Building a new home this summer and planning to setup any smart home devices that make sense. Looking for recommendations on the following that I can connect to HE.
Interior window roller shades (motorized)
Exterior sun screens (motorized, connected to a wind sensor to automatically pull up the screens when the wind gets too strong)
Smart door locks
Garage door opener
Tablet and mount for wall mounted dashboard
Light switches / dimmers
Window / door sensors
Thermostat
Smart oven? (To be able to pre-heat the oven when we are on our way home)
Doorbell
Sprinkler system
Camera surveillance system
Anything else I'm missing that you'd suggest I plan for before we begin construction?
Any way to have a smart door lock on a sliding glass door? (Or at least a sensor that would indicate whether or not the door is locked or not. )
Any specific product recommendations for any of the above that has worked great for you?
I know that covers a lot, please answer as little or as much as you want or have experience with.
You may want to (also) be thinking about wiring and decide where you want hard-wired and where you can go with batteries. I would love to eliminate changing batteries.
I was on mobile when I typed that - I wanted to provide more . . .
What I was getting at is you may want to consider how you want to connect and power your devices. That may help you decide about which devices you want to get as some may not support your desires in terms of connectivity or powering.
Example: I never would have thought about running wire (or conduit) to windows to power shades or blinds. Now that I have them (and I am hooked on them) I sure wish I had thought of that.
Same with the "important" exterior doors and windows - I would run wire to those and use old style contact sensors (reed switches) wired back to a unit such as Konnected.io.
Your tablet locations will also need power and you may want to have wired network access (that's a religious discussion I won't get into).
For lighting controls, I am totally sold on Lutron. I went with Caseta (Pro) but I would look at the higher end systems as well, if I were to do it all over again. It seems expensive but when you are building (or doing a major renovation) it doesn't cost much more to get it right. If you go with a system such as Lutron, you can save some money by not having three-way and four-way circuits wired - just use one control (switch or dimmer) and remotes. All my traveler wires are capped off now - wasted work and $$ for the electrician (it was years ago so I'm not crying).
Consider pre-installing low voltage wiring for LEDs under the cabinets and pantry shelves. All run to a central location where you can have controllers and power supplies. Close by of course otherwise voltage drop may be an issue.
I had my windows hardwired and at first I was using battery operated contact sensors. Once I saw the Konnected device I made the switch and now all of my doors (inc. garage doors and attic door) and windows are hardwired. I had to have 3 of the Konnected devices but it is well worth it. No more battery changes. I am using it with SmartThings because I just got the Hubitat but I expect it to work the same.
I wouldn’t do this. I have the same setup - many capped off traveler wires with Lutron dimmers/Picos on top. However, you still want the flexibility to change it out for traditional 3/4-way switches if needed. I plan on doing this before selling my house in the future. I don’t think running travelers will increase the Electrician bill that much.
Centralized lighting system. Mine is a Litetouch which is discontinued, but I love it. Loxone, Vantage, lutron, Creston, etc are replacements, and I think Centralite might have something also. These need to be installed during construction as all lights run back to a central panel and low voltage keypads act as your switches. They are expensive though. Mine was 50k back in 1995. I think they are cheaper now though.
Also, wire at least one loop of romex around your soffit, and a bundle of cat6 with both ends hanging in the same room. This way, if you ever need to tap into power or network in your soffit outside for cameras or other stuff, the wire is already there.
Put in conduit in places where you might want to pull wire in the future. This also allows easy upgrade of obsolete wire in the future... Like replacing hdmi cables with whatever new tech comes out.
