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The Homey Community has been moved to https://community.athom.com.
This forum is now read-only for archive purposes.
Moving to a new home - asking for inspiration
jprgomet
Member
Hi, good ppl of automation 
with this post (a bit long but not complicated) I ask for your comments and ideas.
Our new apartment will be finished in the beginning of December, and I already bought Homey
I would like to automate for comfort and savings.
We have (see plan attached, approx 13 x 10m.):
- entrance
- small WC with boiler, washer, and dryer
- then living room (part is also my work desk/space) dining and kitchen all like in one open space,
- balcony
- a small hallway to 3 rooms (bedroom, kids, study/guest) and bathroom
Heating will be done with Danfoss Link (which is LC13 + control panel solution by Danfoss) separated from Homey.
I am not 100% satisfied with this because it is a closed system. Maybe I will move to evohome, but for now, that is installed.
Cooling is AC unit with IR remote, that I plan to do something with it in the summer.
We will have electric window shutters so I guess I will buy (planned tomorrow) Fibaro roller shutter 2, it seems it works.
Wiring in apt has live+neutral.
Entrance - used many times a day, point of entering and exit
Hardware
- has one light switch (+one master switch that turns off all the lights in apt, that I will not use)
- has lights on the ceiling - thinking about dumb dimmable LED + zwave dimmer switch
- two doors in/out (apt door and living room door) - with door sensor (or maybe motion?)
- WC door (not important I guess)
Automation
- have a light on (since it does not have daylight) on doors open close (motion?) when entering from the living room, or when entering the apartment
- to install push button by the door, for the last man to press to set apt to "away" state (manual presence solution)
- if someones enter and the state is away, then start flow at home
- what else?
WC
Hardware
- boiler, washer, and dryer
- ceiling light, sink mirror light (switch on the mirror), ventilation fan
Automation
- to leave it dumb (or maybe a smart switch for ceiling light)
- maybe to get smart power plug for washer and dryer
- what else?
Living space (living room, dining, and kitchen)
- lights on the ceiling - dimmable dumb LED with a smart switch for ease of use
- LED RGBW strip in kitchen - dimmable
Automation
- no idea at the moment but to use lights as I like without automation, later maybe movie night scene, and dining scene, after I learn how I like lights to be on/off.
- any ideas?
Hallway and rooms I plan to go dumb at the moment, and for bathroom one zwave switch for the light and one for the ventilation fan, sink mirror has switch on it. Would like to have it turned on at 10% brightness during the night trips to the bathroom. And to automate fan to run for few minutes after leaving the bathroom. Any ideas here?
Window shutters - total 6
- Fibaro roller shutter 2
Automation
- will like them to roll up down on home/away state (depending on season)
- to roll down on rain
- to roll up in the morning/awake
- to roll down in the evening (November-March)
- keep them down in not used rooms
- summer no need to roll them down in the evening or in the living room for the night
- I have south but more west orientation so few hours in summer when sun is in the west I can roll them down
- any other ideas?
Other
I have one LIFX that I will like to blink RED on all errors
I will have Nest protect that will cover motion when entering living room, and I plan to connect it to LIFX to blink,
so if I watch a movie with headphones I don't get scared by wife or kids
All flows to send report to telegram when executed.
States: Away, Home, Sleep
So I guess base question is, what would you automate in an apartment like this.
Thank you!
P.S. we are on the 1st floor, so I will have to check can I connect garage under, which is two concrete/steel floor down.
with this post (a bit long but not complicated) I ask for your comments and ideas.Our new apartment will be finished in the beginning of December, and I already bought Homey
I would like to automate for comfort and savings.
We have (see plan attached, approx 13 x 10m.):
- entrance
- small WC with boiler, washer, and dryer
- then living room (part is also my work desk/space) dining and kitchen all like in one open space,
- balcony
- a small hallway to 3 rooms (bedroom, kids, study/guest) and bathroom
Heating will be done with Danfoss Link (which is LC13 + control panel solution by Danfoss) separated from Homey.
I am not 100% satisfied with this because it is a closed system. Maybe I will move to evohome, but for now, that is installed.
Cooling is AC unit with IR remote, that I plan to do something with it in the summer.
We will have electric window shutters so I guess I will buy (planned tomorrow) Fibaro roller shutter 2, it seems it works.
Wiring in apt has live+neutral.
