I'm planning on connecting up the lighting in my flat to my home automation system. At my previous place I was renting, and I had normal BC bulbs, so smart bulbs was a good choice then.
Now that I'm not renting, I have more freedom, but also my lighting uses LED modules, so you can't just screw in a smart bulb. I have decided to go with a Z-Wave solution. It is a wireless solution that uses a mesh network. The standard guarantees compatibility between parts, and also it integrates well with my existing home automation system Home Assistant.
In choosing to go with Z-Wave, compatibility with Home Assistant was important (although it does support most things), as was the ability to have the system operate even if not connected to the internet. Note that Z-Wave is not cheap, but once you exclude solutions that are not approved for connection to Australian mains wiring, some of the cheaper options are ruled out already.
The first step in planning was to look at what lighting circuits I have, and what I need.
I have about 10 lighting circuits in total. A couple of those I won't connect up to home automation, such as the light in my bathroom, and the light in my laundry.
My existing switches are Clipsal C2000 rocker switches. While you can use rocker switches, I am going to swap these out for "bell press" switches.
I have one circuit that has a 2-way switch. One of those switches is next to the front door, and it would be really handy to have an automation rule that lets you use the front door switch to turn off everything. My research showed that common Z-Wave lighting controllers have 2 switch inputs, which would allow you to wire up the 2 existing switches to the same module, and have them do slightly different things.
The next step was to get an electrician. A friend recommended Ryan from It's On. He wanted to come and take a look first, to make sure he was happy that my project would be able to be done to completion. Apart from my 2-way switch concern, I wanted to check that the control modules would fit in the wall cavity (behind the switch). I 3D printed some mock-ups of common brands of controller so we could check. (You can download the designs at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4560264 )
All good. Ryan is happy to proceed.
The next step was to order the parts I needed. I ended up going with Oz Smart Things. They are local, and their prices are quite competitive. They have Clipsal bell press switches that match my existing switch plates. I ordered 6 Aeotec dimmers, and 1 Aeotec switch (my balcony light doesn't need dimming). For circuits with less than about 20W of load, Aeotec recommends a dimmer bypass, so I ordered a couple of those for my hallway circuits (that have only 1 x 10W LED module). Also Calum at Oz Smart Things has been really helpful with answering questions.
I'm going to use the Aeotec USB stick connected to my Intel NUC server to control everything. It supports secure devices.
So good when everything arrives!
The next step is to make sure everything works on the software side, so that I don't have any setup issues once we start to install them.
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