I'm buying a new Home and looking for Home Automation Ideas.
I'm a Almond+ backer but was wondering what would i really need for complete automation
I'm trying to get a very defined solution to figure out how much hardware will i need to get automation working
Not a small project.
![Wink ;)](https://forum.securifi.com/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
But well you asked in the right place.
So first we need to define what you think is home automation, because we all have different needs and visions, this is also why there are so many different solutions.
I would say that there are many products for
Home Remote Control and Monitoring, not so many for
Home Automation, and even less for
Smart Homes.
A lot of companies talk about Smart Homes but then sell a product that is basically a "I can turn on and off one or more the lights with my phone", now this to me is not Home Automation, and certainly not a Smart Home.
Basically Home Automation to me is when for example light turns on when you enter a room and off when you exit, there is no action from you side, no app, no buttons. Or when the blinds go up or down a certain times.
Now a Smart Home goes further, by having sensors all over the house it can take complex decisions based on patter or multiple events and even automatically learn your behavior and take "intelligent" decisions.
For example receive weather data and forecasts, and together with known patterns of when someone is home it will adjust the heating and cooling of the house.
Or by sensing that there is smoke or heat in the house, depending on where, how much, it will evaluate what actions to take, so for example if someone is home and the stove is being used, it will ask you with voice if there is a situation or if is a false alarm. Or if it is in the middle of the night it know you are home, and sleeping, it detects a small amount of smoke in the livingroom, so it will now turn off the electricity to that room and turn on emergency LED lights, alert the house of the danger. If the smoke level rise it will open windows for ventilation, indicate with LED what are the safest escape route.
Or if it detects a drop in pressure in the water line and no tap has been activated it will turn of the water on the main to prevent a leak from causing damages.
Well you get the idea, Currently the Almond+ can do Home Remote Control and Monitoring(to some degree), hopefully it should grow to be at least Home Automation, and further down the line it can do Smart Home
So to your more specific questions.
1. If i buy Smarthings sensors do i need the smartthings hub ?
Probably not. From what I can see Smartthings uses Z-Wave so in theory the Almond+ should be able to talk directly to the sensors and not need the hub, although have a look at the sensors page on the Wiki to see what devices has been confirmed to work. If you do test something let us know if it works or not. right now there seems to be one device listed.
http://wiki.securifi.com/index.php?title=List_of_compatible_sensors_-_Almond%2B_20142. If i buy Phillips Hue Bulbs do i need the hue base ?
Yes, The Philips Hue system uses Zigbee Light Link, and the Almond+ use ZigBee Home Automation. So although they are both ZigBee, they speak different languages.
Currently I do not think the Almond+ can talk to the Philips Hue system, but I'm quite sure this is something that will work later.
3. What should i buy for Home security ?
What you want. :-)
Well there are two levels of security, look a bot on this forum it has been discussed before.
But think Shell protection, that is sensors on outer doors and windows. Can be active also when you are home and maybe sleeping.
And interior protection, that is IR sensors and such inside the house, are active when not at home.
4. I've already got nest and nest protect
Cool, Right now I don't think Nest released the API so not sure Almond+ can talk to them but I suppose it will come. I heard at lest the Nest thermostat has been hacked with custom firmware so if they do not release a full API then this will be a way.
5. Garage/Door solutions. Which one makes sense to combine both traditional and automation.
I will leave this one for someone else to answer as this is not something I have looked into.