Entrance - used many times a day, point of entering and exit
Hardware
- has one light switch (+one master switch that turns off all the lights in apt, that I will not use)
- has lights on the ceiling - thinking about dumb dimmable LED + zwave dimmer switch
- two doors in/out (apt door and living room door) - with door sensor (or maybe motion?)
- WC door (not important I guess)
Automation
- have a light on (since it does not have daylight) on doors open close (motion?) when entering from the living room, or when entering the apartment
- to install push button by the door, for the last man to press to set apt to "away" state (manual presence solution)
- if someones enter and the state is away, then start flow at home
- what else?
WC
Hardware
- boiler, washer, and dryer
- ceiling light, sink mirror light (switch on the mirror), ventilation fan
Automation
- to leave it dumb (or maybe a smart switch for ceiling light)
- maybe to get smart power plug for washer and dryer
- what else?
Living space (living room, dining, and kitchen)
- lights on the ceiling - dimmable dumb LED with a smart switch for ease of use
- LED RGBW strip in kitchen - dimmable
Automation
- no idea at the moment but to use lights as I like without automation, later maybe movie night scene, and dining scene, after I learn how I like lights to be on/off.
- any ideas?
Hallway and rooms I plan to go dumb at the moment, and for bathroom one zwave switch for the light and one for the ventilation fan, sink mirror has switch on it. Would like to have it turned on at 10% brightness during the night trips to the bathroom. And to automate fan to run for few minutes after leaving the bathroom. Any ideas here?
Window shutters - total 6
- Fibaro roller shutter 2
Automation
- will like them to roll up down on home/away state (depending on season)
- to roll down on rain
- to roll up in the morning/awake
- to roll down in the evening (November-March)
- keep them down in not used rooms
- summer no need to roll them down in the evening or in the living room for the night
- I have south but more west orientation so few hours in summer when sun is in the west I can roll them down
- any other ideas?
Other
I have one LIFX that I will like to blink RED on all errors
I will have Nest protect that will cover motion when entering living room, and I plan to connect it to LIFX to blink,
so if I watch a movie with headphones I don't get scared by wife or kids
All flows to send report to telegram when executed.
States: Away, Home, Sleep
So I guess base question is, what would you automate in an apartment like this.
Thank you!
P.S. we are on the 1st floor, so I will have to check can I connect garage under, which is two concrete/steel floor down.
Comments
I'm living in a rental appartment with my GF, which has a similar size/layout. Here are some things you might want to consider:
Hallway
Since there is only 1 entry/exit-way in this apartment, you can do something which works incredibly well for me. If you place a doorsensor on the front door, and motionsensors at most rooms, you can start a 'bee-in-the-box-model'. Simply put, if you open the door, you assume that everyone has left the house. If there is any sign of presence in the house, you assume that someone is home, and will remain home untill the door is opened again. For me, this does wonders in home presence detection - WiFi/GPS based is always finnicky. Note that this also removes the manual 'away' state.
Any sign of presence for us is:
- any movement detected from motion detectors
- talking to Homey/Alexa (linked to Homey)
- pressing any button connected to Homey
Motion detectors
Currently, all my rooms (except for the bathroom and livingroom) have their lights turning on on motion. The livingroom will have its lights turned on if someone is home (see above), awake, and if it's dark (45min before sunset to 45min after sunrise). In my opinion, the places I like the motion-based lights the most is the hallway, and toilet. You said that you wanted to keep those dumb, but you can automate both your hallways and the toilet with 3 NEO motion sensors and some IKEA bulbs.
The reason I like those the most is that they're 1) often used, and 2) always dark. This means that, without automation, you'd be pressing buttons every time you enter those spaces - why not automate it.
Overall lighting
I have automated lighting in my hallway, toilet, dressing room, and bedroom, based on motion. They are all at a lower brightness during night, which I highly recommend (for the nightly trips). I'm not sure about the bedtimes of you and your partner (?), but since I often go to bed later than my gf, I have set the light in the bedroom to be extremely dim after 22:30, to prevent my gf waking up from the lights if I go to bed, while still giving me some light so I don't hurt my shins.
For example, a good use case in my home:
When I open the door of my walk in closet, the Hue light goes on inside. When I close it, it goes off.
