We’re often asked which smart home hub we would choose, if we were automating our property. Of course, this is highly subjective so to make the process of decision making a little easier, we thought it would be a good idea to do a comparison of the 3 best selling Z-Wave hubs on our shop.
Category: Uncategorized
What’s New So Far For the Smart Home?
The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, brought to market over 20,000 new products to entice the smart home owner. Some were practical, some were dubious and some were downright unbelievable.
However, the 3D food printer by XYZprinting is one of the more useful and interesting items: the concept enables any user to upload any design or import them from the Internet for making cake and biscuit decorations. The Food Printer works by turning ingredients such as chocolate, dough or other solid items into uncooked food. XYZPrinting says it has worked with a food specialist, and created a proprietary recipe that can be used in single- or triple-material versions. The machine has an onscreen touch display which allows users the choice of preset designs for the shape of the food. Alternatively, budding Mary Berrys can import designs from online or upload their own designs via a USB port.
Also unveiled at CES was a wearable fitness tracker that can analyse body composition. 
The InBody Band tells you your fat and muscle mass, body fat percentage, sleep patterns, heart rate and body mass index using four sensors, two at the front and two on the rear. You can get a reading simply by placing your fingers on the front-facing sensors. Ideal for those on the move who want to monitor their bodily performance on a constant basis.
Or if you prefer a belt, then the wearable market has been introduced to a smart belt called “Belty” from Paris-based Emiota. This device monitors the wearer’s waistline measurements and advises when they become too tight and less intake and more exercise is required. Automatically loosening when the wearer sits and tightening when they stand, the belt is expected to alert people when it’s time to start losing the fat!
Finally Swedish furniture manufacturer, Ikea has launched a brand new range of furniture fitted with wireless charging spots for mobiles and tablets. Called the Home Smart range, products include bedside and coffee tables as well as individual charging pads for any surface. Makes you wonder why no-one has thought of this concept before!
Raspberry Pi
UK-Automation offers a variety of branded products and one of the most interesting is the Raspberry Pi. This ingenious little device is a relatively inexpensive computer the size of a normal credit card, that plugs into a computer monitor or TV. Using a standard keyboard and mouse, it acts in exactly the same way as a desktop computer (internet usage, video games, to making spreadsheets, word-processing) but it has the facility of interacting with the outside world. It also allows people to programme computers and learn how they work.
Initially launched and developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation charity http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/what-is-a-raspberry-pi/ with the “intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools”, it has already proved its value in numerous situations, from music machines and parent detectors to weather stations and tweeting birdhouses with infra-red cameras.
What Else is New?
So what is offered with the Raspberry PI from UK-Automation? First is the RaZberry, a small daughter board that connects on to the Raspberry PI. This allows it to be used as a controller and gateway for any Z-wave equipment. This little board is ideal for those who want to be creative in writing an individual user interface and applications. It comes complete with an Installer UI and Ajax web demo.
Features include:
- External 32 K SPI flash for network data
- Sigma Designs 3102 Z-Wave transceiver module offering additional enhancements
- Backup and recovery function including network topology
- Extended Node Information Frame
- Firmware update from the Raspberry PI OS
- Network management (Include, Exclude, Reorganize)
- Device interview and configuration
- Management of direct associations between devices
And a host of other interesting features.
There is also the Installer User Interface that implements all the features of the Z-Wave network. Not only does it manage and operate a Z-Wave network but also acts as a reference instance to learn how to access the JSON Data model and execute demands.
HiFiBerry DAC+
There is also the HiFiBerry DAC+ a high-resolution digital-to-analog converter for the Raspberry Pi Model B+. In layman’s terms, this is a sound card for the Raspberry Pi, to give the best audio playback quality.
Features include:
- A dedicated 192kHz/24bit high-quality Burr-Brown DAC giving hifi quality audio output
- Compatible with Raspberry Pi Model B+ & Raspberry Pi 2 with no additional power supply required
- Ultra-low-noise voltage regulator for optimal audio performance
- Hardware volume control. You can control the output volume using “alsamixer” or any application that supports ALSA mixer controls.
- Supplied with spacers to fix the board onto the Raspberry Pi
Whatever your needs, UK-Automation keeps ahead of the competition and looks for devices that will make your smart home even smarter. We have a good range of HiFiBerry parts for the Raspberry Pi.
Insteon Automation
If you are looking for a range of products that enhance the function of your smart home, then look no further than Insteon. According to its website, http://www.insteon.com/faq-home.html#05 “Insteon is the most reliable and best-selling wireless home-control networking technology.” The company has been business for over 20 years, and has a worldwide reputation.
