Let's start with the available resources: a wooden house with a power supply network (previously there was 1 phase of 5 kW), gas supply and in a quiet, almost deaf, place. The house has a large and beautiful wood-burning stove, but recently they hung a gas boiler and lit batteries around the house.
And now about the tasks: despite the neighbors living nearby, I would like to know about the possible penetration into the house. In addition, the house must be kept at a minimum temperature and the house warmed up before the owners arrive, that is, remote control of the boiler is required. Well, of course, it is necessary to warn of a possible fire or smoke in the room. Therefore, the list of system requirements was set as follows:
- Smoke detector
- The presence of a motion sensor
- Availability of controlled thermostat
- The presence of the head unit transmitting information to a smartphone or mail
Equipment selection
Searching the network, I realized that either a monstrous and expensive system with redundant functionality would be suitable for complying with TK, or you need to assemble something simple and separate yourself. So I came to the conclusion that safety is one thing and boiler management is another. After making this decision, everything went very simply and quickly. I was mainly looking for among Russian developments, so that service and developers were available. As a result, the problem was solved by two different sets:
- Zont H-1 thermostat for heating control
- LifeControl "Country" smart home kit for building a security system
I will explain the choice. I am of the opinion that systems should have independent communication lines so that the fall of one communication channel does not affect the operation of another system. I also got a pair of SIM cards from different providers: one works in a thermostat, the other in a smart home hub.
The thermostat’s task is to maintain the temperature according to the schedule (on Friday evening, start heating the house before the owners arrive, on Sunday evening it goes into economic mode with maintaining the temperature at about 10 degrees), report a power outage or an emergency temperature drop.
The task of a smart home: to control the opening of the front door, to control the movement in the room, to notice smoke at the beginning of the fire, to notify about various emergency events on the smartphone of the owners of the house, to ensure the Internet in the house.
Zont h-1
Russian development with a number of sensors. First of all, I was interested in reliability and autonomy. This thermostat has a built-in GSM modem, a temperature sensor and a built-in relay to control the boiler. The modem supports only GPRS data transfer technology, and more is not necessary, since the amount of data transfer is extremely small and the speed is not important here. The kit includes an external antenna to improve the signal with poor connection quality. The relay operates on the principle of dry contact and sends a command to the boiler to turn it on and off when the set temperature is reached. There is a specific setting so that the boiler does not experience problems with constantly turning on and off near the target temperature. The device can be equipped with a battery that allows you to work autonomously for several hours. The controller sends an alert when an external network shutdown occurs. A notification also comes when an external power appears. There is control via a website, an application on a smartphone and via SMS.
Smart Home Life Control 2.0
Another Russian development with a wide selection of sensors, actuators and good expansion potential. The trick is that the smart home works with ZigBee protocol support, which means that it will soon be possible to connect a ton of third-party devices to it. But even now there is a sufficient list to equip the house, and a number of other devices are expected. I was attracted by the fact that the head unit or hub is equipped with its own 3G / 4G modem, there is a Wi-Fi module and it supports connection to wired providers. That is, the device can be connected as a router and distribute Wi-Fi, connect wirelessly to an existing router or bring the hub to the Internet using the network of a mobile operator. In the latter case, the hub turns into a router and can itself distribute the Internet via Wi-Fi! I add that a microphone and a camera are built into the hub, and there is also a battery for autonomous operation if the external network is disconnected. The "cottage" kit also includes a motion sensor, a door opening sensor and a smoke sensor. Communication between devices is carried out without wires, and the sensors themselves are powered by their own batteries.
Setup and Launch
Honestly, I expected that there would be problems with our products when setting up, but I was mistaken. I was expecting some simple and nondescript interfaces, but again I was wrong. I will be consistent and start with the Zont H-1 thermostat.
The device comes with a SIM card with some kind of ready-made tariff and it is ready for use. Installation and connection to the boiler with the pulling of all wires took about half an hour. Each boiler has a pair of contacts for connecting the thermostat, which are closed when the boiler should be started and opened when the desired temperature is reached. The boiler itself must be pre-configured for the required temperature of the coolant. The boiler settings are beyond the scope of the article, but if this topic is interesting, then I can answer questions in the comments. Further, everything was simple: installing the application on a smartphone, linking the thermostat in your account, setting profiles (economy, comfort and schedule). It should be noted that if you place the temperature sensor higher, the real temperature in the room will not be very high, and if you put the sensor on the floor, it will be very hot in the room. It is advisable to install the sensor at a height of 1-1.5 m from the floor in order to create the most comfortable conditions. You can connect several temperature sensors, including wireless ones, but the boiler will be controlled only by one of them. You can control the thermostat both from the site and from your smartphone.
