Hello everyone,
We are currently in the middle of our new build and will shortly be starting first fix. I have put quite a bit of thought into what we want to achieve from any home automation since we embarked on the project in October 2007. At one stage I was very keen to use kit from another UK supplier, but for a number of reasons have now gone away from this - I was pleased to come across Idratek fairly recently, and this seems to fit most of our needs.
I have decided to use individual zone programmable controls for the underfloor heating and hot water (fed by a combination of solar panels and gas boiler), but hope to provide high-level management of the system by coupling into the RS-485 network used by the Heatmiser controls.
Similarly we will initially be using the standard (supplied) controls for the heat recovery ventilation system, which incorporates brine-to-air cooling. Again, the ventilation system controls use an RS-485 network, while the brine system itself uses simple volt-free contacts.
My plan is to initially use standard switching and wiring (to keep things simple for the trades) and over time use Idratek modules with Cortex to overlay more complex supervisory control schemes. This is partly because I have a background in control engineering, but also because where we will be living we can apparently experience fairly frequent mains electricity outages.
I plan to run in fairly copious amounts of Cat5e, and may well install some Idratek wall units from day one.
For the lighting I would like to retain standard switches, but have a centrally controlled override so that we can give the appearance of occupancy for security. There should also be a failsafe way of operating the lighting in the event of a failure of the control system.
I have come up with the scheme in the attached file for wiring the lighting.
Relay 1 enables/disables the wall switches (failsafe is switches enabled), with Relay 2 switching the lighting on and off.
The idea would be for the electricians to wire the wall switching in the standard way, but with cabling from the switches and the light fittings taken back to a central point where the relays would be installed. Although the initial plan is for only some of the lights to be centrally controlled, most if not all of the ciruits would be wired this way for future expansion.
We don't see the need for much dimming of lights - we are instead looking at having multiple circuits and different types of lighting (ceiling, wall, lamps) in those rooms that might need varying levels. Many of the light fittings that we plan to use are non-dimmable anyway.
Can anyone see a major flaw in this idea?
Thanks in advance,
Martin
We are currently in the middle of our new build and will shortly be starting first fix. I have put quite a bit of thought into what we want to achieve from any home automation since we embarked on the project in October 2007. At one stage I was very keen to use kit from another UK supplier, but for a number of reasons have now gone away from this - I was pleased to come across Idratek fairly recently, and this seems to fit most of our needs.
I have decided to use individual zone programmable controls for the underfloor heating and hot water (fed by a combination of solar panels and gas boiler), but hope to provide high-level management of the system by coupling into the RS-485 network used by the Heatmiser controls.
Similarly we will initially be using the standard (supplied) controls for the heat recovery ventilation system, which incorporates brine-to-air cooling. Again, the ventilation system controls use an RS-485 network, while the brine system itself uses simple volt-free contacts.
My plan is to initially use standard switching and wiring (to keep things simple for the trades) and over time use Idratek modules with Cortex to overlay more complex supervisory control schemes. This is partly because I have a background in control engineering, but also because where we will be living we can apparently experience fairly frequent mains electricity outages.
I plan to run in fairly copious amounts of Cat5e, and may well install some Idratek wall units from day one.
For the lighting I would like to retain standard switches, but have a centrally controlled override so that we can give the appearance of occupancy for security. There should also be a failsafe way of operating the lighting in the event of a failure of the control system.
I have come up with the scheme in the attached file for wiring the lighting.
Relay 1 enables/disables the wall switches (failsafe is switches enabled), with Relay 2 switching the lighting on and off.
The idea would be for the electricians to wire the wall switching in the standard way, but with cabling from the switches and the light fittings taken back to a central point where the relays would be installed. Although the initial plan is for only some of the lights to be centrally controlled, most if not all of the ciruits would be wired this way for future expansion.
We don't see the need for much dimming of lights - we are instead looking at having multiple circuits and different types of lighting (ceiling, wall, lamps) in those rooms that might need varying levels. Many of the light fittings that we plan to use are non-dimmable anyway.
Can anyone see a major flaw in this idea?
Thanks in advance,
Martin
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