the office has running water. So the basics are there already, no automation.

I want domotica for three reasons: comfort, security and to save energy. For comfort, I am mainly interested in turning lights and equipment on or off at certain times and I want to light certain utility rooms on movement sensors (such as the toilet and the stairs). If I need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, I would like to have a very low intensity light, turning on and off automatically. Of course I would like to be have high intensity lights in the evenings. It would be great to have power switches with three settings: on/clock/off. Pretty much like a light in your car: on/doors/off!

For security I would like to have several cameras or webcams around the plot, which is over 4000m2. I would like a server to record the video images whenever there is movement. At night time, I would like a semi-silent alarm in the house, whenever there is movement outside. However, only if the movement is not me or my girlfriend or my dog. I would like our dog to be able to go out on the yard and back in, at any time, without burglars having the same access. To summarize: I do not want to turn our home into a prison, but I do want to automate what I can relatively simple.

To save energy I would like to be able to control not only the lighting but also the temperature in all rooms. However, until now I haven't seen heating systems that offer a different temperature setting per room, that would fit inside our small budget. Because our house is little, you might say I shouldn't care about the energy waste that much, but my reasons to save energy is for the environment. So unless you have suggestions to automatically turn down the heating in the bathroom during the day, that fits in a low budget... I will probably be swithing my bathroom manually...

I am pretty sure that to realise all things on my list, and so ther things like to electrify my wooden gate (opening it like a garage) I must be a millionaire. The reality is our budget is very low. So my aim will be to add wiring during the renovation which will take part in the next 6 to 12 months. If all the wiring is there in 2011, I should be able to automate my home and office in 2012-2020. For instance, I am thinking about adding multiple speaker wires throughout the rooms, to be able to add 'airoplane-radio': one knob to select one of several music streams and a second knob for the volume. Simple things like that, I need to think about that because the house will be stripped soon!

Well, I hope to learn a lot from reading the forum in the next months. But because I am a relative newby and the renovation is starting soon, I would appreciate it if you would take the time to answer these two questions. All feedback - detailed and global - is highly appreciated!

1. What would you like to do yourself, if you had a 'blank canvas' like me?
2. What wiring and other stuff would you suggest I do, during the upcoming renovation?

Thanks!

Marcel

[drmacchi]

I have a very similar situation (forest, dog etc. )
My settings :
domotica = x10 + homeseer (cheap, not the best but it works..)
security : double system : hardware system + security from Homeseer (2 different systems with completely different triggers : the best to avoid fake alarms!)
video security : 9 cams + hardware dvr for live recording / 4 ip cams with snapshot feature to check immediately by email or web
enery saving : think about solar or wind power !
ciao

[Verkenner]

Drenthe? ???? Dont tell the world !

If you have a lawnmower (zitmaaier) first buy a security system (www.asci.nl) with big horns.

Welcome in Drenthe, Verkenner

[Boswachter]

@Drmacchi: thank you for your description. Do you use any additional wiring, or is everything through 220V?

@Verkenner: I have a small lawnmower (geen zitmaaier) but that is kept in a safe place. Also, our dog is a good watchdog. But I would prefer her to be the second line of defense

[drmacchi]

Do you mean external cameras ? All is on 12v, i use "video+power" balloons , these take 12v power and video signal over rj45 cable . i used a special cable CAT6 , very hard that is used for signal lines by Suisse Army in their military airports
Then i have a 220v line for some 500watt IR lamps near each camera.
All is mounted on galvanized iron pipes , 2mt tall, green painted because we are in the forest.
If you have military background, you can even place some hidden wires that trigger "presence" near your border, just at 100cms high to avoid foxes and other forest animals

[Edwin2008]

@drmacchi. Could you tell more about the "video+power" balloons. Is this a kind of PoE injector + video convertor?
Where did you purchase the product. What brand /model do you use?

[drmacchi]

Edwin2008 , yes you're right it's a couple of connectors placed over the cable : one receives 12v and sends bnc video signal , the other send 12v and receives video signal
here i took them from my online reseller www.futurashop.it look for article code 8220-CV035 , price is 42 euro . 2 years ago i bought a couple that were marked wellemann.
If you have a GOOD lan cable you could extend the distance to 100-120 mts without signal loose with color cams + ir
ciao!

[Edwin2008]

Pretty nice product. Would solve some cable hassle since i've got cat5e almost at every place in and outside. It's all itlaian, so i have toe do some google translation to understand it all

[drmacchi]

No my friend you don't need it ! look here
http://www.velleman.eu/distributor/prod ... ?id=342647

Ciao, lorenzo

[Boswachter]

I had hoped there would be more people with ideas for a blank canvas. You all or most of you must have dreams, of things that you would like to have in the future, but you may not have the space or the opportunity to do it now?

Any idea is welcome, that can prevent me in 2016 thinking: "I would like to have that in my home or office but I should have done the preparation in 2011 so it would have been so much easier... "

[drmacchi]

I do confirm that you should provide as many as possible cables in your home , i mean (many) empty pipes for the future and at least a giga lan port in every room , wireless wifi for external is a benefit !
ciao

[Bwired]

I had hoped there would be more people with ideas for a blank canvas. You all or most of you must have dreams, of things that you would like to have in the future, but you may not have the space or the opportunity to do it now?
Any idea is welcome, that can prevent me in 2016 thinking: "I would like to have that in my home or office but I should have done the preparation in 2011 so it would have been so much easier... "

Hi Boswachter
Check also the forum lots is on there
use the search button also
here are some discussions from the past

http://www.domoticaforum.eu/viewtopic.p ... nieuw+huis
http://www.domoticaforum.eu/viewtopic.p ... nieuw+huis
http://www.domoticaforum.eu/viewtopic.p ... nieuw+huis
http://www.domoticaforum.eu/viewtopic.p ... nieuw+huis

[Edwin2008]

No my friend you don't need it ! look here
http://www.velleman.eu/distributor/prod ... ?id=342647

Ciao, lorenzo

That's easy. Thanks!