Home Automation

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Home automation is the residential extension of building automation.

It is automation of the home, housework or household activity.

Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, security locks of gates and doors and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.

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What you wish you should have done smarter if you were building a house to accommodate all of the IOTs connecting to HA (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I am building a house and trying to avoid power bricks and cables hanging on the wall for motion sensors, blind shutters, "add next smart house blinky here".

This is just an aexample photo:

example HA rooms

So I was thinking each IOT needs to have internet connection anyway. What about if I run a single CAT cable to each room, and position a switch in each room to split to couple CATs in each room (power socket, tv socket, window, ceiling fan). Main CAT from each room to go to the server room router. That way I can have one cable per room coming out from the router. And with some inexpensive POE switches in each room I can split to extra IOTs.

That way I wont be saturating the home wireless and needing expensive APs. And in the same time can deliver POE. Alternatively I can modify the CATs to run only 4 wires for 100MB network and remaining 4 for 12V if POE injection is complicated or routers cant deliver required IOT current.

I must say most IOTs will be DIY ESP/Arduino/MCUs

Is it possible you guys think?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Awesome thank you all guys for chipping in. So much to unpack here for an electronic guy who has no experience in networking and home automation.

I just spun up HA yesterday to get my feet wet and I can see how easily I can get tempted to rump it up with a bunch of smart stuff. Ideally, I want to use less internet connected ones (although I said IOT initially, but really mean smart devices which i can control via HA and don't ping home unnecessarily)

Conduit is a great choice, my mind struggles to assimilate how to leave the unpatched end of the cables/conduit at various sides of each room without building too many recess points. Or even how high to leave them from the floor.

Regarding conduits, perhaps I can run one to the corner of the windows for blinders, motion sensors and automatic windows (if I can find those)

Won't running a conduit to every power socket (3 per room at least?) might be a bit overkill? Apart then the computer corner power/ethernet and TV sockets would I need a conduit near bedside tables power points?

I see the point why switches in every room are a maintenance issue. However, these smart devices, would they saturate the network so much that I need direct cable from each of them to the server closet?

I am not planning to run a streaming device at the end of each. High Bandwidth TV/PC, camera cables should go directly to the server closet, but the rest hopefully will be

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Have a look at this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBzanvRn2Hc

Skip the ~7:00-13:30 section as it is not relevant.

In the last segment, he goes over a conduit run from the service entrance. However, I would be running strapped-down rigid conduit since, when pulling cable, there is potential for it to flex (it will absorb the pull force, rather than the force acting on the cable only). His endpoint in the attic area is fine for single-floor homes, but for multiple floors, you will want to run those all the way to the destination.

I would also run conduit for all the wall jacks instead of bare cable.

recess points

One thing you can consider: Those new LED puck recessed lighting can double as ceiling access panels. You can end some conduit near those areas. A lot less work to fish wires if you already have 75% of it done

Here is another good reddit discussion "Deciphering what "run conduit everywhere" means for a home remodel"

saturate the network so much

If you use a single, low-cost wifi router, or your ISP's CPE device, it may, yes. This is why most people are talking about adding WAPs (wireless access points), which are not routers by the way, they plug into the router (ethernet cable, PoE-powered usually) to "extend" the reach of your wireless and add capacity.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I see the point why switches in every room are a maintenance issue. However, these smart devices, would they saturate the network so much that I need direct cable from each of them to the server closet?

Who's to say in a few years you even WANT to connect these devices to your network? What if they aren't ethernet at all but can still run over twisted pair cabling? Or maybe you end up wishing you had some fiber, or something else?

Independent runs isn't about saturation, these aren't gig traffic devices. It's about management and flexibility. There are just things you can't do with a bunch of cheap pocket switches.