Hi All, I'm new here but I've been reading about home automation on and off for quite awhile now...the result is that I'm just burnt out on it again because there's so many paths.
The reason I titled the thread "Mega" is because I have purchased an elementary school that I am converting to a home/shop.
The place is 3 stories and 30,000sqft+ on 2 acres.
Some specifics...
The building already has 2 alarm systems (DSC 832 and some Ademco dinosaur). The wiring for the sensors in "in series" at the panels in that they have "outer parameter" as a "zone" even though there are many sensors...likely because they just went cheap on the alarm panel and didn't need to know exactly which window/door/motion was tripped.
The alarm is remotely monitored by a local security service (currently alerted by the phone capabilities of the alarm panels).
The new system must be able to communicate with the remote service and also act independantly if the HA server crashes...for both fire and alarm.
The building has a darned nice fire system (55 grand to install)...which I believe can communicate with a computer.
The entire building is wired with Cat5 ethernet and I have several computers on my 100Tbase LAN in different parts of the building.
There is a "server room" centrally located in the bottom floor which contains the switches and routers for the building (and hopefully eventually an automation server).
**********
Ok...well this is probably not unique but what I would like to do is...
Consolidate the alarm system to a single panel...100 zones would be nice...64 minimum. I would like to be able to monitor movement on a blueprint "overlay" of the building to visually reference motion in an area (there are too many areas to remember "south window #3" and I would like to be able to see that motion "travel" through the overlay as different sensors are tripped. I would like to be able to see this on any of the GUI panels that will be installed. I would like to be able to activate/deactivate zones as scenes in the automation program, and I would like live video on any of the GUI's to be able to switch (and better yet track) the motion.
Audio: I would like to be able to distribute syncronized audio through the building but allow any "GUI station" to listen to its own audio and/or control the audio of any other area. As mentioned before, I already have Cat5 and would like to be able to use this instead of a central audio switcher.
GUI's: I would like to be able to use a mixture of touchpanels, industrial computers, home computers, and SVGA monitors. I'm a bit lost as to whether to have stand alone touchscreens or full touchscreen industrial computers since often the entire computer can be found used for less than a touchscreen alone. I like the idea of industrial computers since you could say...bring a CD to any station and play it through the whole building (in theory) Premise software seems to have a jump on this...not sure about Homeseer?
Lighting/etc:
Because of the nature of the building, wiring is not a problem from room to room, but it would be nice to only have to install new switches (and not replace the wiring to those switches). I can pipe *whatever* through Cat5 into a room but would like to keep the original house wiring intact (don't know if the better lighting systems require hardwire control to the switches). I absolutely hate the idea of chasing line noise and other X-10 problems I've read about...the installation will be hard enough as it is.
I will also need motion detection on the exterior to control floods (dozens)from several sensors and be able to program their response via the HA.
Add to this the usual bag of tricks...like being able to listen to internet radio, XM radio (PCRXM), MP3, weather, thermostats, door/gate openers...and the whole host of usual HA capabilities.
******
So what do I buy? Of course finding stuff on ebay is great when you can, so that's a consideration.
I see products like HAI and cannot figure out if *that* is controlling the place, or if the Homeseer should be controlling the place, or what order things go in...etc.
I cannot figure out if it is better to purchase 10 industrial computers and put them on the LAN with some LAN based HA solution, or run some sort of non-proprietary VGA touchscreens back to the server, or use proprietary touchscreens?
One thing that I do know is that aside from the fire/burglary systems, I would like to have as much as possible going through standard PC's/componants and standard wiring since the technology changes so much, I'd like to be able to upgrade almost any capability at will.
I would like a distributed/updating GUI that can view/listen/control the entire system (audio/security/camera/lighting/sprinklers/web access/telephony/..etc) from several stations.
So I have to ask...if you were in my place, what systems would you purchase, how would you connect them, and why?
Your help is GREATLY appreciated since I am new, the place is complex, and after several 3 day attempts at figuring it out, I still can't figure out the best/most cost effective solution.
