The topic of “smart living” in particular demands the journalistic ambition of a test editor. Here the statements of the manufacturers can not be as easy to verify as with a network player, a TV or a router. They come into the laboratory and they are quickly aware of the quality, value, handling and processing.
Retrofitting despite new construction
However, in order to really see how the integration of a house control works, whether installation and operation are actually as intuitive as the manufacturers promise, and whether all parts of the network work with each other safely and safely, you have to build your own house >
A question of the system
And that is exactly what we have done - with a high demand for optimal fully automatic control functions. This includes the control of the light according to the desired scenarios, the time or the motion detector, as well as the automation of all 14 blinds with regard to the time of day, weekday, sunshine, wind, rain and twilight
The practice: Installation
The monitoring and control of the room climate is just as important as intelligent smoke and flood detectors. If then still alarm functions and monitoring cameras can be installed, the smart home is complete. The integration of entertainment electronics and computers into the automation should, of course, also be possible, but it will only be possible later.
Backstage
The control of the whole should be convenient via wall switches, but also via the Android tablet in the living room and the mobile phone from the road function. And most importantly, it must be affordable.
When choosing the house, we decided to use the ICON 4 model from Dennert: a concrete prefabricated house almost entirely built in the factory and only assembled at the site - within two days, including a cellar.
Although it is a sophisticated overall concept, which can be produced particularly cheaply and precisely, several individualizations are possible. The suspended ceiling on the ground floor allows for an arbitrary amount of space for cables and pipes, and empty cans are freely planed.
Dennert was very impressed with the idea of automation, precisely because more and more customers are asking for such functions. But the final step of the full support of our project in the conception and production of the house has not been enough.
The houses are literally produced on the assembly line, including the construction of heating and power distributors, pipes and cans. It was not possible to completely change this procedure, but in the future it may well be that automation options belong to the additional equipment of these houses.
The first thing we learned at house automation is that it is difficult if you want something special. However, the retrofitting of our intelligent control functions has almost new features, as additional empty cans and pipes have been laid as desired. The suspended ceiling remained open until everything needed was installed.
Long before the installation and configuration of the components went, however, it was necessary to decide for the first time for a system that could meet the desired requirements. Talks with some electromechanics, which we asked for advice, were rather sobering.
In most cases, the demanding task was obviously too complex for the gentlemen and connected with too much unpredictable work. On the other hand, the really competent representatives of the industry are playing in a prize league which is far from our investment volume. We'll see in the end why.
The home automation market is somewhat difficult. The highest quality manufacturers such as Gira work together with the best and most specialized electrical installers. It is almost impossible to get a good overview of the technology, potential or even compatibility of the different providers.
How variable the standard cable bus EIB / KNX is in its application or how good spark solutions work in reinforced concrete houses are exciting questions, which we now have to answer ourselves. Various Internet forums are good sources of information and ideas at a high technical level, but they are rather confusing for the ordinary citizen.
With some experience in electrical engineering and very eager to learn, we have chosen the HomeMatic solution from EQ-3, a company from the ELV Group, which we have been familiar with for decades from the electronics self-construction and application industry.
There is a lot of experience with control components especially for lighting and heating, and the system HomeMatic can do everything we value - it is also easy to retrofit at reasonable prices.
The wide range of EQ-3s can be convincing. Retrofit solutions such as switches or displays are battery powered and can be installed without drilling, routing cables or slotting slots.
At the same time, however, there are also DIN rail elements for cable-bound installations in the fuse box or in the flush box. Here, the electromechanic can perform good services by integrating particularly cost-effective classic switches into the system. Instead of high-voltage to the lamp, they pass low-voltage signals directly to the control center of the home automation system.
This central control unit CCU-1 has the entire house under control and is sensational with under 200 euros sensational. In it, a complete Linux mini-computer is working, which generates commands, evaluates messages, runs programs and communicates with PCs as well as the Internet.
