Hi there, first of all sorry for my english ( hope thats ok here ) Moved from Norway to the Netherlands 2 month ago and me and my gf moved into a house where nothing has been done since the 1960s, so everything have to be replaced of electricity, walls, ceiling and plumbing.
So was thinking about uppgrading to a knx smarthome.
We want to be able to controll things like the window shutters, lights, heating ( water floor heating, and maybe airconditioning.
We have looked abit at GIRA wich looks kinda promising, but tought it would be a good idea to ask around here what people would recomend in terms of brands and ideas.
What im curious about is if there is possible to hook the airconditioning units up to the knx system aswell as being able to controll wall sockets from that system?
We want dimmable spotlights in the ceiling and wonder is there anything you would recomend there?
Some questions about knx smarthome from a newbie
Re: Some questions about knx smarthome from a newbie
Making a home a smart home certainly is worth investigating. KNX definitely is a system that makes essentially everything possible - at a cost. You mention Gira, which indeed supplies robust devices, but keep in mind that KNX is manufacturer and supplier independent. For most KNX components there are lower cost options available compared to Gira.
A first thing to consider is what the impact is if you sell the house in the future. If the smart system is 'home built', poorly documented and not already supported by a third party (with track record of the annual cost), then instead of a plus it may be a negative when it comes to selling the house. If you were to choose a 'do it yourself' system which you buy at the local hardware store, or something tied to a 'smart' system like Alexa, then it may not be such an issue when it comes to selling as more people have at least heard of these other systems.
Yes, you can control all the items you mention with KNX. Whether or not you can control the HVAC systems depends on which communication protocols these devices have - some even have KNX interfaces.
I consider the hard-wired communication link of KNX (the 'bus') a big plus, as it is more reliable than wireless - wireless can be problematic due to poor placement of the devices or interference from other sources. Homes in the Netherlands are typically set up with small diameter conduits, not very suitable to get the KNX bus everywhere. When you do a complete make-over of the house you may be able to put in the desired conduits, otherwise you will need to use the wireless devices.
You may want to take some courses and read up on information on KNX.org https://www.knx.org/knx-en/for-professionals/index.php. The German KNX forum https://knx-user-forum.de/forum/%C3%B6f ... er-bereich has lots of beginner questions answered, most topics are in German but quite a few are in English.
I suggest your read up on implementing a smart system, so you can also get a good view on the skills required (if you want to do it yourself) and the cost involved.
A first thing to consider is what the impact is if you sell the house in the future. If the smart system is 'home built', poorly documented and not already supported by a third party (with track record of the annual cost), then instead of a plus it may be a negative when it comes to selling the house. If you were to choose a 'do it yourself' system which you buy at the local hardware store, or something tied to a 'smart' system like Alexa, then it may not be such an issue when it comes to selling as more people have at least heard of these other systems.
Yes, you can control all the items you mention with KNX. Whether or not you can control the HVAC systems depends on which communication protocols these devices have - some even have KNX interfaces.
I consider the hard-wired communication link of KNX (the 'bus') a big plus, as it is more reliable than wireless - wireless can be problematic due to poor placement of the devices or interference from other sources. Homes in the Netherlands are typically set up with small diameter conduits, not very suitable to get the KNX bus everywhere. When you do a complete make-over of the house you may be able to put in the desired conduits, otherwise you will need to use the wireless devices.
You may want to take some courses and read up on information on KNX.org https://www.knx.org/knx-en/for-professionals/index.php. The German KNX forum https://knx-user-forum.de/forum/%C3%B6f ... er-bereich has lots of beginner questions answered, most topics are in German but quite a few are in English.
I suggest your read up on implementing a smart system, so you can also get a good view on the skills required (if you want to do it yourself) and the cost involved.
Re: Some questions about knx smarthome from a newbie
Hi, thanks for your answer 
Will for sure check out the links you posted
Yeah since we are redoing everything i will make sure there will be plenty of conduits to take the knx wire everywhere
But to make sockets ( electricity outlets) smart, would i have to drag a wire of each one down to the "meterkast" and into a bus or is there easier way to make that work?
What i'm mostly curious about atm is we have a combi kettle ( Nefit proline) and from what i understand it can connect with smart home system trough IFTTT can i connect that to a knx system? and if so how?
Also with downlights/spotlights in the ceiling, is there any brands that make good ones out there that can be dimmed properly? guessing the driver is dali that can be connected to the knx system?
Will for sure check out the links you posted
Yeah since we are redoing everything i will make sure there will be plenty of conduits to take the knx wire everywhere
But to make sockets ( electricity outlets) smart, would i have to drag a wire of each one down to the "meterkast" and into a bus or is there easier way to make that work?
What i'm mostly curious about atm is we have a combi kettle ( Nefit proline) and from what i understand it can connect with smart home system trough IFTTT can i connect that to a knx system? and if so how?
Also with downlights/spotlights in the ceiling, is there any brands that make good ones out there that can be dimmed properly? guessing the driver is dali that can be connected to the knx system?
Re: Some questions about knx smarthome from a newbie
Using KNX I can think of three ways to accomplish this:to make sockets ( electricity outlets) smart
- Using the available conduits run a (black) wire (minimum 1.5mm2) from your panel to the outlet
- Run the bus to the outlet and install an in-box actor
- Install an RF (= wireless) actor in the outlet box
Flush-mounted actors typically are 10A for dual outputs. Single output actors can be 16A.
For full flexibility you should use 16A so that any device such as a room heater or heavy-duty vacuum cleaner can be plugged in.
Limit the outlets you want to control to outlets that must be shut off when going to bed or leaving the house. I know of an installation where almost all of the outlets can be controlled - but only about 10% of that is needed. It adds to the cost and complexity, with hardly any added value.
I don't have experience with Dali. Retrofit LEDs are problematic, oftentimes flicker. Best would be to use 12V or 24V LEDs in a fixture designed for LED and using a suitable driver.downlights/spotlights in the ceiling
(We still have some downlights that were designed for halogen. I have not found suitable high-lumen LEDS for those fixtures, so will replace them with units designed for LED. The LEDs that were supposed to be direct replacements don't last for more than a few months.)
Others will have to chime in about IFTTT, I don't have experience with it. The older Nefit I have could not be fitted with the communication device that supposedly allows control of the unit from other sources than just their thermostat. That protocol I think is called Opentherm. You can look into that option as well.