The right/wrong time to start with home automation
One of my main concerns with smart home/home automation/home information technology has always been the maturity. There are a lot of different standards, some open, some licensed, some entirely proprietary.
As a newcomer into the home automation scene, you have to consider a lot of competing “crap”: ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), Wifi, Mbus, Knx, HomeKit – and it seems this list just goes on and on and on.
As a consumer this is annoying to say the least, if everything worked together, it would not be that bad. But it does NOT. Buying home automation tech, feels like vendor lock in – and it should not.
Luckily, it seems like we might soon be getting a solution called Matter. A protocol with a lot of the major tech and home automation companies behind it. The list includes Google, Amazon, Apple and IKEA (yes they sell LOTS of home automation stuff!).
Matter is a protocol meaning, it defines a set of actions and re-actions that is predictable between vendors. It sits on top of the IP Protocol (as far as I can glean its IPv6). This in itself is not so new, there have been IP based protocols before, but because of power consumption issues they have NOT been the most prominent.
Since all the heavy hitters are involved, the market expects Matter to be our “final” solution. The thing that FINALLY lets us have home automation products without the worry and hours and hours of research that goes with it. Of course that is not going to be the entire truth, but even the skeptic in me believes this is really going to be the thing that makes home automation “just work”.
Should I buy into the home automation scene now?
Is it the right time to start working with home automation? The answer is going to be a really big “maybe”.
Since matter is a software stack that sits on top of radio tech like ZigBee, Thread and Wifi, many battery based devices that run Thread, ZigBee or Z-Wave today, will not be upgraded to Matter directly. Instead the connectivity hubs they are talking with, will receive updates.
Most Wifi based devices are fed power directly, so many of them will receive Matter compatibility updates, but its totally up to each manufacturer.
Trying to answer the question, I would say no, wait 6 months and see where the market is heading. As soon as the Matter protocol is done, manufacturers are going to spew out hardware and firmware updates, and if you device is not upgraded or connected to an upgraded hub within an additional 6 months, don’t expect it to ever be.
That does not mean its useless, it just means you need to keep using the Hub/Bridge you were using already, and won’t be able to buy a drop-in replacement without some research.
Waiting 6 months will probably save you from buying hardware that is on the way out, without anyone knowing it! Once Matter is finally out, I am confident that it WILL be the RIGHT time to get started with home automation.
That said, lots of home information can be done without these fancy protocols and wireless/radio based devices – and you can always jump onto that wagon.
Introducing our house and the hardware setup
I live in a woodden house from 1965, which underwent a major change (it was split into two) in 1987. That is, its NOT a new house. The living area covers two floors, with a basement/garage underneath.
Since I live in Norway the primary heating source is my wood stoove and electric heating panels.
I have a very tech skeptic wife, and two boys and everyone needs to live with my various ideas and “improvements”. So pretty much like everyone else I guess.
Infrastructure Hardware
I have so far not invested in a lot of infrastructure, but rather started to better utilized what I had. So the entire setup is mostly run using:
- A Synology NAS DS412+
- Two Ubiquity APs (UAP-AC-Lite)
- Lots of ethernet cabel
- An Aeotec SmartThings Hub (for controlling my Z-Wave and ZigBee things)
- A pfSense based router (a small rugged device I installed pfSense onto)
In addition I have various Z-wave and ZigBee enabled “things” lying around, some bought recently but most bought years ago because I was dreaming!
Notable Sensor/Support Hardware
Of course there are some additional devices in the house, I already mentioned some ZigBee/Z-wave devices. These are just run-of-the-mill sensors and plugs.
A few other interesting devices are present though
- Netatmo Weatherstation (Indoor + Outdoor + Wind Gauge + Rain Gauge)
- Pow-U AMS Reader (https://amsleser.no/hjem/7-pow-u-universal.html)
The Pow-U is the most important one, but the Netatmo is the only “smart device” my wife bought, so it deserves a special mention 🙂
Software
Most of the software I have running is on the Synology NAS the setup is currently as follows:
- Docker (to ease my installation burdens)
- Ubiqity Unifi controller (Docker Image)
- Home Assistant (Docker Image)
- Eclipse-Mosquitto – MQTT Broker (Docker Image)
Originally I intended my home automation adventure to be based solely/primarily on the software provided with the Aeotec Hub.
Luckily I discovered Home Assistant, and now my Aeotec Hub is mostly used as a bridge for the z-wave/zigbee devices. I might get rid of it at some point. Who knows.
Enough text, here are my current dashboards in Home Assistant:
A weather/environment overview
Since everything is in danish/norwegian here is a short explanation:
The left column displays my living room environment, the temperature, CO2 concentration and humidity.
The middle column displays rain and humidity outside.
The right column the average wind speed and wind gusts (along with the direction).
All thanks to the Netatmo sensors!
A simplified Power overview:
The middle column displays my current power usage, and the predicted percentage of fossil fuel used to deliver said power.
The right column depicts the 3 phases and their current/voltage levels currently.
The current power information is all thanks to the Pow-U while the nordpool thing is an online service.
Of course the built in energy dashboard of Home Assistant deserves a prominent display, though I mostly use it to see my historic power consumption (which I can also find online at my power company)
I am not going to explain how all of this was installed, but in one of the next blog posts I will try and go into some of the details of getting the power integration up and running.