Trying to plan out a new build home in Middlesex

[RM C]

Hi guys

I've been looking at home automation for my new place and looked at zwave, zigbees, all with raspberry pi. There are some cool projects you can do with those. But I just like the loxone plc type system. Makes the whole think simple conceptually. I'm trying to plan out what I need to buy so any thoughts on this would be hugely appreciated.

We have 3 disconnected buildings, an annex/garage, the main house, and a small outhouse; all of which I'd like controlled in some fashion. The basics being the lights, but everything else eventually too.

For basics, this seems to be what I need to buy. This will give me the core setup in order to control everything down the line.

http://shop.loxone.com/enuk/miniserver.html 

http://shop.loxone.com/enuk/psu-24v-04a.html

http://shop.loxone.com/enuk/extension.html     

http://shop.loxone.com/enuk/relay-extension.html

http://shop.loxone.com/enuk/dimmer-extension.html

http://shop.loxone.com/enuk/dmx-extension.html

http://shop.loxone.com/enuk/rs485-extension.html

http://shop.loxone.com/enuk/ir-set.html

http://shop.loxone.com/enuk/modbus-meter-1-phase.html

Questions:

1. LED lighting - I want dimmable LEDs

http://shop.loxone.com/enuk/osram-led-spot.html

How should I tell the electrician to connect these up? Is it say 4 on a single circuit (240v) and then a wire to the dimmer extension.  I assume that means one circuit at a time is dimmable.

2. If I go with the LED strips for accent lighting, then I can just connect them in series back to the dmx extension. Does that mean each led is individually addressable or they only go on/off/dim together? I was thinking that I'd want some lights in each room but all controlled by one dmx extension, so does that mean a lot of wall chasing of wires?

3. On the walls I was thinking of a KNX switch http://www.mdt.de/EN_Glas_Push_Buttons_Smart.html which I saw on another post. If I have that, I just link it back via cat7 to the miniserver.

4. Tree - I was thinking a tree in each floor/building to minimize the cabling. Do I need tree specific products or any of the loxone sensors. I note that some of them only have 1 Ethernet port, so how do I serially link them? Or am I mistaken.

Anything else I should be thinking about before I kick off first fix? CCTV, voice control, arduino based 'toys' are all going to be added by me later, so planning now is good.

[Duncan]

i would suggest starting off with a lighting designer on an hourly rate for an hour or two to go through your plans and make sure the lighting you plan to have is sufficient, well designed and making the most of your new build

skimping on light design can spoil an otherwise great house, and it doesnt cost a lot - i usually allow 2 hours at around £150-£200 total to review a scheme

each area needs to have separate controls - i should think all your rgbw strips need to have separate controls for each separate area or room
led strips are generally constant voltage so are wired in parallel not in series

decide with the lighting designer how many lights would ideally be dimmable, then how many are the minimum to offer decent control - now you have to work out whether you can afford to use loxone dimmers for all these, or look at alternative methods such as the theben 8 channel knx dimmer, or dmx mains dimmers, or dc dmx downlights

then work out which extension you are going to need, and see if it delivers sufficient inputs for all the switches you think you are going to need

the knx glass switches are a great idea - they are elegant, compact and add inputs and temperature sensors without using up any loxone inputs, and have feedback leds which can give you status outputs such as whether heating is in boost mode, save on loxone outputs as well

personally i stay well away from Tree etc for a new build - tree will only work with tree products, and you have the luxury of putting sufficent wires anywhere you need, can hopefully anticipate some future demands, and can use open standards instead of proprietry ones such as ethernet, 1-wire, knx, dmx etc etc

once you have the core lighting sorted out, you can look at other functions eg heating control, intercom, multi-room audio/video - heating control essentially needs lots of switched/relay outputs for zones, pumps, zone valves, boiler trigger etc, and depending on the number of outputs it may be easier and cheaper to use dmx relays as additional outputs rather than more loxone extensions