Lightwave and the risks of smart devices?

@u587162 is right, I would enjoy designing a system that worked, but when I went to work abroad and some thing went wrong, my wife could not get it fixed.

So I have two Mitsubishi PLC's and the program to program them with, to me easy enough to write a program to do what I want, but the big question is in the future who will repair it.

I have central heating controlled with two pumps, two motorised valves, two relays, and 14 TRV's plus two wall thermostats, using C Plan, and the plumber and heating engineer I use do not understand how it works, I did not think what I have is so unusual, but it seems the younger generation don't expect the controls to be outside of the boiler case.
 
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Could I please urge you to write out/have a manual of how your home automation works or if you have computer systems that are slightly different to the normal!
My Dad died suddenly last year, and I have spent the last year trying to work out the automated side of things etc in his house.
The first stumbling block was turning on his PC - power on button on the case didn't work (also half the machine was outside the case not in it!) turns out, after tracing some wires, that he had made an on/off switch with a long wire that was hanging off his desk (suspect that the button on the case had gone faulty and this was his temporary fix)
When light's have stopped working, I have had to figure out if he has spliced in modules for wifi, are they on sensors, timers, pir sensor (and which pir sensor is controlling what!), pir lightbulbs (would this one be a microwave one or the other kind??), the light switches that were programmed to do different things under different conditions etc etc
What is working off what smart switch
which apps are controlling what - lightwave for certain things, smart life for others (a couple of other apps he appeared to be testing out)

What I'm trying to say is..... My Dad knew how everything in the house (for automation things) worked, but he never told us, and there was nothing written down. With life being absolutely turned upside down - I could really have done without spending months working out how and why the blinking lights (among other things) worked.
 
Could I please urge you to write out/have a manual of how your home automation works or if you have computer systems that are slightly different to the normal!
My Dad died suddenly last year, and I have spent the last year trying to work out the automated side of things etc in his house.

Good idea!

I have an attaché case into which a copy of my Will is kept, along with a list of my bank accounts and various investments. My home is likewise technically complex and I really ought to attempt to write a manual to cover it's complexities, but it would even with a manual remain complex to understand for the initiated.

I supplement that attaché case with a couple of filing cabinets, one files important documents to do with the various bills for the house, the deeds, house plans, utility routes, car documents etc. The other cabinet stores copies of manuals for household items, TV's, test equipment, college and university documents etc..

My partner died suddenly some six years ago. She would squirrel away lots of documents and was slightly secretive about her financial affairs, so when she passed away, I had the unenviable task of wading through a great pile of paperwork, birthday cards, Christmas cards, memorabilia etc. and writing/ringing various companies to trace which insurance documents were valid, which bank accounts were valid and to whom she might have owed money to. Sorting things out, took the best part of twelve months and I could never be certain I had covered all bases.
 
Try and keep everything local - 99% of mine is.
I use home assistant with devices flashed to Tasmota or shelly's using mqtt locally.
I don't have any smart sockets yet though!

Most stuff will work without the server / automations being up via light switches and thermostats wired in parallel. So if I go there will still be heat and light!
 
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Im no techie, I have a few smart plugs for simple automation that work very well and a couple of smart cctv cameras. We looked at a new build home that was totally smart, it was very clever but I would be lost if any of the home smart system failed or even played up. Love the idea of smart but couldn’t handle the hassle if went wrong.
 
Im no techie, I have a few smart plugs for simple automation that work very well and a couple of smart cctv cameras. We looked at a new build home that was totally smart, it was very clever but I would be lost if any of the home smart system failed or even played up. Love the idea of smart but couldn’t handle the hassle if went wrong.

I am a bit of a techie and even so, it is not easy when something goes wrong. The thing is, I have so much of it and it isn't easy to remember the details of everything - how it works, how I originally set it up, often it is a case of restarting the research from scratch, or just taking a step back from the problem, sleeping on it and hoping the memory of 'how' comes back.
 
I don't know how I would access my wife's stuff, every thing she has is password protected, at least mine is not, so you can get into it.

I know if not used for some time many items auto reset, I programmed a relay for lights, but delay fitting it, and when I did had to start again.
 
To return to the original post, I would like to say that I bought 6 double sockets Mk1 LightwaveRF and every one failed.
The problem is the internal PSU for the control circuit has components that cannot take the strain over a long period. LightwaveRF said they would repair them for free, so there was no issue there, but I decided to do it myself and beef up the components. one resistor and a zener diode.

I have also seen comments like, "I cannot see the use for mains socket switching". Well I used many of mine to get around the problem of floor lights needing control and a few for plug boards that had the media system on it. The media system had the problem whereby if everything is in standby, all the products were drawing current. With a socket you can turn them all on/off at once, thus saving a fair amount of power. The same goes for the computer system with its surround sound.
I don't use any control in places where there may be a problem of safety. Kitchen/bathroom.

As far as wanting to get away from inet control and having it local, I can say I agree, but there are ways to get around this.

