Thank you all for the comments and advice, much appreciated! Made a note on labeling, documenting (conduits, etc.) thats of course extremely important (if you don't wanna get lost in a maze of wires). COAX and CAT/5E/6 was already the list already
If i would choose the star topology and would like to measure each outlet. Would a ACS172 be good enough to measure for each socket? Any other sensor that comes to mind? Although overkill, I do want to measure per socket (and not per group). The main reason is that for the near future, i wanna move (i know ambitious and idealistic) to 100% solar power. And i wish to be able to see at any point, exactly what draws power and how much.
A few other questions:About 15 years ago I set off down a similar path to the OP. This was in a new house, so it was relatively easy to install all the wiring. I went with C-Bus, as that was (and probably still is) about the only choice here in Australia.
Would you like to share how did you use the C-Bus? Can I just pull in a (shielded?) 4 wire for each c-bus (sensor/switch)? since the switches needs to be powered? 5V for a C-Bus switch (20x2 meters, has a bit of voltage drop....).
* Do not run low-voltage control wiring for power control. Power control is a low-bandwidth activity and PLC or wireless works well and this is the direction of history.
I not sure if i follow you. How would you then power low voltage sensors and switches (like C-Bus) ? Could you elaborate?
I don't really understand the need for the general consumer to have "home automation", if I want to turn my lamp on, I get up and turn it on, I don't start fumbling for my phone, load the app, wait for it to pair / connect / whatever then turn the lamp on with an on-screen button.
I couldn't agree more (although its not that complicated, my hue works a bit easier)! Obviously there might moment where it comes in handy (lay in bed an switch off all lights), but this is not my goal. I just want a wall switch to switch something on i like to be switched on. After 3 houses, the switches are:
a) not used
b) switches something on that doesn't need to be switched
Let me give you a few examples:a) In most houses the wall switch turns on the lamp on the ceiling. Now i want to switch (with that switch), multiple lights in my living room (eg. one next to the sofa and one on the desk)?
b) in the kitchen i would like to switch on my espresso machine (needs to heat up for 20 mins). Yes i can put a timer on it, and then go threw the house to change it 2x year when daylight saving changes. But whats the fun in that?
c) I want some lights to go on between certain hours (eg. between 5-6 PM). Use timers? But then the wall switch doesn't work
With a star (or some semi-inteligent) network, controlled by relays, i can change it whenever i like, how i like. Of course this is not something you want to fiddle around on a daily bases, but things do change.
I have seen many of the proprietary solutions that don't make sense. The house (and wiring) are going to outlive the tech. Although upgrading is not a huge issues, your not gonna replace your sockets and switches because the tech doesn't support it any more. A star with relays that you can easy control via SPI/I2C/C-Bus/Shift registers will always be working (wired). The the HA controller is thrown out in 5 years because there is a smaller Rasberry Pi, fine. Costs 30 USD.