The same scheme does not work for any of the other rooms in my house. In the living room, I turn on the lights if it is dark enough (Hue + Fibaro Motion sensor). It does not go off again automaticly.
But for example, the bathroom and toilet... the toilet door is usually closed when someone is on. I don't know when the door opens, if it is because someone is done on the toilet and leaving, or entering the room. For the bathroom I always leave the door open when showering or when done showering.
I have a Hue motion detector that puts the lights in the hallway on at the lowest level between 23:00 en 9:00, and full brightness at all other moments when motion is detected. After two minutes I turn it off again. This is without Homey, by the way.
Other than that, I can see some great use cases for a Fibaro Motion sensor near your windows, to close the curtains when the light peaks (the sensor also measures luminance).
Entrance
Regarding entrance, we are four. Two kids in school, and wife and I. We don't have any fixed schedule, kids go to school (one week in the morning the other afternoon) at sports etc I come and go also as my wife. Even the weekend schedule is not predictable. Covering all possibilities for four of us, from my experience how we live, would be a lot of work. Having all that in mind I was thinking a foolproof solution will be a manual button. If I leave home, and others are sleeping it can switch to away by mistake. It's hard to be 100% sure no one is home when laying still watching TV or sleeping in front of it
Motion detection lights
I like what you say "The reason I like those the most is that they're 1) often used, and 2) always dark. This means that, without automation, you'd be pressing buttons every time you enter those spaces - why not automate it."
So I will think about the entrance, WC, bathroom to automate them with smart switches, IKEA (dumb led, or?) and motion detection. Hallway to the bathroom has some light through glass doors and will have some small 1W led light on the sidewall to see by the night. Is NEO working well with Homey, no false alarms or other problems? I see that reviews are good, and Aliexpress ship it to Croatia for 21 EUR/piece. It also has lux sensor to measure light?
Overall lighting
Don't know yet what kind of lights I will buy for living area, but they will be led and dimmable, smart alone or over a smart switch. I have outlet one in the living room, one over work desk, one over the dining table, strip in the kitchen + ceiling 2x. I guess I will use them somehow, and then automate that natural pattern of ours
Going dumb I meant in the bedroom, kids room, study/guest room. They are not used too much in/out 2 times a day, you sleep you go out. But will like to have them dimmable, so maybe they will end up with smart switch also. In the beginning, I do not plan to automate them. Is there a cheap way to have dumb light dimmable?
In general, I prefer switches over the smart bulb, while you have it under control always, no need to use other devices to turn them on/off. Unless I am 100% sure that motion sensor in the bathroom will work 100% of the time correctly and turn on and off the smart bulb which also will never drop connection
Yes, you are right! I thought about those scenarios also, to automate it to the maximum would be impossible
But I will start with what is fun, and makes me happy, later I will start to complicate things
I plan to automate light with motion (lux and time of day) in the entrance, wc, and bathroom, while those areas do not have natural light. Also some automation for ventilation fan in bathrom/wc.
Regarding window shutters, I plan to automate on weather, temperature, seasons, time of day.
The apartment is not finished yet, but it is almost ready. I also have Fibaro shutters delivered and if I want to I can install them while windows, shutters, electricity, flooring all that is done.
If I install (connect to wires) them now into the wall behind the switches do I need to have Homey ready, will they "ask" to be joined to network and to self-calibrate? or I can do the wiring now and later when I move in connect them to Homey and do all the setup? Or, is it better to connect them one by one?
Asking this cuz I got the feeling reading all around the forum it seems that the best is to have one by one wired and connected to Homey. (but I am a bit impatient)
I also got, all Fibaro
some of it I will test where I am now, in a rented apartment.
Thanks!
Other then that i use a motion sensor in the kitchen (open kitchen) where when its dark outside the lights are on but dimmed. When there is movement in the kitchen the lights go bright enough and back to dim after 2 min.
For outside/garden i used a doorsensor, when it's dark outside the lights in the garden go on. After 30 min it get a notification if i want them to turn off or not.
The hallway lights triggers on motion and a doorsensor on the frontdoor.
I am using NFC tags for the little one to turn on the TV with Teletubbies (old remote with no batteries and placed a NFC sticker inside the battery compartment)
I am using Alexa to turn on the TV, and switch to channels.
And using it when going to bed. Homey makes sure all the lights turn off after x minutes and locks the frontdoor.
