Replacing old house electric (mains) installation, lets make it smart??

[AlexDavidson]

About 15 years ago I set off down a similar path to the OP. This was in a new house, so it was relatively easy to install all the wiring. I went with C-Bus, as that was (and probably still is) about the only choice here in Australia. The mains wiring was all home run back to a control room in the centre of the house, along with several Cat5+ cables to each room. It took me several months to label and terminate...

A few thoughts:

1. While it is easy enough to set up a system to demonstrate the basics of home automation, achieving reliable operation over many years isn’t easy. Murphy’s law rears it’s ugly head often. If something can go wrong, it will. I think that’s one of the reasons why it hasn’t really caught on.

2. With CBus at least, the system is essentially dumb. To achieve anything beyond simple reassignment of switches to loads you need some sort of control system, and that’s where it starts to get complicated. Not only because whatever system you choose may become obsolete, but also because once you connect up devices that can behave unexpectedly, the unexpected happens. You don’t really want to spend half an hour every time there is a power failure or lightning nearby, trying to figure out why those 300 switches, sensors, and loads have a mind of their own.
In my case I started out with a box called Minder, but because that is now obsolete I ended up developing my own software & hardware to replace & augment the original CBus system. At least with my own system I am not reliant on others to maintain, but it’s not something I would recommend unless you have thousands of hours available.

3. If possible, avoid shared neutrals. It can make rewiring really difficult, e.g. if you want to reassign a load from a dimmer to a relay. Consider running one or 2 spare cables to each zone.

4. Don’t skimp on network cabling. I ran 3-5 Cat5+ cables to each room plus a couple of coax cables, but in some cases even that hasn’t really been enough.

[SeanB]

I will also add please label each and every cable, and have a diagram in the central hub area with a plan view of the house, and with each room labelled, and then a separate page for each room, giving a scale drawing of the room, the outlet location on the plan, and with that cable numbers for both ends. Do this for both power cabling and network cabling, and I will also second pulling 3 cables for each low voltage conduit, along with also putting a draw wire ( thick fishing line will do) in each line along with the cabling, so you can pull through additional ones later.  As well when making bends use a large radius bend on every one, and if not put a large joint box ( marked on the diagram as well with the cables running in it) in a strategic location to draw through.

Put  few extra conduits into the roof or floor crawl space as well from your master hub area, that way you can always put in extra conduit when doing something like an extension, or adding exterior cameras or lighting later. If you have a largish garden and are planning to put up a shed or something later these will be invaluable, and if doing the conduit to there use a larger size conduit, preferably a 50mm PVC pipe or two with temporary caps on it for construction, buried the appropriate distance underground as well.

You might want to also add a conduit pair to the gate area, in case later you want either electric automated gates, an intercom or just a camera there. I will also add that many small surveillance cameras will work well off Cat5/6 cable, just using a balun to get the video back, and the other 3 pairs to provide the power to the camera. Even works with those with built in IR illumination as well. Just put a grounding rod down by the camera, and bond the camera ground along with the case to it, to survive close lightning strikes. It does work.

[onesixright]

Thank you all for the comments and advice, much appreciated! Made a note on labeling, documenting (conduits, etc.)  thats of course extremely important (if you don't wanna get lost in a maze of wires). COAX and CAT/5E/6 was already the list already 

If i would choose the star topology and would like to measure each outlet. Would a ACS172 be good enough to measure for each socket? Any other sensor that comes to mind? Although overkill, I do want to measure per socket (and not per group). The main reason is that for the near future, i wanna move (i know ambitious and idealistic) to 100% solar power. And i wish to be able to see at any point, exactly what draws power and how much.

A few other questions:

About 15 years ago I set off down a similar path to the OP. This was in a new house, so it was relatively easy to install all the wiring. I went with C-Bus, as that was (and probably still is) about the only choice here in Australia.