Installation and control of all components are controlled via an integrated web server. Ethernet or USB is used as the connection. Actuators, sensors, and controls are controlled by a secure bidirectional radio link (868 MHz, BidCoS, AES encryption) or cable (RS-485).
Our headquarters CCU-1 we have placed right next to the WLAN router and connected with it. This allows configuration and control of any device with a web browser - at home and remotely from all over the world. As mentioned above, the number of components that are controlled and evaluated is very large.
At the same time, however, we have limited ourselves to the really decisive lamps. Actuators (ie things that move something) are also roller blinds, heating plates and window openers. The automatic door lock has not worked with us, because the front door safety lock only rotates when you pull easily at the door. So it's a good idea to check out before you buy.
We have a few temperature / humidity sensors, a CO2 measuring device and a rain and wind sensor. Smoke, water and motion detectors provide security, but instead of activating a siren directly, let's send an email from the house.
In the controls, we rely not only on classic light switches, but also on a high-quality 19-key remote control as well as modern OLED displays with integrated control buttons as a menu system. The thermostats of the heating control serve simultaneously as a sensor and a control element.
HomeMatic is described as a simple but also very comprehensive system for home control. The common builder, however, is just as overburdened with the conception, construction and installation of such a system as the electrometer, where the highest of emotions is a cross-connection of light switches. Fortunately, he often has an apprentice who knows something about the Internet and PCs.
The physical installation is not difficult at all. Most pushers and sensors are battery operated and can be easily glued to the wall, switching relays for lamps can fit into the flush-mounted socket.
Roller switches have the same connections as the existing control buttons and can be replaced. All this is also easy to understand in the enclosed instructions. If you want to place light or a motor on a button on the remote control, you can do this by pressing a few buttons
However, it is complicated if you want to build a fully-fledged automation system via switchboard. Although it is described in detail in how to set up and follow the instructions, there is no reference to the strategy of how to best combine the components of the home system into one.
This would require a course. It would be important to point out that all hardware components must first be assigned to trades and spaces, which should be named before, or that each channel and subfunction of an element has special properties that can be changed at different points in the configuration Code>
If you understand the system and take some advice, the whole thing is not so complicated. We are planning a workshop to set up HomeMatic, which can reduce the established thresholds before self-made home automation with this system.
The integration of new components is simple after defining which rooms are to be used and how the trades are to be called precisely (eg light, blinds, heating, fire & water or alarm).
Each device is assigned a configuration button, and when pressed, it is noticeable for radio targets. If you activate the search mode at the same time, the new hardware is automatically found with the serial number as its name.
Renaming and assigning to rooms and trades is compulsory. Unfortunately many devices are divided into subfunctions, which are partly incomprehensible. Each remote control button has its own name, which can be assigned to the user.
Once the devices have been learned, the program is started. There are many possibilities. Finding the perfect position of a roller blind when you have the time of day, weekday, sun, wind speed, outside temperature and movement on the terrace as input is complicated.
And one quickly learns small things: for example, that a motor's roller blind simply tears when it is frozen at -20 degrees outside the window sill. Now the roller blinds on the weather side in frost at night drive only to the slot position a few centimeters above the sill.
If one were to calculate the many hours of installation and programming, several thousand euros would be due, which would make the installation of a house control so expensive by the expert. The semiprofessional self-build is however a high-quality alternative, if one has fun with crafting and programming.
HomeMatic communicates with its peripherals via radio waves in the 868 MHz range. If the range in the free-fall is still specified at 200 to 300 meters, the waves in a house made of reinforced concrete do not come much more than that.
We have therefore positioned the all-important center right in the center, so that no partner has more than eight meters of air line away from it. Since a room ceiling and two walls have to be partially overcome, communication errors still occur in rare cases - especially with the more complicated encrypted transmission variant.
Changing the control center by only a few centimeters will change the funnel's immensely, so that, if one moves neatly, never comes to a forgotten blind or falsely burning light. If this were the case, we could integrate any number of transmitters (configuration adapters LAN) over the PC network so that the command chain is always saved in large buildings.
