We are planning our smart home in the single-family house

Food does not spoil if the refrigerator breaks down and you are not home for 4 hours. Or do you immediately order a new refrigerator by express from the office if the temperature gets too high? Maybe someone simply didn’t close the door properly...

Light by voice... Nice gimmick...

But SmartHome is something else. A SmartHome controls the light by itself, depending on PMs and BMs, on brightness and time... No voice control is needed for that.
An employee whom I constantly have to announce every step to does not help. He has to do his work independently.

There is no need to have different opinions about underfloor heating. The time constant is far too large to intervene via SmsrtHome and act on an hourly basis. It is physics; physics knows no opinions.

RotorMotor has school off again tomorrow :D

How do you automate the whole thing now? The easiest way is a humidity sensor that quickly detects the increase in moisture caused by showering. In KNX, I then link the humidity value as simple logic with the heating actuator: If “humidity higher than x%” then “ y set to z degrees.” Internally, the heating actuator then always receives the command from the logic module to turn up the heating in the bathroom when the humidity is high. If you want to turn it off again, you build a second logic for a moisture value below a certain threshold. The sensors in KNX can either be queried cyclically or they only send actively when the state changes.

No, it won’t be that simple. In winter, the humidity in the bathroom will fluctuate between 35 and 55%, depending on the weather outside and moisture input from showering. In summer, on the other hand, expect it to be around 50-75%, but of course, the radiator should not turn on then... So what now? You have to program it specific to the heating season, and during transitional periods there will still be cases where it doesn’t fit.

Attach sensors to the hot water pipe of the shower and the bathtub, done. This is not a theoretical solution but has been done multiple times like this. If someone showers extremely cold and the water hardly differs from room temperature, a small flow sensor is added.

I will not comment further on the rest, you are all just going in circles.

I just wanted to quickly address a few points that got a bit lost in the ERR discussion. Ultimately, with such a "hobby," a lot is also a matter of taste, but from my perspective, there are many things that are a lot of fun/make a lot of sense and things that are not much fun for what they cost.

(1) Starting with very simple functions like automatic light on/off with presence detection for 6 rooms (WC, utility room, storage room, hallway upstairs and downstairs, staircase)

Why only six rooms? We have it in every room, and that is also among the things I wouldn’t do differently. Costs are low if you consistently omit switches, and the benefit is really high.

Especially hallways, kitchen, bedroom, dressing room, bathroom make a lot of sense in our daily life. It doesn’t work perfectly in the offices, but there are switches there as well.

(3) In the entire upper floor (6 rooms) a night light should come on at night upon movement (going to the toilet)

Most PMs can do that directly. Basically, it is important to plan lights everywhere at the right places.

(4) All blinds (16x) should be individually controllable (based on time or sun position)

Are you sure they will be blinds? Before I invest 50k in a smart home, I would definitely upgrade from blinds to venetian blinds! The comfort gain is much greater.

And with venetian blinds, you can nicely do slat adjustment based on sun position, temperature, etc. One of the best features in a smart home.

(5) All windows/doors (17x) with tilt sensors to detect open windows, e.g., warning in case of rain, warning when leaving the house, simple alarm system

Also think carefully again about which states you want. We have closed, tilted, and open based on the handle position.

That’s quite nice, but also quite expensive. For most things, a simple sensor would have sufficed. We only use the tilted state to put the venetian blinds into a "ventilation position."

(6) Front door with electric lock and video doorbell

Lock is also quite expensive; an opener is often enough. I find a video doorbell unnecessary and expensive for a single-family house, but that’s certainly also a matter of taste.

(7) Underfloor heating digitally controllable per room

As I have explained extensively, a very clear yes! It costs very little and enables much more flexible use, setting, and monitoring.

(8) Simple automations outdoors for lights (motion sensors) as well as cameras

With KNX outdoors, I am always a bit skeptical (KNX secure not yet advanced enough) and have kept it minimal in our system. For cameras, plan exactly where they should go and prepare the network accordingly. I then had to work with surface-mounted boxes to get the network cables in. Maybe that could be improved. ;-)

(9) We want to avoid switches wherever possible; we prefer voice control or ideally no interaction at all (automated)

Very good. Saves money, looks good, and is truly smart. But it really requires good planning.

(1) Hot water + circulation only at certain times or when someone is home (is it even financially worthwhile with efficient heat pumps?)

Yes, it is worth it. Otherwise, the water cools down fairly quickly.

(2) CO2 sensors, for example in the study, to control ventilation based on presence/absence (ventilation e.g. at max when I briefly go get coffee and the CO2 value is above X?)

We have them in some places. CO2 sensors are really very expensive. Therefore, I would just install a single one in the exhaust of the centralized controlled residential ventilation afterward and regulate with it.

(3) Networked fire alarms as an alarm system + to hear a fire alarm from the ground floor in the bedroom (?)

I have that; it was also rather expensive and especially a pain to wire. I probably wouldn’t do it again. ;-)

(4) Vacuum robot in the hallway that automatically starts when the house is entered or left (dirt in the hallway)

I implemented that with Valetudo. But it's actually independent of the smart home.

(5) Lawn mower that only runs in certain weather + when no one is in the garden

Robonect planned. But also independent.

(6) Automatic garden irrigation depending on predicted weather (cistern planned)

Also independent.

(7) Towel heater in the bathroom to switch on/off as needed (e.g., warm bathroom in the morning, warm towels right after showering)

Currently more or less the only application for switchable sockets in our house.

Much depends on the budget and possible DIY efforts. You really have to be careful not to add too much on top. Therefore, clearly prioritize what really makes sense and is fun!

Hi,

We have three potential children's rooms upstairs and have solved the topic of future communication like this: in each room there is a profile with an internal LED light strip as a finish between the ceiling and the wall. Various scenes (colors, as well as patterns like 'Northern Lights', 'Fire Department', etc.) can be played via KNX. We will use that. Scene 'Eating' is activated on the switch in the common room (we have this scene, for example, on several buttons), the kitchen lights dim, dining table lights turn on, Sonos speakers turn on, and the LED upstairs shows Aurora.

I actually find that a pretty cool gimmick. Whether it makes sense from communicative and educational perspectives to replace direct communication with light signals is probably another question.

Best regards,

Andreas

Hi,

I assume that you want warm towels after showering and therefore turn on the radiator manually before you step into the shower.

just a side question: What is it with all of you and these towel radiators? Why turn them on? Why even electric ones? A regular towel radiator is mounted on the wall, which is served by the normal heating circuit. Yes, due to the low flow temperature it only reaches about 30 degrees, but that's perfectly enough to warm and dry towels and provide a little extra heating.

Best regards,

Andreas