Several concepts for light automation in a new home - which is best?

Hi all, I am in the process of building a house, in fact I am just starting, no excavation yet although all approvals are already .

I'd like the house to be as automatic as possible (because the word smart in this space is definitely overused!). Well, and I'm faced with a problem that I can't solve on my own.

What is the best way to design and make the lighting installation in the house so that it is versatile, functional and fail-safe? I have 3 ideas
1. 12V lighting throughout the house, with cables converging in a central control box - disadvantage? in the event of an electronic failure, I can't do anything, can't turn on the light etc.
2. 230V lighting with a low-voltage cable drawn to the same place as the 230V cable outlet in the ceiling - in order to install relay elements there to control the lights. So there would be two cables coming from the ceiling: 230V according to the "normal" circuit and 12V to the controller.
3. traditional 230V lighting and the control electronics placed in switch boxes. There both 230V to the control and a low-voltage cable that would fly to a central location to the controller.

For option 3, I was still thinking of using mechanisms a'la the stair switch. What for? So that my wife doesn't kill me when the electronics fail Even if the electronic module stops working for some reason, the traditional switch itself will work. I would treat the module with relays in this solution as a second staircase switch, only that it is electronically controlled from the controller. Thus, its failure still leaves a gateway to control the lighting with a second, traditional switch. What do you think of this?

I don't know if I have described my ideas clearly enough. If so, I will clarify what the author meant .

I don't even know yet what I would like to base all the automation on. I don't know if it will be an industrial PLC, an arduino or maybe another solution (such as a supla).

please help.

How about a nettemp.co.uk project on a Raspberry Pi and to this a wireless relay on an ESP8266 coupled to (as you write yourself) a stair switch? The downside will be that remotely you won't know if the light is on.
You could also do that with a relay on an ESP8266 + a bell switch hooked up to an ESP.

Don't do it wirelessly. If you're just building a house and can pull the wires, do it, because it's a much more reliable method.

If you don't want to rely on electronics alone, a staircase switch is a good option. And if you decide to go with an Arduino, you could always use an electronic current sensor based on a Hall sensor. This would work on the principle: the measurement shows that current is flowing, it means that the light is on. The advantage of such a solution is that you can send such a measurement somewhere and keep an eye on the power consumption in your house.

kosmogon wrote:

Don't do it wirelessly. If you're just building a house and can pull wires , do it because it's a much more reliable method.

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The wireless option is the worst option available. I myself also believe that cable is the most secure. At home, despite the prevalence of wi-fi solutions I will have a LAN socket in every room.

I didn't write that WiFi is a super option I wrote about it because the author writes "several concepts for light automation" and this is one option.
I am trying to do some sort of automation substitute myself at home and my idea is:
- each room has its own controller on an AVR
- every socket is connected to the controller
- every light is connected to the controller
- every light switch (bell switch) is connected to the controller
- all rooms connected via RS485 bus
- the server, the "brain" of it all is a Raspberry Pi
So as you can see I'm going the "cable" way myself

piterek-23 cool, i didn't write that it's a bad option, just that it's the worst option available, that is a good one wireless i'll be embracing the topic, once i've got plaster in the house and i don't want to forge
and until then I'll lay cables. I think I'll lay twisted pair everywhere, relatively cheap, 8 wires, it will give me a lot of options

This is what I did at home:
1. I hooked up a twisted-pair cable (5e) to each switch box. This allows me to connect up to 2 SM41 switches and one LED (IA21RD) -all from TEM. The twisted pairs go down in the switchboard and go to the bistable relays (AZ850P2-24) and PLC inputs (Fatek).
2. in the switchgear I have RM85 relays which are controlled from the bistable relays or from the PLC outputs (jumper set). If the PLC fails, it will always be possible to revert to bistable control;
3. the RM85 relays switch on the power supply to the lamps in the rooms;
4. a separate cable (4x2.5mm²) comes out of the switchgear to the sockets in each room. In addition to neutral and earth, there are two phases in it: a fixed phase and a RM85 relay disconnectable phase. This allows me to switch off the power at the sockets connected to the 'detachable' phase.
How will this work? I don't know, as I'm at the stage of wiring the switchboard, but I already appreciate being able to freely assign switches to lamps.

