Greetings
First of all let me introduce myself. My name is J?natas and I live in Portugal. I work at an IT Security and Development Portuguese company and I really love Home Automation. Unfortunately is not exactly a big area in Portugal but its developing?
I’ve been using a very cheap and simple Coco technology products in my home but I feel I should improve and Z-Wave technology seems the way to go.
Please consider that, before creating this thread, I did search and read a lot. Of course I might missed some important info and my question might sound silly but every help would be appreciate.
What I have:
[ul][li]3-4 different light zones with dimmer control[/li]
[li]6 Motorized Window Blinds[/li]
[li]Garage door[/li][/ul]
Warnings:
[ul][li]My house uses GU10 40W Halogen Lamps and each division/zone (4 lamps each) or E27 16W Fluorescent lamps (6 lamps each)[/li]
[li]My Window Blinds use an in-wall double switch. That means I have a button for up and a button for down.[/li][/ul]
What I want (now):
[ul][li]Everything should be control with iOS or Android in or out my home[/li]
[li]Controls lights and Window Blinds with my mobile phone and with the in-wall switches[/li]
[li]Set Window Blinds/Lights in predefined scenes. Example: Wake Up: set all blinds open 10 %, Morning: set all blinds open 70 %, Sleep: set all blinds close, Vacation Mode: random window blinds/light position (I believe all of this can be done with Luup)[/li]
[li]Receive push notifications on garage door open/close[/li]
[li]See status of lights[/li][/ul]
What I want (future):
[ul][li]Temperature/humidity sensors for using in home climate control/garden[/li]
[li]RGB light strip colour according to bathtub temperature[/li]
[li]Video Monitoring/motion sensor[/li]
[li]Windows open/close sensor[/li]
[li]XBMC movie play to activate Cinema scene[/li]
[li]Integrate with alarm system (to be bought in the future accordingly)[/li][/ul]
What I ? think ? I?ll need
[ul][li]Gateway Z-Wave Vera Lite/Fibaro Home Center Lite[/li]
[li]Best iOS App available[/li]
[li]Fibaro Dimmer FGD211[/li]
[li]Fibaro Roller Shutter 2 FGRM222[/li]
[li]Fibaro Window Sensor FGK101[/li][/ul]
Please notice that hardware is merely informative and is exactly what I would like to be advised on, especially price/quality relation.
As to the controller my options seems to be Razberry (open source but a lot of work involved), Vera Lite (seems to be the smartest choice) or Fibaro Home Center ( HC2 looks to be awesome but extremely expensive, Lite I haven?t found if/were it beats Vera Lite).
Since I have no experience with Z-Wave I?m a little scared to invest a lot of money in some controller that would not do everything I want. Although I did read a lot about it there are some things only someone who already uses it in a daily basis can know.
Some basic concerns are:
[ul][li]Total light zone input (Coco technology can?t support that many lights in a single circuit/controller)[/li]
[li]My Window Blinds use an in-wall double switch and I?m not sure if module support double switch or only single switch (pretty sure fibaro does)[/li]
[li]Scenes creation and support in controller and association to an iOS App button[/li]
[li]AC220v support[/li]
[li]Community and friendly support (pretty sure MiCasaVerde is unbeatable on this one)[/li]
[li]Best bang for the buck as Portuguese life is not easy :P[/li][/ul]
Looking forward to hear some feedback and, hopefully one day might be the other way around 