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Smart home and home automation
Smart switches and controls run £400 to £2,500 depending on how much of the house is covered. One detail stops more of these projects on day one than everything else combined: most smart switches need a neutral at the switch, and a great many British houses do not have one there.
What this covers
What it costs. Two or three rooms of smart switching is £400 to £900. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Smart switches and dimmers on existing circuits
- Neutral wires added where a smart switch needs one
- Scene lighting across a whole floor
- Smart heating controls and zone valves
- Networking and hubs that keep working without the cloud
What is involved
Lighting in older British houses is commonly wired with the loop at the ceiling rose, which sends switched line and permanent line down to the switch and leaves the neutral at the ceiling. A conventional switch does not need one. A smart switch has electronics that have to be powered continuously, and most need a neutral to do it. Finding out which arrangement a house has takes an electrician ten minutes with one switch plate off, and it decides whether the project is straightforward, needs no-neutral switches, or needs the lighting rewiring.
Where the intelligence lives is the decision that determines how the house behaves in five years. Devices that make their own decisions locally keep working when the broadband goes down and when a manufacturer loses interest. Devices that depend on a cloud service stop being smart the day that service is retired, and several large ones have been. A local hub with a documented standard behind it is duller to buy and considerably less likely to become landfill.
The thing worth fitting first is rarely the thing people ask for. Heating controls with proper zoning pay for themselves and get used daily. Lighting scenes in the rooms actually used in the evening get used. Whole house automation of blinds, speakers and door locks is the part that impresses visitors and gets switched off when somebody cannot turn a lamp on. Start with the switches in two or three rooms, live with it, and extend what gets used.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask the electrician to check for a neutral at the switch before you buy a single switch, because that one fact changes what you can fit. Ask whether the system keeps working with the internet down. Ask what happens if the manufacturer stops supporting it. Start small enough that you can change your mind.
Common questions
Why will my smart switch not work?
Usually no neutral at the switch. Lighting looped at the ceiling rose brings only switched and permanent line down. Either fit switches designed to work without a neutral, or have one run, which means going into the ceiling.
Will it still work if the broadband goes down?
Depends entirely on the system. Locally controlled devices carry on. Cloud dependent ones stop, including the switches on the wall in some cases, which is worth establishing before buying.