Re: Advice for newbie

["rb_ziggy" <richard.boreham@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Penny, welcome to the list.  A few thoughts regarding your post...

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "denaria_email" <denaria@b...>
wrote:
> Copy of a posting I've made to uk.tech.home-automation - this place
> looks more animated.....
>
>
> We're (probably) going to buy a rather tired 1960's house and
> refurbishment offers the opportunity to go into home
> automation/networking in a big way.  I'm quite happy to run several
> miles of Cat5e (or possibly Cat6 - is it significantly better?)
round

We ran cat5e while building and, as others will note, should have run
more.  I'd be inclined now at a minimum to run two runs of 5e to each
power socket location and light switch. We did about half this, and
the extra work to go the full hog would have been relatively little.
The expensive part is the wall termination and you dont have to fit
these everywhere at the outset. (We have a number of locations where
we put in the wall back box and just plastered over - worth taking
pics if you do this!)

> the place but am somewhat mystified by X10.  Does it only work off
> signals sent round on the mains wiring or can I control it via the
> CatN?  I would much prefer the latter and, if it's possible, would
be
> grateful for software recommendations.
>
> I'm not particularly concerned about mood lighting, distributing AV
> etc, though I'll leave the wires in the right place for the family
to
> change my outlook ;-).

I think you'd be surprised the difference automated lighting can
make, especially if you are adding in several circuits into a room.
Don't discount it yet!  We use wired in X10 ('DIN rail') and it works
well - however, I'd now look at the CBUS system if I were doing it
>from

But I would love to have full control over
> the CH which will be underfloor throughout with a motorised valve
> for each room.  I am sure that it must be possible to control this
> via a "diary" so that I can instruct it on a day by day,
hour by
> hour basis the temperatures I want for each room - some are only
> used on alternate weekends, I don't like to get too cold at night,
> and it would be great to program in a frost protecting 10 degrees C
> for winter breaks at the time of booking.  Hooking it up to the
PIRs
> so that my occasionally insomniac husband needn't freeze in the wee
> small hours seems like a good idea too.

Hm, this is an area where I think the need for HA is perhaps
limited.  Certainly anyone using a radiator system can get great
benefits from CH HA.  However, we have UF (Downstairs it's buried in
the screed slab, upstairs it's attached under the standard chip
floor).  As you may know, UF really works more like a giant storage
heater.  As a consequence it's pretty unresponsive to "I'll switch it
up a couple of degrees because it's a bit chilly / I'm going to bed
later".  That may sound a concern but my experience of UF is that a)
you just don't get chilly - it's an incredibly even heat and (we
don't run a hot house) everyone comments on never being cold when
they stay.  We have had it for over two years and once we had found
the 'right' settings at the outset, have never changed it since.  (We
don't even switch it off in the Summer and have not yet even noticed
when it comes on in the Autumn.)

Just our experience, and having said this, the house is very well
insulated (above 2002 building reg standards) and we have a
ventilation system so we have no condensation and fresh air. Both
these aspects are worth thinking about too.  From my previous
experience of 1960's houses they tended to be (in original form) can
be badly insulated and suffered from condensation!

>
> Budget permitting I would like to get a hot tub - again it would be
> fun to program it to heat up for winter weekends when we're
expecting
> guests.
>

Yeup - it's on the list!

> I'm not expecting the group to solve all this (!) but would be
> delighted to learn of any useful sources of information.  "Smart
> Homes for Dummies" was fun but a bit too American.  It's been a
LONG
> time since Physics A level, and longer still since I last wielded a
> soldering iron, so installation is going to be a job for the
> professionals; if you know of any who are really good please don't
> keep them to yourselves!
>
> Penny



UK Home Automation Meet 2004 - BOOK NOW!
http://www.ukha2004.com

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
Post message: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subscribe:  ukha_d-subscribe@xxxxxxx
Unsubscribe:  ukha_d-unsubscribe@xxxxxxx
List owner:  ukha_d-owner@xxxxxxx