Home Automation - Mainstream price point & functionality?
Discussion
Renovation said:
To be viable for me to purchase, firstly I'd have to want it and I'm unaware of ever wanting nor needing any automation.
Can you give me an example of what I'm missing ?
My heating is programmed I can have my lights turned on by timer / PIR / Dawn dusk - I can't see that I need anything else.
How about a very simple one. A moisture sensor that alerts you of leaks in the kitchen meaning the damage caused is far less. Or your heating turning on via go fence/outside temp. You get within 1km of the home and it's brass monkeys so the heating comes on. Can you give me an example of what I'm missing ?
My heating is programmed I can have my lights turned on by timer / PIR / Dawn dusk - I can't see that I need anything else.
I have my Sonos read the weather to me when I enter the kitchen for the first time. I also have it play a theme tune when I come home from work.
Garage door open, set an alert. Anywhere. With work flow informing a neighbour if you are away.
Have a porch? Why not allow Amazon a one time only access to leave parcels.
The possibilities increase as you add sensors, end points.
C Lee Farquar said:
Now the debate has widened...
The main benefit I think we could enjoy would be a centralised video/Sky centre, whereby we could access our DVDs and recorded TV from any TV in the house.
We're not at first fix yet so hard wiring isn't a problem, but is an easy to use, reliable solution available?
I wouldn't want to change my Sky subscription, ideally, as I get 'free' Sky F1. I'm not interested in other sports so wouldn't want to pay for Sky Sports.
Thanks for everyones input, informative thread.
This isn't really home automation.The main benefit I think we could enjoy would be a centralised video/Sky centre, whereby we could access our DVDs and recorded TV from any TV in the house.
We're not at first fix yet so hard wiring isn't a problem, but is an easy to use, reliable solution available?
I wouldn't want to change my Sky subscription, ideally, as I get 'free' Sky F1. I'm not interested in other sports so wouldn't want to pay for Sky Sports.
Thanks for everyones input, informative thread.
I think you'll be better off asking in the Home Cinema & HiFi section, but IMO:
Don't try and wire your house for a specific function as the technology is changing.
Wire each room with plenty of Cat5e (or possibly Cat6 - not essential but gives a degree of future proofing) which will allow you plenty of flexibility.
There are plenty of options for Sky and watching your DVD collection without the manual faff. Do a good search on here and you'll find a lot of info. There are no solutions that don't require a bit of reading up first IMO.
Murph7355 said:
Don't try and wire your house for a specific function as the technology is changing.
Wire each room with plenty of Cat5e (or possibly Cat6 - not essential but gives a degree of future proofing) which will allow you plenty of flexibility.
may as well run Cat6 for the cost of materials, labour will be the same anyway. Like Murph says its flexible and you can convert pretty much anything to utilise Cat6. Wire each room with plenty of Cat5e (or possibly Cat6 - not essential but gives a degree of future proofing) which will allow you plenty of flexibility.
Jon1967x said:
I had a play with lightwaverf - does most of what you ask, used to be in B&Q and maplin.
It's ok, not brilliant, can be little frustrating at times when setting up. I'm not rushing to buy the bits to control my heating.
I've just bought and installed the central heating bit.It's ok, not brilliant, can be little frustrating at times when setting up. I'm not rushing to buy the bits to control my heating.
Unbelievably frustrating to setup, completely non-intuitive app without proper override buttons etc, seemingly impossible to clear device memories and start again. Even seems impossible to do something as simple as remove a device from the app!
It looks good on paper, but the setup instructions and app functionality is poor. No response from their helpdesk. The app is poor.
I'd avoid. I bought it for the fact that you could create zoned heating with room TRVs, but if even getting the thermostat to work remotely (it won't - I have had to use manual settings) is this hard, I'm damned if I'm putting the rest of the home on the system!
forest07 said:
anonymous said:
[redacted]
+1 one of the last projects I worked on was looking at developing these products. All looked too complex and little if any cost benefits for users. Fine for geeks and those who have to have the latest technology. So LightwaveRF will go in the bin, and I'll just buy a Nest. People will always argue against things like Nest, arguing that better functionality is achievable with something else. It isn't, for the average user like me. Fine if you are a tech person, but most of us want something that just works well and looks good. Most of these solutions seem to fail to recognise this.
