Building a home can be a stressful time with a lot of things to think about. It’s often critical, especially in double storey houses, to get theses

Some questions to consider when building a new home include:

• What security do you want to put in place? Cameras? Alarm system? Video intercom with motion alerts? Smart door locks? You need to work this out now as most of these systems need to be hard wired and if you’re house is double storey it is difficult to run wires after the house is finished. A lot of these security systems can be integrated with your home automation so it is relevant to this question.
• What audio visual set up do you want? You may not need to decide on a specific system at this stage but structured cabling needs to be put in place. This means every TV, speaker, projector or other A/V device should be wired back to a central hub location. Wiring your home A/V like this will give you the ultimate flexibility for controlling whatever system you choose to install.
• What electrical devices do you want automated? Lights? Blinds? Heating and cooling? It’s critical, especially with the blinds, that you work this out in the early stage of the build. Because if certain things are not allowed for it may be just impossible to automate them down the track
• What home automation system do you want to use? Do your research online and if possible, try to see a few systems in action for yourself. Understand the pros and cons of each system and which will best suit your particular needs.

As far as wireless home automation systems go you want to know, how good is it, how compatible is it and how good is the support? There are a lot of fantastic products out there, but the support teams are overseas. If you run into any issues you want to be able to deal with a local, Australian business. At this stage the main product we’re recommending that fits all these requirements is the Fibaro HC3.

Regarding wired systems the most reputable brands in the Australian market are C-bus and Control4.

There are a lot of “smart” appliances on the market these days that operate on wifi or Bluetooth. I think they’re popular because people are familiar with these protocol’s. The reality is that, whilst they’re great for transmitting high volumes of data, such as video, they are not the best for wireless home automation.

Z-wave and zigbee are wireless protocol’s designed specifically for home automation. They give you great range and performance.

The question we often get is “which is better?”

And for us, the answer is emphatically Z-wave. Z-wave devices are all required by the Z-wave alliance to maintain compatibility with all other Z-wave devices.

This means it doesn’t matter what brand of controller or module you buy. Any Z-wave device will work with any Z-wave home hub.

Also, Z-wave is great for range. Every module acts as a repeater, creating a mesh network that grows larger the more devices that are installed.

• Efficiency; a well set up home automation system will minimise the use of electrical lightings. By smart use of blinds, automatically switching off lights that aren’t required and smartly managing outdoor lighting you can significantly reduce your lighting bill. Also, huge amounts of power are wasted running heating and cooling systems through the night or when you’re not home trying to keep the house cool for when you get home. Automated systems totally remove all these inefficiencies.
• Security; integrating your alarm system, door locks and cameras with your home automation can improve security at your house and should be considered as part of any home automation planning.