Many Many Thanks
Sean
The reason I titled the thread "Mega" is because I have purchased an elementary school that I am converting to a home/shop.
The place is 3 stories and 30,000sqft+ on 2 acres.
Some specifics...
The building already has 2 alarm systems (DSC 832 and some Ademco dinosaur). The wiring for the sensors in "in series" at the panels in that they have "outer parameter" as a "zone" even though there are many sensors...likely because they just went cheap on the alarm panel and didn't need to know exactly which window/door/motion was tripped.
The alarm is remotely monitored by a local security service (currently alerted by the phone capabilities of the alarm panels).
The new system must be able to communicate with the remote service and also act independantly if the HA server crashes...for both fire and alarm.
The building has a darned nice fire system (55 grand to install)...which I believe can communicate with a computer.
The entire building is wired with Cat5 ethernet and I have several computers on my 100Tbase LAN in different parts of the building.
There is a "server room" centrally located in the bottom floor which contains the switches and routers for the building (and hopefully eventually an automation server).
**********
Ok...well this is probably not unique but what I would like to do is...
Consolidate the alarm system to a single panel...100 zones would be nice...64 minimum. I would like to be able to monitor movement on a blueprint "overlay" of the building to visually reference motion in an area (there are too many areas to remember "south window #3" and I would like to be able to see that motion "travel" through the overlay as different sensors are tripped. I would like to be able to see this on any of the GUI panels that will be installed. I would like to be able to activate/deactivate zones as scenes in the automation program, and I would like live video on any of the GUI's to be able to switch (and better yet track) the motion.
Audio: I would like to be able to distribute syncronized audio through the building but allow any "GUI station" to listen to its own audio and/or control the audio of any other area. As mentioned before, I already have Cat5 and would like to be able to use this instead of a central audio switcher.
GUI's: I would like to be able to use a mixture of touchpanels, industrial computers, home computers, and SVGA monitors. I'm a bit lost as to whether to have stand alone touchscreens or full touchscreen industrial computers since often the entire computer can be found used for less than a touchscreen alone. I like the idea of industrial computers since you could say...bring a CD to any station and play it through the whole building (in theory) Premise software seems to have a jump on this...not sure about Homeseer?
Lighting/etc:
Because of the nature of the building, wiring is not a problem from room to room, but it would be nice to only have to install new switches (and not replace the wiring to those switches). I can pipe *whatever* through Cat5 into a room but would like to keep the original house wiring intact (don't know if the better lighting systems require hardwire control to the switches). I absolutely hate the idea of chasing line noise and other X-10 problems I've read about...the installation will be hard enough as it is.
I will also need motion detection on the exterior to control floods (dozens)from several sensors and be able to program their response via the HA.
Add to this the usual bag of tricks...like being able to listen to internet radio, XM radio (PCRXM), MP3, weather, thermostats, door/gate openers...and the whole host of usual HA capabilities.
******
So what do I buy? Of course finding stuff on ebay is great when you can, so that's a consideration.
I see products like HAI and cannot figure out if *that* is controlling the place, or if the Homeseer should be controlling the place, or what order things go in...etc.
I cannot figure out if it is better to purchase 10 industrial computers and put them on the LAN with some LAN based HA solution, or run some sort of non-proprietary VGA touchscreens back to the server, or use proprietary touchscreens?
One thing that I do know is that aside from the fire/burglary systems, I would like to have as much as possible going through standard PC's/componants and standard wiring since the technology changes so much, I'd like to be able to upgrade almost any capability at will.
I would like a distributed/updating GUI that can view/listen/control the entire system (audio/security/camera/lighting/sprinklers/web access/telephony/..etc) from several stations.
So I have to ask...if you were in my place, what systems would you purchase, how would you connect them, and why?
Your help is GREATLY appreciated since I am new, the place is complex, and after several 3 day attempts at figuring it out, I still can't figure out the best/most cost effective solution.
Many Many Thanks
Sean
Comment