Renovating home, wanting to go smart home

Questions & Help
1

Hi Guys,

First of all, i diddn’t know if the “Dutch” or “English” part of the forum gets the most respons, so i guess it would be English?

Currently we are renovating our house (completly, only the outter walls stayed).
At first, my wife and i thought we diddn’t want Domotica or a smart house.
However, the more i read about it, the more i’m willing to do a smart home.

On this moment we are starting with the electricity.
On this moment, i placed all the 3G2,5 cables for the power outlets.
In a few weeks i’m gonna start with the cables for lighting and switches.
My original idea was placing 5G1,5 from the fuse box to every light and place SVV cables to the places where the switches will come.
But i’m not sure what light switches i’m gonna choose, so i was youtubing around and now i’m doubt what type of cables i place best, and how…

So what would you guys recommend that i do for cabling, lighting and switches if i’m gonna use Homey Pro (i’m gonna use a pro for sure).
Considering that i really would like to be able to use my light switches as “dumb switches”, given the fact that my daughter is too young to understand smartphones, voice commands, remotes and stuff for smart lighting.
I just don’t want to not be able to control a light with a sensor/smartphone when she put the wall switch off…

Also it would be a nice to have, to be able to start “slow”, have some lights/rooms smart and the rest of the house “dumb/ classic”.
This way i don’t have to start spending lots of money of smart light switches and stuff and i can expand my house gradually

Also the living room, bathroom and bedrooms are going to be dimmable, al the other lights would be nice to have to have the ability to dim

Do i go:

  1. 5g1,5 from the fuse box to each light individual (so for example, in the living room there are 6 spots, so that means 6 cables), i take SVV cable from the fuse box to the light switches and use compatible light switches?

  2. 5g1,5 from the fuse box to each light individual (so for example, in the living room there are 6 spots, so that means 6 cables), i place 5g1,5 (or is 3g1,5 enough?) from the fusebox to each light switch and find compatible light switches or do i choose old school light switches with relay’s?
    But i’m limited to 2 “buttons” (or gangs?) on each wall switch?

  3. 5g1,5 from the fuse box to the wall switch and from the wall switch to the lights?

  4. 5g1,5 from the fuse box to each light individual (so for example, in the living room there are 6 spots, so that means 6 cables), and use wireless/battery powered light switches

I would think that scenario “2” is the “safest” option?
I can connect each light to each wall switch in the fuse box?

Thanks in advance for any incoming suggestions and tips.
I really hope that you guys can suggest and help me.
I"m renovating for the first time (and last time), and i don’t want to need to break open walls in a year because i chose “a wrong cable”

Kind regards

2

Hello Strijkkeizer and welcome

About the wiring, sounds very odd to me.
Sounds like you got plans to switch lights with smart relays/dimmers placed in your fusebox?

I’d wire any switch box with Neutral 2.5², Brown 2.5² and black 1.5² (or 2x black)
→ switches/dimmers which don’t need neutral do exist, but then you have a limited choice

I’d like to suggest to make sure your home can still be operated without Homey or without network(s). To me, smart switches / dimmers are the most versatile way, they combine manual and smart operation.

In Holland we put wires or cables in tubes.
This way you can reconfigure the wiring quite easy :man_shrugging:

Recently a “what to do” topic was started, I’d like to recommend reading all it’s posts:

3

Only advice I can give you is that if you want to be able to control lights via light switches is that you should put a neutral wire to every light switch. Otherwise you will limit yourself to using switches / modules without neutral wiring which are often more expensive and offer less variety.

4

Hi Peter,

Thanks for welcoming me and your reply.

Thats what i’m “trying to figure out” on this moment, what do i do best.
I have a “clean slate”, given that my house currently only has 4 outer walls and i want to set it up so it fulfills all the “requirements”.
Do i do this best with relay/dimmers, do i do this with Zigbee wall switches, do i place relays in the light switch or do i place them in the fuse box…

So thats a 3G1,5 cable then?
In Belgium we also place our cables in tubes, we call this preflex.
For example this is a 3g1,5:

600×600 15.6 KB

This is a 5g1,5:

But given the fact that those tubes go trough walls, floors and take bends, it is not that easy to replace the entire cables =/

So a 3g1,5 would be enough?

And thanks for the link, gonna read this post.
I read every suggested post when creating this topic, but it seems it only suggested english topics.

Kind regards,

5

Personally, for all lights, i use fibaro dimmers with Gira55 pulse switches.
This also means that if Homey is down or whatever, all lights and switches work just as normally expected.
And you can hold the pulse switch to dim by holding it down.
And all switches are always in the same position.

6

I don’t get the wire sizes you respond with.
2.5mm² wire is thicker than 1.5mm², so not the same.
In Holland there is no 3x1.5mm² wiring for installing in houses. It’s only used for cheaper extension cords f.i.

Phase or Live (brown), Neutral (blue) and ground (yellow&green) always = 2.5mm²
Switch wire (black) = 1.5mm²

For switches, you can use 1x brown, 1x blue, and 3x black f.i. Then you"ll be able to control 3 different lights, or whatever 230V device.

From reading your responses, I’d strongly advice to contact a professional electrician before you start any wiring. I recommend to get it installed by a professional.
Keep things safe please.

7

Normal electricity isn’t a problem.
I connectzd more than enough switches/power outlets.

But all i needed was to know whats needed for smart switches.
And that is 3 “cables”, so 3g1,5 like every light switch in Belgium (following the arei rules here).

Then the only thing left to decide is smart switches or normal switches and fibaro dimmers

8

My tips, in addition to ensuring there is neutral at every switch position:

  • use large / deep back boxes to give yourself plenty of room for automation modules
  • use automation modules at the switch positions with momentary ‘dumb switches’ - since this gives you wired control that works regardless of the state of the automation, greatest choice over switch designs etc and also the modules are easily accessible if you need to get at them later
  • Choose modules with a 2nd switch input. I have found it is often useful to be able to directly pair a 2nd switch with other devices - e.g. lamps or other ceiling lights. By direct pairing instead of using flows in Homey for this, you ensure that all wall switches “just work” regardless of the state of the automation system. For this purpose, you will want Z Wave or WiFi but not Zigbee since direct pairing not supported with Zigbee (at least with Homey, not sure if it is more generally). So Fibaro dimmers would work or maybe Shelly WiFi devices where you can use MQTT to achieve similar direct pairing, though that’s wifi dependent. Also bear in mind the devices you want to direct pair with need to be the same tech as the module with the 2nd switch. For me, this generally means Z Wave is the answer.
9

Thanks for the reply!

i was thinking to use fibaro Z-Wave relay switches and dimmers.
the usual “niko pulse switches” seem to fit on this