I am sure most of the above wouldn't be usefull in your situation, but just sharing how my automation is setup.
Other devices, shutters and dimmers, I will connect when we move.
@swttt thanks for the reply I was thinking about that, especially to give voice confirmation for flows, like "It's 23h, do you want me to roll down the shutters?", but homey and voice are not good together at least in my case
Still did not decide what do to with lights in kitchen and whole living area (kitchen, living room, dining). I was thinking about scenes, turn them on/off manually. Having motion detector in a place with a lot of movement during the day, like the kitchen, would drain the battery fast. Maybe I can go Aeotec motion detector on USB power. But at the moment, I think lights will be hard to automate having in mind how hard is to predict our behavior, so I will go with scenes and change them with a wall switch or dedicated button. I didn't buy any lights, I don't know what kind I will have and how many. LED strip in the kitchen for sure, but in the living room, I don't know, same for the other rooms.
Motion detection I plan to have in "always dark" rooms, like entrance, bathroom. You need lights there every time so I plan to automate lights on/off, brighter or dimmed down depending on the time of the day, and ventilation fan on/off.
Thinking about Alexa or Google home. I like when one can say "Alexa" better than "OK, Google" sounds better to me, stupid detail, but I can not help it
Does not matter is your automation applicable to my scenario, it can give me an idea. So bring them on
Otherwise you would need a flow that triggers on certain words (set wake-up variable for example) then substract the time (7:00) and set the var.
I guess that substracting the time can't be done with built-in flows. Maybe with some app...in the worst case you will have to write your own
To be honest; I am still struggling with that one.... I have several usb powered Aeotec sensors 6's around my house and still find myself occasionally showering in the dark :-)
I have tried several flows with countdown timers, the App State Control, and the solution you suggest (basically letting the sensor do the switching via its own reset timer function).
The re-triggering is a tricky one. In my logs I can see that movement re-triggers the flows (and restart a timer), but still it sometimes fails on me.
In my hallway I have a sensor to switch on the light depending on Lux and movement. Also, the dim level varies depending on current lux value. That is pretty cool ;-)
To prevent this happening I have the following cards in the trigger and AND columns.
Does this help you?
I started with the presumption (without thinking) that I will do all of the automation on homey and zwave zigbee or whatever .. but now I am not sure .. I think heating is better with evohome or something similar specialized .. lights/switches/motion .. maybe is better to go with hue or some other "everything made in one factory hw+sw" solution .. homey (or other controllers) have their place but not sure should I insist on it .. or just to use most "usable" solution on the market for my purpose and needs .. like @jorden wrote ..
We need to buy lights.
My question is for entrance, toilet, and bathroom best to your knowledge should I
- go with zw motion sensor + zw switch + LED (this allows me to buy premade LED ceiling lights)
- go with zw motion sensor + smart LED (like IKEA, or do you recommend other bulbs?)
- go with hue like solution - hue motion hue lights hue switch (this mean lights without built-in LED)
I think hue is the most expensive solution, the cheapest is smart bulb without a switch but that could be a problem in daily usageCan I use small IKEA round dimmer to control on/off+dimming of light connected to homey (via zw switch or as smart bulb)? Thinking to use that on bathroom mirror light.
Other areas are not motion triggered. Will think about some more, switch or smart bulb.
Any recommendation on good RGBW led strip for the kitchen (zwave by Aeotec, or lifx or?)
Edit: New findings. I don't like Ikea 2700k bulbs (too yellow) I like 3200K on my LIFX. So I searched for light and it looks that Osram Tunable White is not a bad choice, its ZigBee and Homey has an app without hub. When going smart bulb maybe this would be a good choice. And also thinking if I buy lights that have normal E27 bulbs than maybe to try without switch/dimmer I can always add a switch in the wall socket.
What I like the most is that I can buy any LED strip, cut it to the length and fit the controller in.
Also this particular Fibaro RGBW controller has 4 analogue/digital inputs which if you want then you can use them in various ways.
I have one RGB strip plus a separate White only strip into one controller and two other RBGW strips on two other controllers, one of the RBGW strip is about 7m long.
That's what I like about Fibaro, get the controller and after that, shop and get what strip you want and what length you want of course presuming the maximum power is not greater than 144W. There are all sorts of types, high density of LED/metre, medium density/meter, low density and so on. Others call this low, medium and high intensity of light.
