Tech Up My Gaff

[fastgerman]

Hi All,

Looking into options for safety and security features and stumbled on Apple HomeKit, Philips Hue, Nest etc.

Has anyone got any experience of the above and similar?

Features that I am interested in:

- lights come on as you drive up to the house
- smoke and carbon monoxide alarms that will alert me when I'm away
- lights to come on when I'm away
- security lights on the exterior
- security camera with motion detection
- ability to adjust heating/hot water from iphone

Thanks

[leemanning]

A good friend of mine runs a security company that also works with home automation. Drop me a PM with your details and I'll get him to get in touch with you. He'll be able to take you through all the different bits available and what works best for your budget.

[MuffDaddy]

I'd make sure which ever solution you choose doesn't tie you in to a single solution.

• *Warning, I work for the following company***

I've been working with the team at Smart Things recently, this conforms to various standards thus making it easier to add a Hue light to a Nest thermostat and a Sonos speaker controlled from iPhone or Android.

Choose whichever platform works for you but be sure it is future proofed (as much as possible).

[TimJMS]

I took a punt on the Samsung SmartThings starter pack recently, for no other reason than I love pissing around with tech.

It has been easy to set up, a doddle to add things to and works flawlessly.

I'm looking forward to expanding its capabilities over the next few years.

[Morningside]

I have a cheap way round lights that come on when you drive up. They are the cheap plug-in remote control sockets. When I get onto the drive I turn them on to help me see the front door.

[MuffDaddy]

TimJMS said:

I took a punt on the Samsung SmartThings starter pack recently, for no other reason than I love pissing around with tech.

It has been easy to set up, a doddle to add things to and works flawlessly.

I'm looking forward to expanding its capabilities over the next few years.

Drop me a PM, I may well have a few spare sensors.

[onlynik]

TimJMS said:

I took a punt on the Samsung SmartThings starter pack recently, for no other reason than I love pissing around with tech.

It has been easy to set up, a doddle to add things to and works flawlessly.

I'm looking forward to expanding its capabilities over the next few years.

Hopefully they've fixed all the OAuth issues now, I was very close to returning my Smartthings, as various bits don't work.

It feels like a large beta test to me.

Things that don't work with Smartthings, and you need to ficher with are:-

Netatmo weather station and sensors
Nest Thermostats (But that's more Nest than ST)
Belkin Wemo switches (which were on release day but removed quickly after)

The inbuilt routines all sometimes don't work and you need to reset them, which is a bit of a pain.

It's worth noting that I have all of these now working thanks to the Community forums for ST, however I feel that these things should have worked when it was released in September.

Thankfully both IFTTT and Smarttiles work now, had these not been fixed it was going back to Curry's. You should definitely have a look at Smarttiles, it's a pretty cool dashboard for Smartthings, I have it on a couple of tablets.

There's a £50 saving on the starter kit for anyone else, via Samsung http://shop.samsung.com/uk/black-friday/

[eliot]

I run homeseer which integrates with just about anything ever made. Does what you require plus tons more.

However, i would consider it more suitable for an automation enthusiast rather than a simple plug and play for a beginner.

[TimJMS]

Thanks for the useful info. I'm very much a consumer not a developer So far I've only connected what came in the box and added another smart socket. I wasn't aware Netatmo could connect yet? Bring that on. And Robomow connectivity, then I could create an IFTTT recipe to send it out as soon as we are clear of the dew point

[onlynik]

TimJMS said:

Thanks for the useful info. I'm very much a consumer not a developer So far I've only connected what came in the box and added another smart socket. I wasn't aware Netatmo could connect yet? Bring that on. And Robomow connectivity, then I could create an IFTTT recipe to send it out as soon as we are clear of the dew point

There's a very helpful community here https://community.smartthings.com/c/uk

I've managed to get my Netatmo stuff working with help from the community, and now that IFTTT is working, it's all quite cool.

[Too Late]

I currently have a few HA set up.
These are currently executed with the following hardware:
Vera Edge
Fibaro Dimmers and dimming2 modules
Fibaro 2x 1.5 modules
Fibaro 3-1 sensors
Aeon Labs 5in1 sensors
CCTV Hikvision cameras

- 1 mile from my house, my HA turns on my hall light, sends me 2 pictures from my CCTV camera and reads out loud the hall temperature. It also disables my alarm
- I have a plugin call night and day, when night starts the porch, soffit and wall lights power on, at 11pm the soffit lights turn off and when the next day starts the porch and brick lights turn off.
- When i leave the house the system knows noone is there and it arms the PIRs around the house
- Humidity sensors in the bathroom and ensuit power on the shower extractor fans when humidity hits a specific level.
- When i am away over night i have a event run which simulates my routine in the evening.
- Temperature updates throughout the house
- Outside temperature updates if below 2 degrees

Another one i would like to do is an event to email out when the dishwasher and washing machine has finished.