Now I’ll move on to describing the features and interfaces of the Life Control 2.0 smart home system. I'll start with the head unit or hub. I decided to operate it as a mobile router. I took a SIM card with unlimited internet and inserted it into the router. By the way, the antenna on the back of the router serves to increase the Wi-Fi zone, and there is an internal antenna for receiving a signal from a mobile operator. I didn’t have to configure anything at all, I connected from a smartphone and laptop to a router and started using the Internet. He put the application on the smartphone and added all the sensors through it. I also set up the rules for triggering sensor events: for example, when I open the door, I receive a notification on my smartphone and email. A photo from the hub is added to it. The same thing happens when a motion sensor or smoke sensor is triggered. The hub stands in such a way that it remains invisible in the room, but at the same time that the front door and the room with the gas boiler are visible. That is, in the absence of everyone in the house, if the smoke detector works, you can connect and see in real time what is happening in the house.
A separate plus is the presence of the battery. If the external network is disconnected, the hub continues to work from the built-in battery for another 5 or 6 hours. Here you can watch movies from a laptop or smartphone until the network is turned on. And the security system will work if attackers decide to turn off the house, in the hope of disabling the security system. Separately, I was worried about the range of the sensors and the operating time from one battery. With this, everything is simple: the range is measured in tens of meters in the house, if the walls are not shielded, and the ZigBee protocol operates at a frequency of 868 MHz and provides low power consumption, so that the sensor can work on one battery for a year or two, depending on the frequency of operation.
Interestingly, the ZigBee protocol works on the principle of Mesh systems, when the intermediate device is the link between the hub and the farthest sensor. In the LifeControl system, only devices that are constantly connected to the mains are such a link: at the moment these are controlled sockets and bulbs (if they are constantly supplied with power).
And what about those who do not have gas? If the house is heated by electric batteries, then you can configure the work of controlled outlets in such a way that they will turn on before your arrival and the heaters will have time to warm up the house by the arrival of the owners. Sockets can also serve as a backup system for starting electric batteries if the boiler fails, so that the coolant in the pipes does not freeze. I add to this that if the house has good insulation, then you can set the schedule for turning on the electric batteries at a night rate, warm the house overnight and turn off for a day - savings in this heating mode can reach from 30 to 50 percent, depending on the size of the gap in your tariffs for electricity.
Test
So, the devices are arranged and running. The boiler works and the house is warm, even hot. The thermostat honestly fulfills the maintenance of temperature and is noticeable by the operation of the boiler, as it sometimes turns off and then turns on. The temperature sensor was specially transferred from the room with the boiler to the living room to the level of the belt. Now for the smart home system. I placed the hub in the kitchen, it’s a boiler room, overlooking the front door. I hung a door open sensor on the front door, and I put a motion sensor in the back room, which is not visible from the street, and directed it at the windows. That is, if attackers want to get into the house through a window on the back, I will also receive a notification. A smoke detector was hung in the middle of the kitchen and tested. Even with the burning of a piece of paper, it worked after about a minute, although there was not very much smoke. So, if you fry a lot and you have smoke - put a hood in order not to cause a false alarm of the smoke sensor. It signals not only remotely, but also locally - with a loud squeak for the whole house.
Both systems allow you to monitor or control not only independently, but also give access to other users. In the Zont system, this is realized by transferring a username and password for full access or by creating a guest login, when a person can monitor the status, but cannot affect the operation of the system. SmartControl LifeControl also allows you to issue invitations to third-party users only with the ability to view the status of the system. Everything works through the cloud, so in both cases no problems with the work will arise, regardless of the communication channel and the features of the connection.
Total
So, the country house is ready for winter. The heating system will allow you to come to an already heated house and save on heating when there is nobody in the house. And the smart home system will make it possible not to worry about the safety of the home, both from those who want to profit from your property, and from unforeseen situations. It is worth adding that the house is still worth equipping with automatic powder fire extinguishing systems of the OSB or Buran series. In addition, the LifeControl system is modular and the number of sensors can be increased according to needs. I believe that several more motion sensors will be added to this system to cover the entire perimeter of the house. I must say that the setup and operation of the systems did not raise any questions at all: if you had to refer to the instructions with the thermostat, then everything was intuitive with the smart home system.
Bonus
After scouring the manufacturer’s website, I came across a promotion page where you can order a cottage set a third cheaper than collecting it separately. There is no direct link on the site itself, but I made an order and waited. After 10 minutes, they called and confirmed the order. So while it works, I share it. Ready to answer questions on the operation of both systems. Do not forget - Winter is coming!