Starting from Scratch... Recommendation please?

oakshade

Hi all,

I've been browsing this forum for some ideas and it has lots of useful suggestions. I'm pretty much starting from scratch and wondered if there is one single system / best system you can recommend. Some background info/requirements.

- I do have an Amazon Echo Show and a few dots
- I would like to automate some indoor and outdoor lights for security. I'm not sure if i should go for bulbs or automated switches? Some of my outside lights are spots.
- I would like to automate the heating controls. Right now I'd settle for water/upstairs/downstairs which is what i have on manual timers but ideally at some stage in the future I would love room by room control (expensive??).
- A bathroom extractor fan has been a huge issue for us. I saw some other posts about humidity sensors that can activate/deactivate the fan - that would be really helpful
- Our home alarm system (a HKC) no longer sends texts. Is it possible to make it smart too?
- I would like to add a doorbell camera and potentially some CCTV in the future.

Apologies for the long list and thank you in advance for your inputs.

Happy New Year!

bk

oakshade wrote: »

Hi all,

I've been browsing this forum for some ideas and it has lots of useful suggestions. I'm pretty much starting from scratch and wondered if there is one single system / best system you can recommend. Some background info/requirements.

oakshade wrote: »

- I do have an Amazon Echo Show and a few dots

Nice start, they will be useful for a HA setup.

oakshade wrote: »

- I would like to automate some indoor and outdoor lights for security. I'm not sure if i should go for bulbs or automated switches? Some of my outside lights are spots.

Personally I prefer smart bulbs to smart lights. Smart lights are more limited, only offering on/off (and maybe dimming, it depends), whereas bulbs offer that + definite dimming + white ambiance and even colour depending on the bulb tyou buy.

Smart switches are normally useful if you have a dozen lights or something like that off one switch, but if you are talking just one or two lights per switch, I feel the bulbs are more useful and more powerful.

In particular Philips Hue bulbs which as an ecosystem and in terms of options and integrations is simply excellent. Highly recommended.

oakshade wrote: »

- I would like to automate the heating controls. Right now I'd settle for water/upstairs/downstairs which is what i have on manual timers but ideally at some stage in the future I would love room by room control (expensive??).

Tado sounds like the best option for you. They support both multiple zones and hotwater, but also smart TRV's. So you could just get the two zone + hot water set up to start with and then add the TRV's later.

The other option is Evohome, though expensive, you'd need to get the TRV's up front. Worth checking out this deal from Electric Ireland and grants they have for it if interested:

https://shop.electricireland.ie/products/install-detail/honeywell

oakshade wrote: »

- Our home alarm system (a HKC) no longer sends texts. Is it possible to make it smart too?

You need to check which HKC panel you have. If it is a newer panel like the 1070, then you can add a wifi/gsm communicator to it and subscription to HKC's remote monitoring service for about €70 per year. Gives you an app to control the panel and receive notifications of an alarm.

HKC don't have much in the way of official, modern HA integration beyond this.

There are some unofficial options, such as Konnected Alarm and others, but they are trade offs with this. Look for other threads on this.

oakshade wrote: »

- I would like to add a doorbell camera and potentially some CCTV in the future.

Loads of options.

For doorbell cameras, Ring and Nest are the big ones, but lots of other cheaper Chinese options too.

CCTV, their are tons of options, Nest, Logitech Circle, Yi Cameras, Arlo, Blink and many other options I'm sure to have forgotten! They all have different trade offs in terms of price, subs, powered/battery, etc. So depends on your needs.

Happy New Year and welcome to the world of HA.

oakshade

Thank you, really appreciate the input.

eusap

I have a relay attached to my HKC system which I can switch on/off the heating remotely. (my heating wouldn't take Hive) I believe the functionality in the app can also be used for Open/Close electric gates/doors and also outdoor security lights etc...

spaceHopper

I've EPH controls for the heating, the app is a bit slow it works and is simple to use

NoeldeBournaix

oakshade wrote: »

- I would like to automate some indoor and outdoor lights for security. I'm not sure if i should go for bulbs or automated switches? Some of my outside lights are spots.

I have some GU10 Philips hue spotlights outside at the front of the house and they work fine.