Complete newby!!

Hi all I have just brought a Veraplus and some switch’s and detectors.
I want to try and plan a system for the new house I will be moving into in about 6 months- the new house is undergoing radical re-modelling inc New wiring and plumbing
I wanted to have a play around with Vera to see what I can do with it, I will probably set up some dummy scenarios with a view to try and see how stuff works.

Will I need to download any new firmware to the new Veraplus- only got it this week?
Do I need to set up an account anywhere?
Like I said- complete new to this any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Adrian (UK)

Adriana, welcome to the Vera community!

When you begin the setup of your VeraPlus, you will go to our portal at home.getvera.com.You will be prompted to setup your user account and will automatically be walked through the setup and update process. Each time you login to your VeraPlus through the web portal, we will check that your firmware is up to date.

Have fun playing, it is fun to figure out all the things that you can do to enhance your life with Vera.

[quote=“Adriana1, post:1, topic:191925”]Hi all I have just brought a Veraplus and some switch’s and detectors.
I want to try and plan a system for the new house I will be moving into in about 6 months- the new house is undergoing radical re-modelling inc New wiring and plumbing
I wanted to have a play around with Vera to see what I can do with it, I will probably set up some dummy scenarios with a view to try and see how stuff works.

Will I need to download any new firmware to the new Veraplus- only got it this week?
Do I need to set up an account anywhere?
Like I said- complete new to this any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Adrian (UK)[/quote]
Adrian,

Standard UK wiring does not take the neutral to wall lighting switches. As you are having new wiring and plumbing it is essential that you talk to your electrician and ensure they run a neutral as well. This means a 3 core plus earth to each switch.

If you are having plumbing done you need to consider how you will do your heating. Are they any points where a z-wave valve would be useful (over and above the trv’s). Look at whether you want a stand alone heating system (eg. Honeywell Evohome) which can link to vera or use z-wave TRV’s and program heating into vera. If using vera you may have to live with times when vera crashes or is off-line. If using stand alone then check how well the vera apps work.

Hope this helps.

Regarding UK wiring to switches, most new houses have neutrals at the switches. My place is around 9 years old and all neutrals are terminated in the back of the switch in a connector. It’s the same on a friend of mine who has just moved into a new house last month (we’re newbies too at Vera).

Not sure when this changed as I qualified as an electrician 20 years ago when everything was done at the ceiling rose. I’m guessing this changed to stop Joe public blowing things up, changing light fittings? Now I write software and commission bms control systems so only see electricians wire pre manufactured lighting systems, plug and play stuff.

One thing I would say is, buy your devices carefully. What I mean by that is not all zwave devices work on Vera as you would like (yet). Fibaro is an example of this, the latest motion sensors do not work with the Vera Plus without help from support, this should be corrected in the next firmware update. The fibaro dimmer 2’s throw up an error ‘Can’t Detect Device’ but operate faultless (hopefully this will also be corrected).

Check online at Vera and their compatibility list and you shouldn’t go far wrong as it’s tried and tested.

I get to program alot of controllers from Siemens, Delta, Tridium, Trend etc… And I really think Vera are close to being a great home product without the need for a full controls package.

Have Fun…!!! :slight_smile:

My place is 7 years old and it didn’t have neutrals.