Guide To Smart Homes - Part 6

Pitfalls To Avoid & Basic Design Principles

By now, hopefully the guide has given you enough insight to be able to plan a successful Smart Home and avoid the common pitfalls, below are the main points to consider.

1.

The most important point is to engage a Smart Home Professional to design and install professional equipment with trusted engineering principles.  A successful Smart Home System cannot be installed after the building has been finished. All Smart Home services require engineering and design with the correct wiring installed before any walls and ceilings are covered up.

If you aren’t sure how to ascertain which companies are Smart Home Professionals, then look to see if they have any Staff with CEDIA Training. CEDIA is the governing body for the Smart Home industry, much like ‘Gas Safe’ for Gas Engineers, or NAPIT for Electricians.

Electrical Engineering is a separate Industry and should not be confused with Custom Installation/ Smart Home, most Electricians will not have the vast knowledge or experience needed to design, install and program a professional Smart Home System, we can say this, also being Electrical Engineers, so seek a specialist company when investing in your property. Your chosen Smart Home Company should also have some other industry qualifications such as KNX/ Lutron/Crestron/ Training, Control4 & RTI Dealership Status, IT Qualifications and Audio Video Qualifications. They should also be offering CAD Design Services and Service & Support Contracts.

2.

The next main point is Do Not Rely On Wireless! Make sure you run dedicated cables for each service, TVs, Audio, Lighting and most importantly the IT Equipment should have as a minimum Cat6a RJ45 Points at all locations. WiFi is only to be used for roaming personal devices such as Phones & Tablets! WiFi doesn’t work reliably for high bandwidth devices and services such as video.

A professional grade IT Computer system consisting of a professional Broadband Router, Ethernet Switches and Wireless Access Points in good locations around the property, configured by trained and experienced installers will be needed if you want a reliable system.

3.

Make space for a central Plant Room in the property where all the main ‘Technical Services’ come into and can then distribute to the rest of the property. TV Aerial, Satellite, Telephone & Broadband, CCTV, Audio/ Visual services, all need to be centrally wired, from there it will then go to each room, this enables modifications and repurposing to happen in one place without the need to run cables from one side of a property to another.

4.

Use professional equipment manufacturers; take recommendations from your Smart Home Professional, as they will know what works well in real world scenarios. Below are some of the best manufacturers in the most common categories.

Smart Home Control Systems

Crestron, AMX, KNX, Control4, RTI, Savant & Elan.

Lighting Systems

KNX, Control4, DALI, Lutron, Rako, C-Bus. 

Shading Solutions

KNX, Lutron, QMotion.

Audio Players/ Streamers

Autonomic, Denon Heos, Bluesound, Nuvo, Sonos.

Video Systems

Kaleidescape, Dune, Roku, Apple TV.

Heating Control

KNX, Heatmiser.

IT Equipment

Cisco, Meraki, Ruckus, Draytek, Pakedge, Luxul.

5.

Make sure you budget well for a professional Smart Home System, typically 10%  - 20% on top of the build cost for a fully-fledged Smart Home System.

6.

Ask to see previous ‘Projects’ from a prospective company; they should have some listed on their websites with technical aspects explained well. An example of some of Intelligent Installations previous projects can be found here: Case Studies.

One other aspect to consider is that Smart Home Professionals have a vast wealth of product knowledge that will ensure your projects don’t lose their initial design ethos with cluttered boxes of technology and cables scattered around. One of the main aims of Smart Home Professionals is to hide the technology and retain the Interior Design of a property using products such as Invisible ‘Plaster In Speakers’, Lighting Keypads with internal heating thermostats to reduce wall acne and hidden Audio Visual Racks that enable the equipment not to be in the way.

If there are any aspects of Smart Homes that haven’t been covered in this guide that you would like further clarification on, then please feel free to get in touch, or if you would like the complete guide in PDF Format then please email us.

If you would like to see a real world Smart Home Installation then please contact us for a visit to our ‘Smart Apartment’ in Cornwall. You will be able to see a Control4 Smart Home Solution elegantly controlling the following Sub Systems - KNX Lighting, Plex Movie Server, Multi-Room Music System, CCTV & Heating Control.

For More Information On Smart Home Systems Please Contact Us.