Smart home consultation new construction wireless

For the purpose of planning the new construction, I am currently dealing with the smart home topic. Have you consulted with a locally appointed dealer (e.g., on the Fibaro website) regarding this? I am currently trying to navigate through the smart home jungle. A rough list of the desired items already exists. However, I wonder if a smart home central unit is always necessary or if the actuators can also be controlled individually via an app?

However, I wonder if you always need a SmartHome central unit

No, because that is a SPOF (Single Point of Failure) and these should be avoided if at all possible.

are the actuators also individually controllable via app?

This should also be avoided if at all possible, as it is not effective and usually leads to a dead end.

You should think a lot in advance about how and what you want to control. To what extent the house itself should think along and what should happen automatically without external intervention.

Then you look around to see with which solution the wishes can be realized best and easiest, and then you choose. Additionally, you check which system can map the top level of management/control and you control/monitor/operate everything through that, not through random apps.

In other words, think first and make a plan... then act and not the other way around.

Hello!

My entire house is basically controlled with Z-Z-Wave. As a dimmer, I can exclusively recommend the ones from Qubino, significantly better than the Fibaro parts, I have them as DIN dimmers directly on the DIN rail and sometimes as dimmers in the wall sockets. The biggest advantage of these dimmers is that they can dim cleanly and flicker-free starting from 1W power. The other dimmers cannot do that without a bypass. For the roller shutters, I have the Fibaros installed. Overall, well over 100 actuators and sensors from various manufacturers are installed with us. Everything runs smoothly.....

Hello KingSong,

I am also leaning towards Z-Z-Wave in my new build. So you are satisfied with it? If you have the dimmers on the DIN rail, how did you wire them then? I imagine the cable path to be quite long. Please correct me if I have a misunderstanding. Has it ever happened to you that a switch operation did not activate switching? That is the most common criticism of the wireless technology.

Thanks in advance.

Hello,

unfortunately, I cannot tell you how the dimmers are wired on the DIN rail, the electrician did that. Regarding the switches, I would like to ask you a counter question:

What do you think could cause the switching not to occur after activation, when the switch or switches are directly connected to the respective actuator by cable? Communication to the SmartHome central unit only runs via radio. However, this is not necessary for the actual switching function, meaning even if I completely disconnect the central unit from the power supply, the switches and dimmers still continue to work via the buttons.

Hello, unfortunately I can't tell you how the dimmers are wired on the DIN rail, the electrician did that. Regarding the switches, I would like to ask you a counter question: What do you think could cause the switching not to occur after pressing, when the switch or switches are connected directly to the respective actuator by cable? The radio communication only runs to the SmartHome central unit. However, this is not necessary for the actual switching function, meaning that even if I completely disconnect the central unit from the network, the switches and dimmers still continue to work via the push buttons.

You are right; I formulated the question incorrectly. Put differently: Does the signal in the app/visualization always toggle correctly every time I operate the switch? Does the actuator switch correctly every time I send a command via the app?

What I have also been wondering the whole time: If I switch on the light at the switch (light shining at 100% brightness), then dim it down to 50% brightness using the dimmer, and say, after 20 minutes, turn off the light. What happens when the light is turned on again by the switch? Does the lamp start at 50% (last setting) or again at 100% brightness?

Thanks in advance.

You can of course determine the brightness yourself when pressing the button. So either the previous state is restored (that's how I operate it) or entirely according to your preference on the scale from 1-99%. My actuators for the light, for example, also have a double function; if the light is dimmed to, say, 30% and I want 100%, I just need to press the respective button twice quickly in a row and it switches to 100% without the light going off in between.

So far, I haven't had a single problem with any actuator triggering cleanly or the respective state being displayed.