All these modules log power usage and current load

Simples

[eliot]

Too Late said:

I currently have a few HA set up.
Fibaro 3-1 sensors
Aeon Labs 5in1 sensors

The problem with battery powered sensors is that they only trigger in a short period to conserve power. I use a traditional hard-wired alarm system that integrates into the HA - the benefits of this are:
1) A mission critical system (the alarm) carries on working regardless of the home automation system's state (crashed etc)
2) Real-time updates from all sensors into the HA system
3) reliable control from the HA to the alarm system

So this enables full automation but also the ability to create events for all the sensors to have lights come on as you walk around.

Crucially you get real-time updates of movement - so it will keep the kitchen light on as long as you are moving around inside the kitchen - with a battery powered sensor it will only send occasional updates, which may result in the light going off too soon or staying on too long.

I take the same approach for heating - it's fully automated and can be controlled from the phone and leverages information from other systems, such as the alarm to know when nobody is at home - but crucially the standard (traditional) heating controls are all still present - if the HA system is down (or I drop dead) the house can still operate in a conventional manner.

Edited by eliot on Tuesday 24th November 11:20

[Too Late]

eliot said:

The problem with battery powered sensors is that they only trigger in a short period to conserve power. I use a traditional hard-wired alarm system that integrates into the HA - the benefits of this are:
1) A mission critical system (the alarm) carries on working regardless of the home automation system's state (crashed etc)
2) Real-time updates from all sensors into the HA system
3) reliable control from the HA to the alarm system

So this enables full automation but also the ability to create events for all the sensors to have lights come on as you walk around.

Crucially you get real-time updates of movement - so it will keep the kitchen light on as long as you are moving around inside the kitchen - with a battery powered sensor it will only send occasional updates, which may result in the light going off too soon or staying on too long.

I take the same approach for heating - it's fully automated and can be controlled from the phone and leverages information from other systems, such as the alarm to know when nobody is at home - but crucially the standard (traditional) heating controls are all still present - if the HA system is down (or I drop dead) the house can still operate in a conventional manner.
[/footnote]

I agree but the likelihood of having all your PIR's cabled in makes retrofitting tough..

HA can never take the place of a true alarm.

The Fibaro and AeonLad PIRs will always report movement but light and temperature readings are on a timer or a specific increase or decrease decimal to trigger a report in to the controller. My controller is on my UPS.

Most alarms are now having the PIR's battery operated...

3 months in and the Fibaro sensors with improved reporting settings are still 100% battery

Now the Fibaro kit offers alot of customization in parameters and settings. You can tweak until your hearts content.

The fibaro kit can also count the amount of people per room, this allow plenty of logic to be applied to leave lights on or turn them off after people leave/enter rooms.

IF i drop dead, the HA blows the house up

HA on heating is expensive if you have multiple zones. I have 13 heating zones and to automate that i would need 13 new thermostats or 13 actuators which starts to get expensive..

HA is a hobby. Its a bit geeky... and can be expensive.

[matty g]

MuffDaddy said:

Drop me a PM, I may well have a few spare sensors.

I've just taken a punt on ST too. I tried to play around with Homeseer a few years back but couldn't find the time. The OH father's house is run by Arnold (homeseer's personality)Constantly dimming lights and telling you the goldfish hasn't been fed yet

onlynik said:

There's a £50 saving on the starter kit for anyone else, via Samsung http://shop.samsung.com/uk/black-friday/

Thanks you just saved me £50.

[eliot]

Too Late said:

HA on heating is expensive if you have multiple zones. I have 13 heating zones and to automate that i would need 13 new thermostats or 13 actuators which starts to get expensive..

HA is a hobby. Its a bit geeky... and can be expensive.

Sounds like you are talking about z-wave TRV's which are indeed expensive.
My house has three zones controlled via two-port valves - each rad has a traditional TRV. The HA simply controls the zone valves. Every room has its own thermostat, not having individual control of each TRV hasn't been a problem so far.