I did see another comment about the plug in type mains control switches only being able to be used with a remote control, whch is not correct, I use some of these and have both the wifi controlling them via the box and via Alexa.
 
@u587162 is right, I would enjoy designing a system that worked, but when I went to work abroad and some thing went wrong, my wife could not get it fixed.

So I have two Mitsubishi PLC's and the program to program them with, to me easy enough to write a program to do what I want, but the big question is in the future who will repair it.

I have central heating controlled with two pumps, two motorised valves, two relays, and 14 TRV's plus two wall thermostats, using C Plan, and the plumber and heating engineer I use do not understand how it works, I did not think what I have is so unusual, but it seems the younger generation don't expect the controls to be outside of the boiler case.
Why do you have two pumps ?

I don't see the use of using one PLC, never mind two, but if it suits you then why not.
I guess you are using two plc's one for each pump circuit ?

I think maybe you should write some pseudo code to show what is happening in your system along with a simple flow diagram, so that others can see how everything works. The biggest problem with self designed systems, is that they are custom designs and often don't fit in with the norm, that everyone is trained to accept. Most trades people are pretty tunnel visioned, so something out of the norm needs explaining in pictures :)
 
When I moved into this house the central heating was a mess, two pumps one for main house and one for flat under house, I think who ever throw together the system, thought they could control if house or flat was heated by selecting pump, however selecting one pump resulted in the direction of flow reversing in the system connected to other pump.

I am not good at plumbing so I got some one in, and they fitted two motorised valves which I wanted, but left it with two pumps, which since motorised valves only have one V3 micro switch means I have needed relays so each pump is independent but boiler fires with either pump.

It would have been easier with a single pump.

But it seems the heating engineer considered it needed two, and I bowed to his superior knowledge.

However my point is the problem getting some one who understands the system once one tries some thing out of the normal for that type of installation. All is good until some thing goes wrong, then people are left scratching their heads trying to work out what is should do.

Even a reasonable standard central heating installation it seems are beyond the knowledge of many, I have been unable to understand why systems have motorised valves splitting it into zones, and TRV's? There will be the special like this house with flat and main house, where I want to be able to turn off whole flat, but in the main we have a house with a selection of rooms each with different requirements for heating, be it children going to bed earlier, or using room for doing home work, or bedrooms being used as an office or craft room, it is very unlikely all rooms upstairs and all rooms down stairs can be controlled together. Likely dinning room not used after 8 pm, but living room wanted until 11 pm so makes more sense to use programmable TRV heads, specially when they only cost me £15 each in 2019.

But switching on a TRV is different to switching off. No need for a TRV to be linked to turn off earlier to room with wall thermostat, but there is if the room wants to turn on when room with wall thermostat has not had a temperature change.

So without linking it needs some thought, turn wall thermostat down a degree an hour before another room is required, then back up as the room TRV opens. To ensure boiler runs. This way one can get rooms to heat up at times set, but far easier to do with linked TRV's.

It only needs a little thought, and one can set a sequence so rooms are heated in the order they are used, a 10 minute delay is enough to ensure one radiator is stinking hot before another starts to heat, but a 20 minute delay could cause the boiler to switch off. Or with a modulating type turn down the output. And for it all to work, lock shield valves also need setting, and radiator sizes selected big enough for the reheat. A radiator designed to maintain the room temperature is much smaller that one to reheat the room.

So we look at a boiler at 28 kW, and we count up the radiators, 4, 4, 3, 2, 3, 3, 3, KW through the house, simple maths 22 kW of radiators connected to a 28 kW boiler is the wrong way around, radiators should be twice the size of boiler to have any rooms not heated as selected times. It seems our homes were not designed, they were just thrown together, we see a street of houses with the same design either side of the street, how can this be right? Sun shines from the south, so either side of street needs a different design to match direction of sun, and roof should have one part sloping to catch the sun, I know solar panels can work East/West, but should not all new house roofs be designed to take solar panels including the slope matching winter sun.
 
I think you're over-assuming a high level of thought and care will be put into the creation of a product that the creator will never use. They can get away with this because most users don't think or care either, they just accept if for what it is and get on with spending their life on twitter.

If you want X amount of hours of careful thought to be put into the house you will use, it really does have to be you that does it I'm afraid..

..I did, self built the dream and spent nearly a year designing everything. I'm still annoyed by some decisions I made that turned out to be bad ideas, but haven't the time to change them now so I just live with them like normal people in normal houses do :)
 
..I did, self built the dream and spent nearly a year designing everything. I'm still annoyed by some decisions I made that turned out to be bad ideas, but haven't the time to change them now so I just live with them like normal people in normal houses do :)

Absolute perfection just does not exist, or if it does, it doesn't last for long once needs or technology changes.
 
True that. If I had the time over again I don't think I'd have picked Fibaro for the automation; it seems when a bulb blows there's about a 10% chance it destroys the dimmer unit too. I got them cheap because they were old stock dimmer version 1s, but it's the cost of the new dimmer that rankles..
 

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