New house - blank sheet

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  • redw0001
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Oct 2004
    • 20

    New house - blank sheet

    Been a while since I posted. I'm moving soon, to a 'modern house' which does not have any 'advanced features'. The house is actually a bungalow so now is the time to start planning what to include to meet our needs for the future. By modern I mean around 1980. I'd welcome any opinions people have or suggestions on what to look at.

    My current thinking is:
    1: Heating control: I've used Heatmiser in the past (and in fact wrote a review when it was first released). I still like it, however, I really want to move to each room having it's own zone which would be a lot of work as they don't have a TRV. I'll need to add eight motorised valves and a load of repiping. So, I've had a look at Evohome, it looks good and being TRV based is easier for me to implement even if I swap all the TRVs for new ones into the bargain. Prices for the two systems seem to be close enough not to worry. Decision: Evohome (18/12/16)

    2: Hoping to go down the road of solar panels during next year so I've watched Mark's review and picked some names up from two other people I know who deployed about three years ago. So, need something that can integrate monitoring.

    3: Audio distribution. Currently using Squeezeboxes and LMS running on a Raspberry Pi 2B, all media ripped as FLACs. Probably, won't change this in the early stages but as I have Plex (with a dlna server in it) definite options for the future. Seems to be plenty of power in the little RPi 2B for my needs despite it running Plex, LMS, Owncloud (shared contacts, calendar and automated backup of PCs).

    4: Control of other devices, timed or not, leads me to an HA controller. I can use a RPi or other alternatives (I also have a Zipato Zipabox). Current thinking: Domoticz on RPi. (18/12/16)

    5: I'd like to try to integrate it all as much as possible, with as much management/control in house. There seems to be a drive to use cloud services these days, not keen on having my key elements managed on a server I cannot control (eg: Heatmiser, Zipato etc), however if that is the only choice will go to it. Current thinking: Domoticz on RPi. (18/12/16)

    6: Planning on mix of CAT5 and wifi. CAT5 between router, GbE switch and maybe one termination per room. Wifi for printer, end devices, visitors, iMac and DPF.

    7: End devices for management are iPhone and iPad.

    8: PCs run Arch linux, RPis run Arch Linux, Imac dual boots between OSX and Arch Linux.

    9: Security integration - not thought it through yet. Place has an alarm but my assumption is that I will need to update it. (Added this extra bit)
    Last edited by redw0001; 18 December 2016, 08:08 PM. Reason: update with new info
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