Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Your Connected Home. What have you done / what do you ne 105Jun 24, 2017 10:40 am Building Services Engineer Renovating our 1960's modernist home in Brisbane https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=82091 Your Connected Home. What have you done / what do you need? 111Jun 24, 2017 2:48 pm sinbox @arcadelt, as JoBro and others have discussed in this thread before, Sonos still has a place in many homes. This is not a Sonos V/s AVR argument thread, but more about what options exist out there for Smart Homes. Everyone is free to choose what works for them. True. I've been in both places and have made my choice. This particular discussion started because of the use of the word "proper". I think the conclusion has been drawn that "proper" is in the eye of the beholder. sinbox Personally I think Sonos will have to show more innovation than what they have at the moment, else they will go the Blackberry way as Apple tends to do to the existing market with their Homepod announcement. Also true. Sonos users, including me, are rightly concerned about what Apple's entry into this arena will mean. At the moment Apple has no size options nor a surround or sub solution, but they could develop those in time. That said, the biggest issue for Sonos is actually AirPlay 2, rather than the hardware. Re: Your Connected Home. What have you done / what do you ne 113Jun 24, 2017 3:18 pm arcadelt Also true. Sonos users, including me, are rightly concerned about what Apple's entry into this arena will mean. At the moment Apple has no size options nor a surround or sub solution, but they could develop those in time. That said, the biggest issue for Sonos is actually AirPlay 2, rather the hardware. Yeah..,that's another consideration for Airplay compatibility. Airplay2 is a new standard with support for multi-room audio which was recently announced isn't it? Don't know if there is anyone supporting it yet. Hopefully it is just a firmware update on older devices Re: Your Connected Home. What have you done / what do you ne 114Jun 24, 2017 5:16 pm JoBro I was asked to post here by "Sinbox" about my current home and future home plans, because I'm currently renting, I'm limited to what I can and can't do, so here is are my lists of smarthome devices. Current Products
On Order
So with all of my current products, they are all using wifi, where as my fure products will be using a mix of Wired, Wireless 2.4 Ghz / 5 Ghz and Z-Wave. Depending on your wireless router / access point, you may start running into problems when you have over 32 devices per wireless radio, and most 802.11 IoT devices only use the 2.4 Ghz range, so if your not planning on installing a proper wireless solution then you may wanna look at the Netgear Orbi solution, as it can support 250 devices per radio. http://www.netgear.com.au/home/products/networking/orbi/ For people looking at installing a proper wireless solution into their house, then I highly recommend a Ubiquiti Networks Unifi solution. https://unifi-hd.ubnt.com/ If you gone this route, then you can create multiple VLANs and Wireless SSID's, which will allow you to seperate all your IoT gear onto they're own wireless networks restricting traffic from your normal network preventing any future IoT hack which might own any of your smart home devices and gaining access to your network Future House Build
In regards to multi-room audio, I'd stay away from Sonos and look more at the Yamaha MusicCast or Denon Heos range of products, as they support a wider range of streaming sources and devices, vs the closed system like Sonos, don't get me wrong Sonos make a great product and is easy to use, I just prefer a more open solution and as such decided to go with the Yamaha range of devices. I already have a Yamaha RX-A3060 and a Yamaha SRT-1500 along with Samsung Smart TV's which allow me to run the Plex Client which connects to my NAS running the Plex Server, streaming all my media over my home network and to my mobile devices when I'm out and about, depending on your Internet connections uplink speed. I also have a HDHomeRun Connect, which allows me to record to live TV to my NAS and stream to all my mobile devices, there is also an addon for my Plex server which allows me to stream live TV remotely, obviously this is null and void now that there is the Freeview FV app for Android and IOS, but all depends on your requirements i guess. As for security camera's I'd stay away from Duhua, HikVision or Foscam or in that fact any other cheap chinese branded cameras. http://thehackernews.com/2017/06/online-ip-camera-hacking.html If you can afford more expensive cameras, then look at Axis, Vivotek or GeoVision, also when looking at cameras, make sure they support the h265 codec vs the older h264 codec, as well as the resolution and frame rate. Cheaper camera's may support 720p or 1080p, but you'll notice that the frame rate drops down to like 12fps. So my requirements for cameras where to be 1080p with atleast 30fps if not 60fps using the h265 codec. For NAS's I would only recommend two brands:
Both of these NAS vendors have surviellance software solutions for recording and storing your camera footage, as well as mobile clients for accessing the cameras remotly. For anyone looking at future proofing their core network infrastruce Ubiquiti is planning on release a new range of products supporting 10G, which will fit perfectly for anyone with FTTP NBN. Ubiquiti reveal new products, bring 10G and high density client support to their products https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/778152-ubiquiti-reveal-new-products-bring-10g-and-high-density-client-support-to-their-products/ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Thanks for the writeup, clearly you've put a lot of thought into what you've done with your existing house and will be doing with your future house! A lot of it looks like overkill compared to what I think 95% of people would want in their home, but good on you if that's what's important to you! Happily it looks like at least some of what you've chosen is the same as what I'm going with, it's quite reassuring. It's great that there are now so many products out there, I just wish a lot more of them were supported in Australia but hopefully that will come down the track. Building a Kew 28 with Porter Davis Re: Your Connected Home. What have you done / what do you ne 115Jun 24, 2017 9:33 pm arcadelt We have planned a dedicated media/network cupboard, which will contain all hubs and routers and our printer. Other connected items, which must all be able to be controlled by our IOS devices (so-called internet of things) include: * smart thermostats * smart smoke/CO2 detectors * remote controlled blinds * remote controlled folding-arm awnings * smart lock * smart lighting * video streamer * multi-room wireless audio * watering controller I wanted to get smart fans too, but there are really only two available: Big *** Fans, which are ridiculously expensive, and a Bluetooth module called fanSync, which has too many limitations IMHO. I would have liked something to remotely report water tank levels, but have found nothing suitable yet (any advice gratefully accepted). The one I forgot until I heard an interesting discussion on Saturday Extra yesterday, was energy monitoring. I am now researching to see if there is a smart switch board or module that can be installed before it is too late (again, any advice gratefully accepted). Just curious if you found a power meter solution? In the current ancient miners cottage house we live in, we got a Saturn South power monitoring thing installed in our meter box (by Our Green Home). I can check real time power at any time on their website dashboard, costs (if I've defined a tariff), graphs of power use by hour/day/month/year, etc. I've also tinkered with the unit itself (an ESBox) and can have it send the data to a server of my choosing - I'm presently working on sending the data to a server at home and from there (via node-red) on to the Our Green Home service. Your Connected Home. What have you done / what do you need? 116Jun 25, 2017 8:18 am benhelps Just curious if you found a power meter solution? In the current ancient miners cottage house we live in, we got a Saturn South power monitoring thing installed in our meter box (by Our Green Home). I can check real time power at any time on their website dashboard, costs (if I've defined a tariff), graphs of power use by hour/day/month/year, etc. I've also tinkered with the unit itself (an ESBox) and can have it send the data to a server of my choosing - I'm presently working on sending the data to a server at home and from there (via node-red) on to the Our Green Home service. I have bought a monitoring kit from efergy (http://efergy.com/au/). It was reasonably inexpensive and it looks good from the marketing, but I have not installed it yet so do not not how well it performs. It seems to have main components similar to your Saturn South product, although the Saturn South units looks more like a professional item, whereas the efergy is clearly and add-on DIY product. I do wonder whether a Smart Meter solution as has been rolled out in VIC might be the best solution, but since NSW has not mandated these, I'm concerned that we might install something that was not compatible with what distributors might agree on if they are required to implement a statewide solution in the future. In truth, I've not looked into it further since I found the efergy system, but given the installation of a switchboard looks like a major undertaking and not one that is easily changeable I'll do that soon. I may even ring our power company to see if they have a preferred smart meter. Are you in Victoria and is the Saturn Smart part of the Government's program? Edit: I see that Our Green Home is a monitoring solution provider, so probably not Victoria. Does their service work well for you? Re: Your Connected Home. What have you done / what do you ne 117Jun 25, 2017 8:50 am arcadelt benhelps Just curious if you found a power meter solution? In the current ancient miners cottage house we live in, we got a Saturn South power monitoring thing installed in our meter box (by Our Green Home). I can check real time power at any time on their website dashboard, costs (if I've defined a tariff), graphs of power use by hour/day/month/year, etc. I've also tinkered with the unit itself (an ESBox) and can have it send the data to a server of my choosing - I'm presently working on sending the data to a server at home and from there (via node-red) on to the Our Green Home service. I have bought a monitoring kit from efergy (http://efergy.com/au/). It was reasonably inexpensive and it looks good from the marketing, but I have not installed it yet so do not not how well it performs. It seems to have main components similar to your Saturn South product, although the Saturn South units looks more like a professional item, whereas the efergy is clearly and add-on DIY product. I do wonder whether a Smart Meter solution as has been rolled out in VIC might be the best solution, but since NSW has not mandated these, I'm concerned that we might install something that was not compatible with what distributors might agree on if they are required to implement a statewide solution in the future. In truth, I've not looked into it further since I found the efergy