That means that products from Insteon for the connected homes, with lighting control, door and motion sensing, garage door control being amongst the most popular applications.
Dual Band
The benefits of Insteon products are they are dual-band – signals travel through the air and over electrical wires at the same time. Insteon is the only technology that uses both a meshing wireless RF network (like Z-wave) and powerlines (electrical wires) in a building like X10 for extra reliability. Users of the X10 system benefit from this as all your existing modules can still be used. And from data posted by the company, this dual-band advantage means errors are about 100 times less likely.
UK-Automation stocks a variety of Insteon products, including plug in switch module, hub, motion sensor, micro module switch, plug in lamp dimmer module, micro module dimmer, 4 button remote control, DIN rail switch, DIN rail dimmer, door or window sensor, micro module shutter switches and more.
Hubs, Dimmers, Sensors
The Insteon Hub is ideal for controlling all Insteon and X10 modules locally or using an iPhone or smartphone when not at home. It can also be set up to send warning emails or SMS if a sensor or is activated
The Insteon motion sensor is an indoor/outdoor motion sensor for lights and appliances. Its benefits include:
- Remote control of up to 400 INSTEON devices
- Built-in countdown timer automatically turns lights off
- Optional night-only mode Adjustable high/low motion sensitivity
- Excellent range - over 150′ from nearest Access Point or RF INSTEON device
It can also be used with the Insteon Hub to trigger events or provide you with a text or email alert.
The Insteon Plug in Lamp Dimmer Module can be used to switch up to 300w of lighting. Easily installed, the operation of it couldn’t be simpler, with a button on the side for local switching and LED indication for on/off.
The benefits of this product are:
- Easy to install plug-in module
- 32 brightness levels and 4 ramp rates
- Full local control (brighten/dim, on/off, and fast on/fast off)
- Remotely controlled
- No minimum load required
Check out the full range by visiting the company’s range at UK-Automation.
Surround Sound with Russound
Multiroom audio is home entertainment at its most sophisticated. Imagine having a home that allows you to listen to whatever you want, whenever you want literally at the flick of a switch. A quality multiroom system can deliver everything from one central source, simply and easily with the installation of the correct equipment that can deliver different sources simultaneously to different rooms. Rather than using different devices to deliver music to different rooms, a multiroom system uses a single source. If you choose a well designed system like the Russound range, then you can have one server storing the music for a whole house and available to all residents, from the teenager playing tunes in the bedroom to the parents listening to Radio 4 in the garden.
Main Benefits
The main benefits of a Russound multiroom system are convenience and quality, allowing you to enjoy music from various audio sources in any part of the home. According to the company: “typically, all of the equipment is neatly concealed in one location, out of sight. All wiring is hidden within the walls. What you see are elegant keypads and speakers, intelligently designed (http://www.russound.com/who-we-are.php) to blend with the décor.”
Russound Products on Offer
Currently, UK-Automation (http://www.uk-automation.co.uk/) stocks four products for the home entertainment market from Russound. The Russound 4 Source 4 Zone Multiroom Audio System as the name implies, enables music or audio output playing in four rooms from four different sources. Distribution is via readily available CAT5 network cable and is based around A-H484 distribution hub with the source equipment (up to four sources) plugged into it using standard phono cables. The CAT5 cable runs from the hub to the A-K4 keypads in each room where you want music.
The Russound 4 Source 4 Zone Multiroom Audio System with Speakers is basically everything that the previous product supplies but with the addition of the US style J-Boxes for the keypads and ceiling speakers. Speakers can either be as pairs or single stereo or a combination of both.
The Russound A-H484 4 Source 4 Zone Surface Mount Hub is a four-zone, four-source audio distribution hub used with A-BUS amplified keypads which can be linked to another A-H484 (up to four) to increase the number of zones in a system. It supports four audio sources in a four-zone A-BUS system with each zone expandable to two rooms with inputs for A-K4 keypads.
Finally the Russound AK4 A-Bus Multi Source Keypad is designed for use with the A-H484 distribution hub and speakers to control music in a room. This is a useful little piece of equipment if you want to add a sub zone to your Russound A-Bus audio distribution system. Russound has a reputation for quality and reliability (http://www.russound.com/who-we-are.php) and throughout its 47 year history, has kept ahead of technology by designing and manufacturing innovative products that sound great, are easy to install and simple to use, and that offer great value.
Beat the Energy Drain in Your Own Home
We have long lived with the mantra, Save Energy and Save the Planet, and with January’s declaration that Europe is not only to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% over 1990 levels, but will also produce 27% of its energy from renewable by 2030, people in power seem to be taking it very seriously.