For example the controller I use for the two strips (RGB and White separate). The white strip is on top of the bed table and is warm white which I use for reading (nicely dimmed by the Fibaro RGBW controller white channel) and the RGB strip goes around the bed frame (under). So when I say "Homey, sexy time!" It turns red... well I use the Fibaro button for this as Homey does not always understands my voice commands. During the night, if I get up from the bed, with the aid of a motion sensor, the under the bed RGB strip turns on blue at the lowest possible level and helps me see around enough not to bump into things.
The power supply is dictated by the type of led strip. You just have to check with the strip manufacturer, it is usually given per meter, for example a 10W/meter strip which is usually the medium intensity strip, let's say you have 5m length = 50W at 12V that's about 4.2A, I would use worst case a minimum 6A power supply to avoid overheating and indeed that's a bit of a small brick size.
So it all depends of your needs.... BTY, on the example above, such a strip gives lots of light when full on.
I got my strips from here since the high quality and good advise of those people that run the joint: http://lightingmatters.com.au/wp/product-category/led-strip-light/
Of course this is an Australian store but for sure that you find similar strips in every corner of the world.
Never had problems with this and when u do u have problems with this, something is not set right in ur flows.
My countdown timers cannot reach 0 when movement is on.
There are several flows on the forums for the lightning part of flows with timers.
I am sure that the Aeotec z-wave LED strip will be supported in the future. Write your request on the Athom app store under Aeotec app. @TedTolboom are you aware of any future plans for this?
Living area (living room, and balcony).
Open always.
Close if away and rain.
Close if sleep and temp is below 10.
Close if away and temp is less then 10 or more than 20c.
If more than 20c close it 2h before sunset, while it's a west side.
Bedroom.
Open on awake.
Close at night.
If more than 20c close it 2h before sunset, while it's a west side.
Close it 3h after awake if temp less than 10 or more than 20.
Close if away and rain.
Kids room.
Open on awake.
Close at night.
If more than 20c close it 2h before sunset, while it's a west side.
Close it 3h after awake if temp less than 10 or more than 20.
If motion on and daylight, keep it open.
Close if away and rain.
Guest/playroom.
Open on awake.
Close at night.
Close it 3h after awake if temp less than 10.
If motion on and daylight, keep it open.
Close if away and rain.
The regular adapters don't fit and the LED strips I know do not have wires connected. So the question is, how did you do it organize wise? Did you simply mount all components under your bed or are all parts lying around the floor somehow?
Thanks for clearing this up.
In the living room behind the tv cabinet, I have anoter strip, this is only 2m long so I could go away by using a 3A power pack that plugs into the power point. Like this one: http://www.altronics.com.au/p/m8937b-powertran-12v-dc-3a-2.1mm-fixed-tip-positive-appliance-plugpack/
Then the same jiffy box which here is stuck with double sided tape behind the tv cabinet.
Thanks for clearing this up. I will have to mount all components to the underside/sideboard of the bed, since "Karel" our vacuum robot does his work also under the beds
My experience:
- best used on "hard floors" like tiles or wood.
- Used on rugs, almost unbelievable how much collected dust and dirt comes off; every time...
- Nice side effect on rugs, it get combed by the robot which looks great afterwards.
- Be neat about your cabling; the robot gets tangled up with loose cables. Its almost like a human, you would also trip over loose cables.
- The above also applies to socks lying around, little toys on the floor, etc.
- Use them daily, you will be astonished after several days how much dirt/junk the robot has pickt up.
- When used daily, your house never looks dirty. The robots score high on WAF, at least in my household
- They go places where no man has ever been before... ehh, that is a little too much star trek; e.g. under cupboards, under beds, all kind of small places when we normally "forget" to vacuum.
The robots are great, but not perfect:
- depending on the type of robot, dirt compiles in corners; you need a regular vacuum there.
- the robots do not climb stairs (yet!?) you will have to carry it to the 1st and 2nd floor yourself. Even better, if you like them; buy one extra for the other floors
Although the robots are normally much more silent then a standard vacuum, there is quite a difference in noise / DB between them. I have chosen for a relatively quite one (60DB). Then there is also the other option, leave the room/house when your robot friend is working
For me the robots are like a dishwasher, you get so used to them that once it does not work or has some defect, you feel almost lost... Beware, these things are addictive