As you can immediately notice, the name is telling. The meaning of the wired system is as follows: all control elements of the Smart House – switches, control panels, all kinds of sensors and devices – are connected with each other by a single wired bus. Through this bus they give commands (signals, telegrams) to the executive devices (relays, actuators), which are located in the panel. The role of the bus can be performed by a special cable, and sometimes by ordinary twisted pair.
The advantages of a wired automation system:
- Reliability. Signal transmission by wire will always be more reliable than wireless transmission. By analogy of connecting the Internet to a computer: what is more reliable – wire or wi-fi? It is more reliable, not more convenient. The report is obvious.
- Speed. The speed of telegram transmission over the wire is high enough not to cause discomfort to the user, which is often caused by a significant delay. And discomfort can be followed by technical problems. The user may decide that he badly pressed the switch key, and will begin to press it several times in a row, in other words, “click” the switch. This will inevitably lead to a bus hang because of the large number of commands sent.
- Wide choice of controls. The functionality and variety of design ideas for controls in wired networks has always been a head and shoulders above their “wireless brothers”. We don’t know why, but it’s true. We have to accept it.
- Diversity of integrated systems. Naturally, the range of solved tasks for wired systems is much wider than for wireless ones. Realization of complex scenarios in which multitask climate control, control of a large number of light groups, multiroom system is connected, is possible only on a wired system. A wireless system will not cope here.
- Durability. In the wired system there are no battery elements, which can lead to untimely disconnection of its elements and to not always convenient process of replacement of batteries.
Some peculiarities should be taken into account when installing wired systems:
The locations of the control elements must be preliminarily and clearly selected. Once the wire has been laid and the switch has been installed, it will be virtually impossible to move it. A mistake in measurement will be costly.
The fact that a broken information wire (busbar) disables either part of the system or the entire system is beyond doubt. Therefore, great attention should be paid to quality installation and the qualifications of the installers.
A wired system is not an option for a ready-made renovation. It should only be designed and installed at the beginning of the construction, before the classic wiring is done.
Wireless technologies and automation systems Smart House.
Again from the name we understand that commands from the control device to the executive in such a system come not by wire, but by radio signal. The absence of wires gives space saving, time saving for installation and material savings due to the absence of these very wires. The main trump card of wireless systems is the possibility of installation at the ready repair and classic wiring.
Advantages of wireless Smart Home system:
- There is an option of installation in rooms with ready repair with classic electrical wiring. Wireless switch, operating on an autonomous power cell, can be installed even on the ceiling.
- Fewer wires. This is especially true for wooden log houses. Although here you need to take into account the not very high bandwidth of wood for radio signals.
- Savings on the project, which can not but please. In most cases, the design project for wireless automation system is unnecessary.
- Price. Today there is a sufficient number of budget wireless systems, the functionality of which is enough to solve basic problems.
It is necessary to take into account some peculiarities when installing wireless systems:
- Communication quality. A radio channel is a radio channel. It is very fragile and depends on the quality of radio communication, and from various kinds of interference from the same radiotelephones or microwaves, and from the material of the walls and even from the included Christmas lights, which can also affect the strength of the signal.
- Power cells. They need to be stocked up. Of course, they do not need to be changed every day, but we all know well that by the law of meanness this very battery will burn out at this inopportune moment. And there’s no spare.
- There may be transmitters in the system that are powered by AC mains rather than batteries. Accordingly, for such transmitters, you need to lay the neutral wire in the mounting box.
- Multifunctional, and most importantly – a stable working control system on the radio channel to create quite difficult. And most likely impossible.
- Cyber risk. Yes, it sounds loud, but if in the case of a wired system we can use it autonomously, disconnecting all external communications, the radio channel in this regard is exposed to danger, and some hacker with nothing to do can spoil your life.