First of all, this is a great forum! Loads of useful stuff. After years of doing some semi-domotica implementations in previous houses (mostly with x10) I want to really start in our new (yet to be completed) house and so far I've found numerous interesting and useful tips here.
We *) are in the planning phase, but since it will be completed soon, (it's a project building so after 'completion' we get to finish it with a kitchen a bath a floor and loads of other stuff) we need to finalize the requirements off stuff that might require access to the walls/floor etc.
*) we: My wife is an active participant in this project, she is an IT consultant
, yes I count myself lucky!As a load of experienced people are roaming this forum I'm hoping to get some expert advice during this planning phase (and during implementation I hope to share my experiences and draw on yours again)
<b>So first I'll put down some info on the house</b>
<ul>
<li>Some general info: http://www.galjoenzuid.nl/woningtypes/beyerinck.php</li>
<li>And not so detailed drawings: http://www.galjoenzuid.nl/pdf/beyerinck.pdf</li>
<li>Downstairs the walls are made up from 7cm thick 'gibo' (gypsum concrete??) blocks, so relatively easy to add new cable pipes if needed, also the floor is still without it's top layer, so it's easy to still add pipes there as well.</li>
<li>Upstairs is a wooden frame work with 'gypsum??' plates against it. I think less easy to add stuff there, creating holes is easy but fixing them, not so much</li>
</ul>
<b>Our goals</b>
<ul>
<li>Automate as much lights as possible (closets, toilets, hallways, stairways etc, all areas that you pass through, easy detectable</li>
<li>Automate groups of lights for different scenarios, dim/on/off etc.</li>
<li>Security mode, when set as such, all lights should be triggered when motion is detected (or doors are opened) where they should not have been.</li>
<li>Sound in kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, controllable to use as a alarm clock, as radio and as announcement system</li>
<li>If feasible, 'smart' microphones in rooms that can pickup voice commands, filtering out background noise some how</li>
<li>Extensible system, should be able to add window shades, sunscreens irrigation systems etc, later in the project</li>
<li>Controllable via web (for pda's & touchscreens in the house or when away)</li>
<li>Cost & usage monitoring and control for electricity, gas and water</li>
<li>Home theater control (possibly only loosely connected to the HA)</li>
</ul>
Well, that is is for now, the idea is that this is going to expand when successful, the only thing that we really need to make sure of is what we should do now, while we can still can access the walls and stuff.
I am a software engineer, I have considerable experience in most languages that are used with HA. Ruby and C# are my languages of choice however also java/perl/php/vb(+script)/and loads of other are no issue, minor things in C I can also to but that is about the limit, no driver coding etc.
Also I know my way around with electrical systems, I'm no expert, but the x10 connecting x10 in wall switches and stuff is no issue at all.
(one big question on that one by the way, in almost no home I found the required 'Line voltage' in switches, just the black cables 'neutral' and 'switched neutral' so how to connect the common x10/z-wave switch without having to rewire my whole house with extra 'line voltage' wires to the switches?)
I have some old x10 stuff and a cm11, I also just got a similar set for Z-Wave from ACT (all their European ready stuff times 1, so an in wall appliance switch (2 peddle), an in wall dimmer switch (2 peddle), a remote, a computer module (rs232) some plug in socket modules and a PIR). So far I really like the z-wave stuff, the communication seems much more robust as the x10 modules, they even give feedback and are easy poll-able for status. BIG disadvantage, no opensource drivers/protocol descriptions so stuck with homeseer or linuxmce, or similar solution.
For now I am experimenting with homeseer and its scripting environment which seems powerful enough for me to 'do what ever the frak I can think of' [:D]
Reading this forum I see only few z-wave users, so I'm wondering what your experiences are and how you got around the x10 issues (if any?) My problem was mainly that with x10 the computer would never know the status of the connected devices, or at least not with any relative measure of correctness.
So Z-wave, x10, other methods? what needs to be done now? (like adding a voltage line to switch sockets?) add extra cables to certain locations? Suggestions for other stuff to automate in the house? Suggestions for (phased) approaches? Any indications on budget sizes?
Any help/insight is much appreciated, I hope to be able to return the favors.
Andre (and Nicole)
but you have to start off with the beginning, first try and get some electronics to be switchable using for instance x10. These days plugwise is also an option since it uses a mesh wireless network which is also nice. Only downside is that you dont have a switchable button in place then.