Would you like to share how did you use  the C-Bus? Can I just pull in a (shielded?) 4 wire for each c-bus (sensor/switch)? since the switches needs to be powered? 5V for a C-Bus switch (20x2 meters, has a bit of voltage drop....).

* Do not run low-voltage control wiring for power control. Power control is a low-bandwidth activity and PLC or wireless works well and this is the direction of history.

I not sure if i follow you. How would you then power low voltage sensors and switches (like C-Bus) ? Could you elaborate?

I don't really understand the need for the general consumer to have "home automation", if I want to turn my lamp on, I get up and turn it on, I don't start fumbling for my phone, load the app, wait for it to pair / connect / whatever then turn the lamp on with an on-screen button.

I couldn't agree more (although its not that complicated, my hue works a bit easier)! Obviously there might moment where it comes in handy (lay in bed an switch off all lights), but this is not my goal. I just want a wall switch to switch something on i like to be switched on. After 3 houses, the switches are:

a) not used

b) switches something on that doesn't need to be switched 

Let me give you a few examples:

a) In most houses the wall switch turns on the lamp on the ceiling. Now i want to switch (with that switch), multiple lights in my living room (eg. one next to the sofa and one on the desk)? 

b) in the kitchen i would like to switch on my espresso machine (needs to heat up for 20 mins). Yes i can put a timer on it, and then go threw the house to change it 2x year when daylight saving changes. But whats the fun in that?

c) I want some lights to go on between certain hours (eg. between 5-6 PM). Use timers? But then the wall switch doesn't work

With a star (or some semi-inteligent) network, controlled by relays, i can change it whenever i like, how i like. Of course this is not something you want to fiddle around on a daily bases, but things do change.

I have seen many of the proprietary solutions that don't make sense. The house (and wiring) are going to outlive the tech. Although upgrading is not a huge issues, your not gonna replace your sockets and switches because the tech doesn't support it any more. A star with relays that you can easy control via SPI/I2C/C-Bus/Shift registers will always be working (wired). The the HA controller is thrown out in 5 years because there is a smaller Rasberry Pi, fine. Costs 30 USD.

[tggzzz]

I will also add please label each and every cable, and have a diagram in the central hub area with a plan view of the house, and with each room labelled, and then a separate page for each room, giving a scale drawing of the room, the outlet location on the plan, and with that cable numbers for both ends. Do this for both power cabling and network cabling, and I will also second pulling 3 cables for each low voltage conduit, along with also putting a draw wire ( thick fishing line will do) in each line along with the cabling, so you can pull through additional ones later.  As well when making bends use a large radius bend on every one, and if not put a large joint box ( marked on the diagram as well with the cables running in it) in a strategic location to draw through.

And don't forget to ensure that every contractor that works on the installation in the next 30 years correctly updates both the masters and all the copies around.

If CAD is involved, ensure that the application continues to be available and work on the dataset over the same time.

Good luck with that.

If you don't, then sooner or later it will all be very expensively ripped out and replaced, because no contractor will be able to trust whatever might be there. In other words, seriously consider that it might reduce the property's value.

[stj]

if you want to go solar, you should probably think about how much sun you will actually get!
given that the ozone layer is wrecked, it's a shame nobody developed a panel optimised for UV-A-B.

[onesixright]

I will also add please label each and every cable, and have a diagram in the central hub area with a plan view of the house, and with each room labelled, and then a separate page for each room, giving a scale drawing of the room, the outlet location on the plan, and with that cable numbers for both ends. Do this for both power cabling and network cabling, and I will also second pulling 3 cables for each low voltage conduit, along with also putting a draw wire ( thick fishing line will do) in each line along with the cabling, so you can pull through additional ones later.  As well when making bends use a large radius bend on every one, and if not put a large joint box ( marked on the diagram as well with the cables running in it) in a strategic location to draw through.

And don't forget to ensure that every contractor that works on the installation in the next 30 years correctly updates both the masters and all the copies around.

