Greetings and first question about lighting

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  • xoom
    Automated Home Lurker
    • Aug 2015
    • 2

    Greetings and first question about lighting

    Hello!

    New user joining the fold.
    I am in the UK and currently waiting the launch of the Smartthings V2 although may decide to go Indigo.
    I have been reading this forum for a few weeks so decided I better join up

    The wife and I are moving into a new place in the next couple of months and I am starting from scratch my entire home network.

    I have a big list of things I want to do with my HA system but the first thing I want to do is the lighting.
    So for my first question. For my needs what is going to be best as lighting is my primary use.
    The house we have bought is reasonably large and the entire ground floor runs on GU10s bar a couple of other types of lamps.
    I visited the house recently and counted 16 GU10s in the kitchen, 10 in the lounge and another 6-10 in other places (hall way, WC etc).
    That's around 36 GU10s on the ground floor alone. There are more elsewhere.

    What is the best solution for a house with this many lights? I note the Hue system is limited to 50 units. Is there any way to group say the 16 units in the kitchen as 1 unit?
    Bearing in mind once I have added outside lights, lamps, hall ways etc I may be well over 50?

    Lastly, what is the best solution cost wise to buy this number of lights? Given the cost in the UK I am looking at £1500 in bulbs...

    Anyway, that's it. Nice to see you all and hope I can get my system in and running before the end of the year
  • PhilF
    Automated Home Lurker
    • Feb 2015
    • 3

    #2
    The way I have approached my lighting is to fit fibaro z-wave modules in behind the light switches as this was mainly a retro fit rather than chasing out walls. That way I have the same span of control as the switch so if it controls 8 lights in my kitchen then so too does my module. Also the benefit to this is you retain local control in the event your main controller dies or goes offline. You can dim the lamps too, even LED ones if you ensure to buy dimmable ones and also pay attention to the fact you need a certain load on the module. You can buy a dimmer bypass to meet the loading requirements if you need to. I didn't replace all the GU10s that were installed with LEDs at first to save the huge outlay, but have gradually done so.

    If you are chasing out walls and planning a large install you may want to consider pulling wires back to a node 0 and hard wiring radial circuits etc. That way you are open to using many different systems that are mounted in distribution boards and control panels rather than in back boxes behind switches. Saying that though my z-wave stuff is running well for 2 years now.

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    • xoom
      Automated Home Lurker
      • Aug 2015
      • 2

      #3
      Thanks that sounds like a good solution. If I could control the GU10s via one module that would be a very nice solution. I can then use HUE for the table lamps etc.
      The house is 10 years old and one concern I had was that the HUE bulbs would not fit in the current GU10 sockets as I read lots of stories online about them not fitting. If I can control from one point that's going to kill 2 birds with one stone and as you say I can look at going LED once its all up and running at my leisure. Thanks for the reply!

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