Smart home consultation new construction wireless

I think I basically understand you! Nevertheless, when reading on this topic, I constantly come across names, terms, situations that are unfamiliar to me, even though I'm not exactly living under a rock. In the past, I was interested in such challenges and didn’t let go, today it already annoys me when I have to set up my new phone and I gladly hand it over. Times are a changin..... :D But because I am basically interested, I will also ask the electrician whether or what he can tell me about it and meanwhile read up a bit.

The risk is the same with the chimney builder or paver. They can have as many reviews as they want and as many orders. In the end, you might just get their Monday project.

That’s true, although I can usually tell quite quickly whether things are going wrong, with the many cables I rather get a rash just by looking. You must not forget that this is apparently a topic you are more deeply involved in. The function of a controlled residential ventilation system, for example, is more about internalizing than such a complex topic as KNX, especially because it offers so many possibilities. How should I sensibly design a single-family house like mine in terms of KNX? Which functions would at least be important as a standard and should be installed in a future-proof way? My electrician apparently offers KNX, how can I tell if he really knows it? The risk for me with this topic is significantly bigger because I have no insight whatsoever, I can practically only roll the dice or are there such plans available online as well? I fear these are dumb questions..... it’s just completely beyond my knowledge. The best would be some objective instructional videos for me.

My humble opinion on this is that it is just like with many things. Everyone has their priorities. Some have an isolated solution, we chose KNX, some have the 5 Series BMW, we have a Skoda, some have an Occhio lamp, others one from Ikea. With everything, you can say, I don’t need that, it’s too expensive, or the other way around, the things are worth the extra money. So what. In the end, probably everyone is right. At least from their own point of view.

It is like with any other trade. There are simply technical terms. Just like with the mason the capping stone and the trowel and with the roofer the purlin and the hip strip. Building automation is mistakenly considered trivial nowadays by both clients and electricians who have taken a course once. However, the topic is very complex and offers a lot of room for costly mistakes. The reading recommended to you is already very good and highly recommended.

How should I sensibly design a single-family house like mine regarding KNX? Which functions would at least be important as a standard and should be installed with future potential?

There is a simple formula. Connect as much as possible to the green cable and lay the same green cable to every corner and every place including all socket groups etc. The costs are manageable here (cable price approx. €0.3 per running meter) and the NYM cable has to go everywhere anyway, so why save on the green one? This way you already have a basic framework/skeleton where you can add or exchange devices or sensors even after years.

KNX shows its true strengths only when you connect everything together. Only lighting control and only shading remain just "only lighting and only shading." The rest still has to be operated manually and remembered, and honestly, then you might as well leave lighting and shading out.

Half-pregnant is somehow nonsense.

And only through the integration of all components and devices (or almost all) do possibilities and links arise that one would not even think of in a "manual house". It is like with the car or the smartphone.

A car can drive without problems without a camera/sensors at the front and the driver has everything in view, but with them, he also has a lane keeping assistant, the distance is automatically maintained, and in an emergency, the car brakes by itself and warns the following traffic participants.

It is the same with an intelligent building: the more you connect and provide the system with sensor data, the more benefit you usually get in the end. That means you can leave all the repetitive processes to the technology and focus on other things. It is almost irrelevant which system you use. KNX, however, has great advantages in all respects. It is mature and has high standards. What cannot be said about many, many others.

But to get to the sensible basic installation, I would definitely connect the following components:

[*]Lighting control indoor/outdoor
[*]Shading
[*]Sockets
[*]Heating
[*]Ventilation
[*]Air conditioning
[*]Presence detection
[*]Door and window contacts and locking sensors
[*]Smoke detectors
[*]Weather station
[*]Media control and scenarios

In a further expansion step, one could then consider the following:

[*]Meters and consumption
[*]Visualization
[*]Keyless access and automatic doors/gates
[*]Video surveillance
[*]Machine learning and adaptive algorithms
[*]Irrigation
[*]and of course integration of household devices such as lawn mower robot, washing machine, etc.

This list can be extended indefinitely and is by no means complete. As I already said before, every building is basically unique and tailored to the resident(s) like a bespoke suit, otherwise what alessandro describes happens. The human becomes a disruptive factor and the relationship between human and machine quickly ends. For this reason, "smart home packages" are more or less a contradiction in themselves. You cannot build an intelligent house by a fixed formula.

With the whole topic of HVAC, you always have to look at what makes sense. It is no use reinventing the wheel. Here it is always a case-by-case decision to what extent integration is possible/necessary.

When I built for the first time back then, I luckily learned to get an interior designer on my side. Often you know one, or somewhere in your environment there is one you can have make one or two rough initial designs for a reasonable price. ALL YOUR wishes and needs should then be included in them. The floor plan has to work for me; everything else is, in my opinion, junk. The implementation or the creative idea is something a trained interior designer has up their sleeve. Only then would I get hands-on myself and have the many small details exactly adapted to me (or do it myself). I am currently planning/building for old age as well and am doing it that way again. We draw and plan the whole time, but the basic idea comes from somewhere else, based on my wishes and necessities.

This statement can be transferred almost 1:1 to building automation. Just replace the job title roughly like this:

When I built for the first time back then, I luckily learned to get a system integrator on my side. Maybe you know one, or somewhere in your environment there is one you can have make one or two rough initial designs for a reasonable price. ALL YOUR wishes and needs should then be included in them. The implementation or the creative idea is something a trained system integrator has up their sleeve. Only then would I get hands-on myself and have the many small details exactly adapted to me (or do it myself). I am currently planning/building for old age as well and am doing it that way again. We draw and plan the whole time, but the basic idea comes from somewhere else, based on my wishes and necessities.

, where is "nearby" approximately? Maybe someone knows someone who knows...

Thank you for your effort, I can use that to make some basic considerations. As I said, I have or rather take enough time for detailed planning in our house, color, furniture, etc., even if in the end many things are implemented quite simply. However, I like to know the respective possibilities and I am happy about innovation, to then see if it can make sense for me. Of course, I don’t need it, just as most things are not needed, but we’ll see, in any case it’s interesting to deal with it once.....thanks again for the effort!!! Greater Dresden area....