I get you need to update your documentation. But this sounds i'm getting myself in to some sort of documentation-nightmare .  Isn't it always the case you need to update the documentation? Whats the bottleneck, that you have 65-100 sockets going into a star? I mean you need to document all of them anyway? Doesn't pulling everything in a star gives a much better overview then all these sockets in a room that are interconnected?

There is no CAD, and TBH i hope i don't need to change a lot in the near future (thats one of the reasons).

Anyway, notes, i will check this with local regulation (CZ).

[nctnico]

You don't really need to document as long as you apply the wiring in a standard way for the type of building. In that case every electrician will know by 'instinct' which wires go where. One of my relatives used to be an electrician and he is perfectly capable of telling which wires go where just by looking at the layout of the breaker panel and the layout of the rooms in a house.

[Someone]

if you want to go solar, you should probably think about how much sun you will actually get!
given that the ozone layer is wrecked, it's a shame nobody developed a panel optimised for UV-A-B.

That has been reversed through the international effort:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion#Prospects_of_ozone_depletion
It should be recovering slowly now.

[tggzzz]

You don't really need to document as long as you apply the wiring in a standard way for the type of building. In that case every electrician will know by 'instinct' which wires go where. One of my relatives used to be an electrician and he is perfectly capable of telling which wires go where just by looking at the layout of the breaker panel and the layout of the rooms in a house.

That's true for standard design patterns.

This topic is about novel design patterns, i.e. smart homes.

Any electrician that presumes and relies on adherence to local building regulations is, um, bold (as in "there are old electricians and bold electricians, but no old bold electricians")

[stj]

no, the UV has been lied about.
i intend to build my own UV meter soon to check.
hopefully using one of these.
https://shop.mikroe.com/click/sensors/uv
or these:
https://shop.mikroe.com/click/sensors/uv2

[LaurentR]

* Do not run low-voltage control wiring for power control. Power control is a low-bandwidth activity and PLC or wireless works well and this is the direction of history.

I not sure if i follow you. How would you then power low voltage sensors and switches (like C-Bus) ? Could you elaborate?

What I meant was that, yes there are some installer-type or DIY solutions that use either home runs or run LV wiring into every switch box. However, there are many many more solutions that use PLC or wireless (or both) and except maybe in very high-end residential or commercial, nobody is going to be developing new home-run or LV-to-the-switch-box solutions since PLC or wireless is very appropriate (it's low-bandwidth) and can address 99.99% of the market.

There are already plenty of PLC/wireless solutions on the market, including most professional solutions (Z-Wave through many brands, Lutron RadioRA, Lutron Caseta, UPB, OnQ-ALC, Centralite) and piles of consumer-grade stuff (mostly using ZigBee and Wifi). If you pick any of the professional solutions, you'll get support for many years and a gateway with at least RS-232 or RS-485, then your only issue is to keep a programming PC with the software (same as owning a 90s-era car that needs its custom PC to access).

[AlexDavidson]

Would you like to share how did you use  the C-Bus? Can I just pull in a (shielded?) 4 wire for each c-bus (sensor/switch)? since the switches needs to be powered? 5V for a C-Bus switch (20x2 meters, has a bit of voltage drop....).

An Cat5 cable runs in a loop to all C-Bus devices. It operates at a low baud rate so shielding isn't required. 3 pairs are paralleled together to reduce voltage drop and create a 2-wire power and communications bus. The other pair is left spare.

This document http://updates.clipsal.com/ClipsalOnline/Files/Brochures/C0000239.pdf provides a fair bit of information about the system, and there is more technical information here http://www2.clipsal.com/cis/technical/product_groups/cbus.

If you are thinking of implementing your own similar system, I would suggest using CAN. It is very robust, and if you run it at say 50 kb/s you will achieve reliable operation over hundreds of metres. Also there are plenty of MCUs available with CAN built-in for you to make your own nodes.

Re documentation, I keep the details of all loads and how they are connected in a database which I keep up to date as changes are made. I print labels from the database and attach to the wiring panels. The C-Bus installation software outputs html documentation.