I have closed loop control of many aspects, I don't just turn the heating on - I ensure that the boiler is running, it's consuming gas and things are getting hotter. Conversely I know when the boiler isn't running - so if gas is being consumed I know I have a potential fault or gas leak.

I have pulse counters on the gas and water to monitor consumption and detect leaks - I also monitor the hot and cold water temperature and pressure.

The interlinked smoke alarm system has a dry relay contact feed into HA, so it will alert me if there's a problem.

If any water is consumed overnight without any motion prior - then it alerts me, this has found a leaking tundish on my unvented cylinder (which is why I also started monitoring the hot and cold water pressure)

If 100 Litres of water flows in 10 minutes when the house is occupied it speaks an alert, either a hosepipe has been left on or someone is having a very long shower.
If ANY water flows when the house is unoccupied then it sends me an alert - detects leaking pipes and dripping taps.

It sounds an internal alarm clock in the morning to wake everyone up, if no movement is detected after 20 minutes it rings it again!

Press the door bell - it takes a photo of you and emails it to me.

There's lots of security related things you can do - but I'm going to go into that.

[Too Late]

eliot said:

Sounds like you are talking about z-wave TRV's which are indeed expensive.
My house has three zones controlled via two-port valves - each rad has a traditional TRV. The HA simply controls the zone valves. Every room has its own thermostat, not having individual control of each TRV hasn't been a problem so far.

I have closed loop control of many aspects, I don't just turn the heating on - I ensure that the boiler is running, it's consuming gas and things are getting hotter. Conversely I know when the boiler isn't running - so if gas is being consumed I know I have a potential fault or gas leak.

I have pulse counters on the gas and water to monitor consumption and detect leaks - I also monitor the hot and cold water temperature and pressure.

The interlinked smoke alarm system has a dry relay contact feed into HA, so it will alert me if there's a problem.

If any water is consumed overnight without any motion prior - then it alerts me, this has found a leaking tundish on my unvented cylinder (which is why I also started monitoring the hot and cold water pressure)

If 100 Litres of water flows in 10 minutes when the house is occupied it speaks an alert, either a hosepipe has been left on or someone is having a very long shower.
If ANY water flows when the house is unoccupied then it sends me an alert - detects leaking pipes and dripping taps.

It sounds an internal alarm clock in the morning to wake everyone up, if no movement is detected after 20 minutes it rings it again!

Press the door bell - it takes a photo of you and emails it to me.

There's lots of security related things you can do - but I'm going to go into that.

Elliot. What HA system do you run?

Some great ideas there as well... With universal sensors you can basically monitor anything and everything.

[eliot]

Homeseer 3 with;

Some fibaro z-wave (stopped buying them as £50 a pop is just stupid)

Some aeon temp/humidity sensors

adio 100 digital i/o boards

Arduino boards for i/o and custom ideas

several relay boards for lighting and other control/automation

midon temp08 and 11 temp sensors

home made light level sensors

other plugins related to security

The arduino plugin is great because you can leverage the massive world of cheap Arduino i/o projects and control them via your phone.


Digital i/o boards driving relay board

[aspender]

Lightwave RF for lighting
Honeywell Evohome for heating and hot water
Nest Protect for smoke/CO
Nest Cam for video monitoring inside
MyFox alarm

My rationale being that these are all easily available/off the shelf products and easy to install and use (important for SWMBO). I'm reasonably confident that over time integration between them will improve via IFTTT/HomeKit/SmartThings etc (Lightwave being the real laggard here)

How this setup addresses your requirements:

- lights come on as you drive up to the house - No, Lightwave really needs IFTTT integration
- smoke and carbon monoxide alarms that will alert me when I'm away - Yes
- lights to come on when I'm away - Yes, you can set events based on dusk/dawn or specific times in Lightwave
- security lights on the exterior - I don't have but am looking for a good solution
- security camera with motion detection - Yes, very happy with Nest Cam for this.
- ability to adjust heating/hot water from iPhone - Yes, evohome is awesome

[onlynik]

aspender said:

- security camera with motion detection - Yes, very happy with Nest Cam for this.

I've sent my Nest Cam back, the constant outages of Nest servers and the app that didn't work with my wife's phone. It's been replaced with a Samsung one, and I can record locally to my NAS.

[whoami]

I live in the sticks with a correspondingly poor broadband connection.

What bandwidth do you require to use, say, the Samsung products talked about above?