Tomasz Gumny - sounds interesting.
I understand that in addition to controlling the lighting you also plan to control the electrical sockets? I was wondering about the sensibility of such a solution, isn't it form over substance and ultimately a game not worth the candle?

Do you have any photos of the switchgear? Have you done any diagrams of this wiring? Is it possible to take a look?

siutek84 wrote:

I understand that in addition to controlling the lighting you also plan to control the electrical sockets?

Yes. I have used this in a few places so far, mainly to supplement the lighting.

siutek84 wrote:

Do you have any photo of the switchgear?

I don't have, but I will at the earliest opportunity.

siutek84 wrote:

Have you done any schematics of this wiring?

I'll do schematics when I'm done -for now too much is changing.

And I did it like this.
The living room, kitchen, dining room (basically one big space) plus passageways are controlled by a controller, so the cables to the lamps and switches go straight from the distribution board.
The rooms, bathrooms and boiler room are a standard installation with a twisted pair going straight to the switchboard in each of the switch boxes. For the future.
Lighting around the house also via a controller straight to the switchboard.
A lot of the sockets in the living room, kitchen and dining room have additional twisted-pair wiring in case I ever want to control them.
In the living room I also have extra sockets above the window sills in case I want to plug in lamps or other things. Twisted pair +3x1mm2
At each exit from the house (terrace, boiler room, main entrance) there is a box with extra twisted-pair cable because I plan to install panels with information about what's on and a few buttons to control outdoor lighting and macros.
The main controller is an arduino mega. The raspberry is used for visualisation and control from the world. Completely independent.
The main controller is basically just the CPU. Via RS485 it communicates with a 6x8 relay module controlled by an atmege64.
The inputs from the pushbuttons enter another atmega via galvanic separation and reach the CPU via 485.
There are 9x8 inputs. In total, there is not much lighting, but the controller additionally processes signals to control the blinds and reads the states of the limit switches in the windows.
The 230V side has additional 4 section relays in the event of a controller failure (which has not happened yet).
The coils of these emergency relays are at 230V. This gives the possibility to control all the blinds (or in a group of 4 because the relays are 4 field) from anywhere in the house but the button has to be held for as long as I want the blinds to go.
For the 10 blinds I have in the house I used 4 relays (it's just that two of them are only controlled from the controller and there is no way to control them if it fails - the garage and the pantry), the cost of which is about £40.
I used a similar solution for the lighting.
Here, too, I used 4 4-field relays with a 230V coil.
I organised the lighting into 4 emergency groups which can be switched by these relays.
Needless to say, control switches can be placed not only in the switchboard (by the way, an electrician will know how a manual control button works in a relay) but also, for example, behind a painting in the hallway.
In the living room, I have a sensor for the RC5 remote control connected to the CPU. The ability to control everything from a simple remote control is just amazing. No complicated apps on the phone, no scrolling through the screen looking for the function I need. I just press a button and it works....
In fact I started Raspberry so that my mates don't laugh at me for not being able to control it from a tablet:-) Personally I'm a fan of retro electronics, LED panels and text lcd's have something of the magic about them
PS.
Don't forget the twist in the kitchen for the big white goods.
If this amuses you then check out the latest offering from Amica for example.

ditomek wrote:

Don't forget the twist in the kitchen for large white goods.
If this amuses you then check out the latest offering from Amica for example.

It doesn't make me laugh in any way, while it is still a song of the future (getting closer), unfortunately everything is moving in this direction. Unfortunately because, on the one hand, it's supposed to make our lives easier, but on the other hand, any minute now Google will even know what's in my fridge and when I last fried a pizza in the oven (that's from the more lax information)

siutek84 wrote:

Do you have any photo of the switchgear?

This is what it looks like now:
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Crooked because the photo was taken from the opposite wall without a screen preview.

it looks like the control room of a small office building not a detached house

It's a small house.
As for white goods, with a fridge it would be more useful to be able to connect water and possibly sewerage, rather than the mains.