Second house with smart home

Good evening everyone,

We built our first house in 1994, and back then Smarthome or Eurobus were not an option due to costs.
Now the old place is much too big for us, and we are building a small bungalow again.

I would like to automate/integrate the following.
Roller shutter control
Outdoor cameras
Music in all rooms
Motion detectors in the garage, vestibule, utility room
Photovoltaics + storage
Air heat pump
Air conditioning systems

Apart from HomematicIP from acquaintances, I do not know of any such systems.
There is way too much information on the internet to evaluate them as a layperson.

I hope you can help me or at least point me in a direction.

Best regards
Armany Corrupty

The question is always how deep you want to get into it. A few years ago, I had to deal with this in the context of a photovoltaic battery storage solution.

For "tinkerers" and hobbyists incomplete
1. open source: openHAB is very "powerful" and for people who want to dive deep
2. open source: Home Assistant is somewhat easier to handle, questions and answers come quickly from the active community.
3. open source: Domoticz is for Raspberry Pi fans.
4. Commercial solution for people with data privacy concerns and high own knowledge is Hubital Elevation.
plus tools like
1. ioBroker for visualization
2. Tasmota to reflash microcontrollers

Those who only want to configure and not program look for one of the usual suspects and check the features of Fritz!, Somfy, Loxone, Crestron, various KNX (Gira, Jung, ABB, Hager...) etc., Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa... and the like.

In private houses, automation is in my view primarily a hobby with individually assessed comfort gain and questionable amortization. In commercially used buildings, a significant economic factor.

Thank you wiltshire,
I will take a look at Home Assistent then.

Best regards
Armany

We are also building a small bungalow and I will also get into smart home myself. Since there are only considerations so far, we don't even have a foundation slab yet, I am not a pro either. But maybe I can share a few thoughts on it.

I plan:
Shutter control with weather station and presence detectors. If presence is still detected in bed, the bedroom shutter should remain closed. When I get up in the morning and my wife stays in bed, the shutters in the bedroom and bathroom should remain closed.
Lighting integrated with presence detectors in almost all rooms. If I go to the kitchen or toilet at night, certain lights should turn on dimmed. Presence detectors with zones. We have desks in the living room. When I sit at my desk, certain lights should turn on. The same with the dining table, sofa area, etc. When I leave, they should turn off again with a delay. Shutters should partially shade during summer when it's very hot. Possibly, if the handle of the terrace door is not closed, one shutter should stay open to avoid locking myself out. When I enter the shower area, certain lights should turn on along with an infrared heater placed in front of the shower.
All lights should be dimmable so that the switching on/off is not too abrupt. They should brighten up or go out slowly.
It is still questionable whether the presence detectors work well, it seems to require a lot of adjustments and tinkering, but I will definitely try.

I see little point in a heat pump with underfloor heating. As far as I know, it should be set once and never touched again.

You are also somewhat limited depending on the construction company you choose. For example, I had to plan certain lights in advance with 5 wires and partially plan transformers with DIY solutions because we didn’t want a suspended ceiling.

I will install everything step by step. If you don’t want to do it yourself, you have to see what is offered to you. Usually not cheap. I will also do it "only" with Shellys and work with Home Assistant and a mini PC.

Smart home is all nice and good, but it’s a lot of tinkering and depending on the implementation questionable whether it will work out as intended in the end. And a lot of planning is needed if money matters.

Oh yes, remember access points.

Recently, during our sample selection, I talked with a builder for whom electricity is completely irrelevant; he only has the standard package with a few network sockets that he doesn’t use.

Hello Bierwächter,

that sounds quite complicated with the presence detectors, especially in the bedroom when the wife is still sleeping.
I have thought about it in advance, we do not have a developer yet.
We are still looking into that.

Let's see where the journey takes us.

Best regards, Armany

especially in the bedroom, when the woman is still sleeping.

It is said that the Steinel True Presence has excellent performance for such cases. Detects micro-breathing movements.