Electrical planning presents us with challenges
We like to deal with topics that revolve around living and so far we have invested a lot of time planning our future condominium down to the smallest detail wherever possible. It now turns out that everything to do with electricity and multimedia is by far the biggest nut to crack. Electrical planning presents us with various challenges: On the one hand, we are faced with the tension of keeping our apartment as „clean“ as possible. In other words, only as many sockets and switches as necessary. On the other hand, we have the feeling that we want to install as many of these as possible in order to be equipped with the latest technology in the future. It’s a bit like the CD drive on a notebook a few years ago. It takes a lot of effort to give it away and once you no longer have it, you no longer miss it. The problem, however, is that an additional socket cannot simply be conjured up so quickly.
So what to do? We all agree: we will always need power connections in some form or another. We don’t cut corners here and add plenty of sockets to the existing planning. The opposite is true for multimedia connections. The magic word is empty sockets with blind covers. We want to avoid as much cable clutter as possible, but have to rely on WLAN as an alternative. We are a little skeptical about electrosmog. But it shouldn’t increase (much) compared to today. For example, we have a hidden multimedia connection installed in a kitchen cupboard and place a WiFi amplifier there, which distributes the signal throughout the entire apartment. Apart from that, we only have one multimedia connection in the library. All of the remaining seven (!) connections will be installed exclusively in an empty socket. We had previously shied away from this step for purely aesthetic reasons. But let’s be honest – they are not noticeable as they are usually covered by furniture .
How „smart“ should our new „home“ be?
The integration of a smart home system is causing us even more headaches. First of all, it should be mentioned that we still want buttons and don’t want to control everything via an app (if only because of the children) and also don’t want to network everything together. Lights and awnings yes, thermostats optional.
We simply don’t know much about the subject and had to spend a lot of time researching and talking about it. We would like to do without KNX. The reasons are obvious: expensive and inflexible. Then there are Zigbee and Shelly. Two possible alternatives that could be considered, but which we find only partially suitable for us. This is because we have lamps that do not (yet) fit smart light sources and only partially fulfill the primary goal of reducing the number of buttons. Of course, the price here is attractive and hardly makes a difference and a large number of well-known manufacturers support the Zigbee wireless standard.
We have now come across a very young start-up from Switzerland. DingZ is the name of the WLAN push-button and is able to combine four functions on one module. For example, it can be used to control four lamps or two lamps and an awning – or a combination of the two. A thermostat can also be connected to it. Just what we are looking for! Of course, there is a certain risk involved. After all, who knows whether the company will still be around in five years‘ time and whether the closed system will still be developed further. The costs for this are in the medium range and we have decided to consider DingZ for our expansion. The push-buttons are compatible with the Edizionedue model from the Swiss manufacturer Feller and can be replaced at will. Even if we would have liked nicer buttons than those from Feller, we see more opportunities than risks with DingZ. And with Apple Homekit certification on the horizon, we are confident that we have found a good solution – after several late-night blog visits and YouTube tutorials.
Our tips for you
- It’s better to have too many power connections than too few – because you don’t want to have cables running through your home for meters on end
- Plan empty sockets with dummy covers instead of doing without future (multimedia) connection options altogether. You remain flexible
- If you want to use a smart home system, there are cheaper alternatives on the market than KNX. Opt for an open system (such as Zigbee) or a closed system (such as DingZ) and weigh up the pros and cons carefully. However, you should be able to make changes yourself and not be dependent on a specialist.
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Michel N. (37) and Michèle G. (36) live in Lucerne with their daughter Lilou (2). The two communication specialists with a flair for beautiful living are fulfilling their wish to buy a condominium near the city limits of Lucerne. Bruno Wickart accompanies and advises the couple on their project from the very first day – from the floor plan design to the fully furnished property.
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