You could see my post a few times about my smart home on Social media in the last few months. I came in touch with this brand Fibaro a few months ago after one of my captains showed me how his home was automated. I was looking for a system for a while but I had no idea where to start. So that’s what I will try to explain today and the options that are possible with that.
To start with your smart home you have to think about a few things:
- What do you want your house to do for you?
- What should I automate?
- What’s your budget?
A smart home can do a lot for you and some systems can work together. I choose the Fibaro home center 2. This is also your start point, you can see this as the Brains of your home. This is a small computer that will steer everything in your house with the so-called: “scenes”. Scenes are lines that you can easily program to make your house do things. I’ll explain a bit more about this later in this blog. So for every smart home, you need a BRAIN like the one I have. There are more systems like this but the Fibaro Home Center 2 is one that is compatible with many other systems that make it in a wide range easy to use. Also, the interface is easy to program. First thing is to buy a brain. I highly recommend this one. Fibaro home center 2.
What do you want your house to do for you?
I wanted to have a smart house that could manage my Light system tighter with my alarm system. I want to have my motion sensors tell the brain that if they see any movement in my home and the lighting inside is dark that my lights go on automatically. As well, I want the motion sensors to work as an alarm system. Let’s explain to you how that works. If I arm my alarm with my phone, the motion sensors are ARMED to detect any motion. If the motion sensors detect motion if the alarm is armed, the signal will be sent to the Fibaro home center 2. The system will then turn on the siren that gives a noise as loud as a jet engine. Also the brain switches on and off all lights to full bright and full off so it is easy to spot for people outside that this alarm is going off. The system also sends me a photo of all camera’s around and in the house and a notification on my phone that the alarm goes off.
This was the main reason why I wanted this system, in the meanwhile I expanded with many more things. In my laundry room and bathroom, I have a water sensor that gives a signal and message to my phone if the ground will be flooded. You can even program this system to close windows if there is rain predicted or open the windows if the temperature is too high. Whatever you want your system to do you can buy the products for that. If you want an alarm you can buy the things you need for that. If you want to control your heating you can buy everything you need for that.
What should I automate?
This is really up to you. I personally started with a single motion sensor and the Fibaro home center 2 and a Dimmer 2. I explained before what I wanted to have automated and this was only possible with motion sensors. A good example of how I use this now as well. As you might have seen on my Instagram is that I became a father a month ago. My daughter needs a new few new diapers at night. What I programmed this system to do is if I walk over the hallway it switches on a nightlight in the baby’s room so I can change the diaper without having to switch the lights on as I already have the baby in my hands. The same thing I did with all the other rooms. It switches the lights to a certain setting during the morning, day, evening and night and switches everything off if it doesn’t see movement for some time. If you want to know about the possibilities I would advise you to visit this website (CLICK HERE)
What is your budget??
This is actually the limiting part of automating your home unless you are a secret millionaire. There are unlimited possibilities around the house to automate but often the money you need to do so is the problem. That’s why I would advise you to do the following. Save some money so you can buy the brain of your system. I know its a bit expensive to start but I promise you its worth it. Thereafter you slowly buy the things you need, like a motion sensor or a dimmer, or a full alarm system.
Let me explain to you a bit more about the SCENES that you can make.
A brain needs just like humans to learn. I have to tell the brain what I want him to do. In the example left you can see how that looks like.
I want that during the day status (DagStatus) Evening AND the sensor in the motion-sensor in the living room is BEACHED AND DISARMED and the LUX (light intensity) is below 90 LUX.
THEN: (the action I want the BRAIN (Fibaro Center 2) to take on these parameters
Device group TURN ON. These are the wall switches I have in my living room. One of the wall plugs is now switching on the Christmas tree. The other Device group set to value 16: means that my Fibaro dimmer’s 2 set my lights in the living room to 16% of the total light intensity. What can I say, I’m a romantic. (here a small video with more info (click here)
If you want more information about this system I advise you to visit www.fibaro.com or send me an email so I can help you out.
