Dear experienced Homey users and smart home product enthusiasts, I would like to seek your advice on the topic of securing school buildings.
After the incident at Charles University (you may have heard about it), parents are calling for higher levels of school security. It probably doesn’t make sense to discuss that the best security is physical presence of security personnel; this is not the topic I’m addressing to you. I would like to implement smart locks on the school doors to at least automate access processes to the school and door locking according to schedules (time-based or otherwise).
However, no matter how much I search on the forum, I can’t find too many solutions related to Homey for this. We already have functional solutions based on Homekit and Aqara products (we have Aqara hubs). I would like a solution where I can create access profiles for students and staff through one of the options (NFC, code, access card, etc.). Additionally, I want the doors to automatically lock based on time/date, or if there is a log of events indicating who and when the doors were opened. I’m particularly interested in the Aqara smart lock, but I’m concerned that it may not be easily automated through Homey (or perhaps through the Aqara hub connected to Homey?). Could an experienced user please advise me on how to approach such a solution?
To be honest, I wouldn’t trust Homey (or Aqara) for this, at all.
With smart locks for public places come additional requirements, and Homey will very likely not be able to meet those. It’s also not meant for such environments, it’s a best-effort home automation platform.
I agree with you. Despite the mentioned limitations, is it possible to achieve such a solution with any of the mentioned components (Aqara products, Homekit solutions)? Finding a solution that can integrate sensor states (temperature, lights, etc.) and create a “Dashboard” for individual classrooms, add lighting automation, window blinds control, etc., in the “top security” section, might indeed be challenging. Additionally, such systems are often closed for extensive customization, suitable mainly for a single specific task. However, I would like an ecosystem that covers most building needs, and in that regard, Homey seems appealing to me. Thank you for any further responses and suggestions.
When it comes to a large number of users, you need a good administration program. To add and delete users, keys etc, on well defined times, in a batch, and probably much more functions. That may be the biggest task to accomplish.
Same as before. I agree with you. But our school is small, we talking about 10-15 person per one building and around 50-80 students per one building. Students no need access because door will be one in some hours. Access is necessary only for staff …