system, but given the installation of a switchboard looks like a major undertaking and not one that is easily changeable I'll do that soon. I may even ring our power company to see if they have a preferred smart meter. Are you in Victoria and is the Saturn Smart part of the Government's program? I'm in NSW, but yeah I got the meter free as part of some qualifying household thing being offered. I don't know much about the "smart meters" being offered by any power companies, beyond that I'd heard that they sound much more integrated with power supply/able to control/change power stuff. Re: Your Connected Home. What have you done / what do you ne 118Jun 25, 2017 8:54 am arcadelt benhelps Just curious if you found a power meter solution? In the current ancient miners cottage house we live in, we got a Saturn South power monitoring thing installed in our meter box (by Our Green Home). I can check real time power at any time on their website dashboard, costs (if I've defined a tariff), graphs of power use by hour/day/month/year, etc. I've also tinkered with the unit itself (an ESBox) and can have it send the data to a server of my choosing - I'm presently working on sending the data to a server at home and from there (via node-red) on to the Our Green Home service. I have bought a monitoring kit from efergy (http://efergy.com/au/). It was reasonably inexpensive and it looks good from the marketing, but I have not installed it yet so do not not how well it performs. It seems to have main components similar to your Saturn South product, although the Saturn South units looks more like a professional item, whereas the efergy is clearly and add-on DIY product. I do wonder whether a Smart Meter solution as has been rolled out in VIC might be the best solution, but since NSW has not mandated these, I'm concerned that we might install something that was not compatible with what distributors might agree on if they are required to implement a statewide solution in the future. In truth, I've not looked into it further since I found the efergy system, but given the installation of a switchboard looks like a major undertaking and not one that is easily changeable I'll do that soon. I may even ring our power company to see if they have a preferred smart meter. Are you in Victoria and is the Saturn Smart part of the Government's program? Edit: I see that Our Green Home is a monitoring solution provider, so probably not Victoria. Does their service work well for you? I think if I were hunting an option for a new build, I'd be looking for things that monitor power from where it comes into the house, although I'd also want it to accurately monitor any offsets due to solar+battery on the house. Of course personally I'd also want it open and easily accessible so I could hook it into my own home automation (likely openHAB based) setup. The Saturn South is *possible* to hook into, but far from easy. Re: Your Connected Home. What have you done / what do you ne 119Jun 25, 2017 9:01 am arcadelt benhelps Just curious if you found a power meter solution? In the current ancient miners cottage house we live in, we got a Saturn South power monitoring thing installed in our meter box (by Our Green Home). I can check real time power at any time on their website dashboard, costs (if I've defined a tariff), graphs of power use by hour/day/month/year, etc. I've also tinkered with the unit itself (an ESBox) and can have it send the data to a server of my choosing - I'm presently working on sending the data to a server at home and from there (via node-red) on to the Our Green Home service. I have bought a monitoring kit from efergy (http://efergy.com/au/). It was reasonably inexpensive and it looks good from the marketing, but I have not installed it yet so do not not how well it performs. It seems to have main components similar to your Saturn South product, although the Saturn South units looks more like a professional item, whereas the efergy is clearly and add-on DIY product. I do wonder whether a Smart Meter solution as has been rolled out in VIC might be the best solution, but since NSW has not mandated these, I'm concerned that we might install something that was not compatible with what distributors might agree on if they are required to implement a statewide solution in the future. In truth, I've not looked into it further since I found the efergy system, but given the installation of a switchboard looks like a major undertaking and not one that is easily changeable I'll do that soon. I may even ring our power company to see if they have a preferred smart meter. Are you in Victoria and is the Saturn Smart part of the Government's program? Edit: I see that Our Green Home is a monitoring solution provider, so probably not Victoria. Does their service work well for you? As far as it goes Our Green Home (OGH) works well - it's rarely been down and provides a simple, pretty interface for querying power usage history and real time. I'd love it to provide open access to the data (via and API or even IFTTT) however they kind of feel like the whole offering was someone's brainchild a few years ago that has since been put into maintenance only on the shelf. The service works, but the forums are a ghost town, and support practically non-existent. However given the hardware is accessible to the technically inclined I'm hoping to design my own collection of their data (I'd like to have my home automation system trigger things based on power draw levels, infer when dumb devices are on/off based on power changes, etc) Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 39690 Hi All, I just wanted to close this topic out with an update. 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