Paris in 2015 will play host to world governments to decide a global framework for avoiding dangerous levels of global warming but on the energy efficiency front, there seems to have been a glaring omission in targets set for the next 16 years. Indeed, it appears criticism has been quite vocal with Harry Verhaar, in a Green Wise Business article, head of global public and government affairs at Philips, saying: “The omission of a binding energy efficiency target is particularly disappointing. European policy-makers must realise that Europe will never lead on cheap energy and must lead on least consumed energy – energy efficiency is a key driver in making Europe more competitive and energy-independent.”
Matter in Hand
So what can we, as consumers do? One way is to ensure that your home is as energy efficient as possible, and this can be done for far less than you would imagine. Heating and ventilation are the key problems, both in terms of domestic global emissions and cost. And cost is the issue. We don’t like paying too much for energy. Energy prices are rising disproportionately to income it seems. So smart systems that can save us money, as a no-brainer.
New technologies in heating and ventilation systems will allow compressors to operate more efficiently, and these systems will therefore be more complex. For the home owner, devices controlling these home automation systems must be even more intuitive with the ability to control systems remotely from a smartphone or a web application from a remote location, via simple physical alterations in the home that will not cost the earth.
The good news is that you don’t need an expensive and extensive network of home automation systems to take advantage of energy efficient systems. Look at the Google Nest Thermostat launched this month in the UK as an all-in-one energy saving programmer and thermostat device. This shows that there is a market for such smart devices (which Google has foreseen!)
A report published on 30th April 2014 has a stark warning: “energy bills are likely to rise twice as fast as the government forecasts this decade because households are not buying new efficient appliances that are supposed to save them money.”
Companies like UK-Automation feature energy saving devices that can easily be installed in the home. Get smart and check out an innovative generation of smart thermostat control equipment and systems that are being constantly developed with the latest technological advances and innovations.
Link to UK Automation’s ‘Energy Saving’ products
Energy-saving electronic radiator valves.
Get Control of your Central Heating with Electronic Radiator Valves
If your home is heated by radiators, the chances are you have manual thermostatic valves installed on each radiator and one or more room thermostats which will switch the heating on or off depending on the temperature and the time of day.
The thing is that manual radiator thermostats are a great idea if you use them properly. But so often, the thought of traipsing around the house to adjust each valve – especially when they are tucked away in dark corners or behind furniture – just sounds like too much hassle. Not using the lounge tonight? You know you should pop in there and turn down the radiators but you’re too comfortable watching the box in the kitchen – and it never happens.
Precise control
But there is an alternative now which doesn’t involve completely re-designing your central heating system but does give you precise control of the thermostat settings and scheduling of each radiator from a central point – and potentially from your smartphone or tablet.
The secret is a new generation of electronic radiator valves which can either be programmed individually or can be linked by the home-automation standard, Z-Wave, to a central controller.
These valves are a straight replacement for most standard manual thermostatic valves, and use battery power to open and close the valve according to the programmed settings. That means you can set a detailed schedule for each room according to how you use it.
Energy savings
The manufacturers claim that even reducing room temperature by one degree saves as much as 6% of your energy costs and if you decide to replace all of your old thermostats with these new electronic ones, you could save up to 23%– double that if your radiators currently have no thermostats at all.
The beauty of this technology is that you don’t have to do it all at once. These new
electronic valves cost between £50 and £60 each and you can just install them one at a time as your budget allows. To start with, just use the programmability built-in to each valve, which is pretty sophisticated. The Danfoss Z Wave radiator valve, for example, allows up to three on-off periods each day with separate programming for each day of the week. And most have built-in frost protection and an “open window” mode which shuts off the radiator if the room temperature suddenly drops – for example if a window is left open.
When you can afford it, get a central controller. This will not only let you programme each radiator independently but you will be able to do so from the comfort of your armchair or even from your office over the internet using a web-based interface.
In the Home – fresh from CES (the world’s Largest Consumer Electronics Trade Show)
Are these “the high-techist gadgets of 2013”? (IET says they are)
The Scanadu Scout
Some people have called this the Star Trek tricorder in your pocket. Monitor and track your body’s vital signs, such as heart rate and blood pressure, with a portable and relatively inexpensive device that connects to your smartphone.
Out and About – fresh from CES (the world’s Largest Consumer Electronics Trade Show)
Are these “the high-techist gadgets of 2013”? (IET says they are)
The Cookoo Featurephone Connected Watch
- Incoming and missed calls
- Facebook messages and posts
- Diary reminders
- Featurephone out of range and low battery warnings
- Alarm and Timer alerts set on your featurephone
A Winter’s Sale
What could be better, or more British, than a nice sale to get the juices flowing and the brain pumping? At UK Automation we think the same and have some special offers that may just tempt you into the world of home automation.