MuffDaddy said:
How about a very simple one. A moisture sensor that alerts you of leaks in the kitchen meaning the damage caused is far less. Or your heating turning on via go fence/outside temp. You get within 1km of the home and it's brass monkeys so the heating comes on.
I have my Sonos read the weather to me when I enter the kitchen for the first time. I also have it play a theme tune when I come home from work.
Garage door open, set an alert. Anywhere. With work flow informing a neighbour if you are away.
Have a porch? Why not allow Amazon a one time only access to leave parcels.
The possibilities increase as you add sensors, end points.
I've never had a leak of any sort nor have my parents so I wouldn't be interested.I have my Sonos read the weather to me when I enter the kitchen for the first time. I also have it play a theme tune when I come home from work.
Garage door open, set an alert. Anywhere. With work flow informing a neighbour if you are away.
Have a porch? Why not allow Amazon a one time only access to leave parcels.
The possibilities increase as you add sensors, end points.
My heating is on a timer and thermostatically controlled with zones and TRVs I have a wife and kids so our routine is pretty regular - it takes a few mins to change the timer at holiday periods.
I am shortly fitting electric gates (with remote opening and CCTV) and they will be a bit of a pain with parcels when we're out - I could spend thousands on automation or I could just fit a large lockable box at the end of the drive.
I guess I'm just old fashioned.
Renovation said:
To be viable for me to purchase, firstly I'd have to want it and I'm unaware of ever wanting nor needing any automation.
Can you give me an example of what I'm missing ?
My heating is programmed I can have my lights turned on by timer / PIR / Dawn dusk - I can't see that I need anything else.
I agree with this, suspect your market is going to be a tad limitedCan you give me an example of what I'm missing ?
My heating is programmed I can have my lights turned on by timer / PIR / Dawn dusk - I can't see that I need anything else.
Too Late said:
I am moving to Loxone.
I have just laid all cat6 to all light points and every light zone is on its own circuit. Just now need to bight the bullet and buy it all
I'd be interested to know more about your experience in preparing for a Loxone installation. My soon-to-be-purchased house requires a rewire and I've been considering wiring all lighting circuits back to the consumer unit and running Cat6 to light switches. I'd be interested to know what the extra over cost was compared to a standard rewire and what you anticipate spending on the kit and whether or not you're considering doing the Loxone programming yourself.I have just laid all cat6 to all light points and every light zone is on its own circuit. Just now need to bight the bullet and buy it all
Loxone, HDL and Fibaro are all in the same position, less established than the likes on KNX or even bigger control systems but they are becoming established and there market is growing.
Toxic, I have been using CYP but recently switched to HDAnywhere which are doing 4x4 HDBaseT matrixes with PoE for under £2k Rrp and if you plug it into the Internet your dealer can monitor it as well.
A newcomer to the market launched at ISE last week with similar price points to good reviews
V.
Toxic, I have been using CYP but recently switched to HDAnywhere which are doing 4x4 HDBaseT matrixes with PoE for under £2k Rrp and if you plug it into the Internet your dealer can monitor it as well.
A newcomer to the market launched at ISE last week with similar price points to good reviews
V.
VEX said:
Loxone, HDL and Fibaro are all in the same position, less established than the likes on KNX or even bigger control systems but they are becoming established and there market is growing.
Toxic, I have been using CYP but recently switched to HDAnywhere which are doing 4x4 HDBaseT matrixes with PoE for under £2k Rrp and if you plug it into the Internet your dealer can monitor it as well.
A newcomer to the market launched at ISE last week with similar price points to good reviews
V.
Have you had any experience of KNX VEX? (KNX VEX )Toxic, I have been using CYP but recently switched to HDAnywhere which are doing 4x4 HDBaseT matrixes with PoE for under £2k Rrp and if you plug it into the Internet your dealer can monitor it as well.
A newcomer to the market launched at ISE last week with similar price points to good reviews
V.
I'm sort-of a developer of KNX systems.
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