18th century upgrade

• Case Studies

What’s the saying? When you want a job done properly, do it yourself! That is exactly how Suzanne Fitzgerald, founder of French integration company, Dmoti, started out. After making plans to completely renovate their 18^th century Maison du Vigneron in the South of France, Fitzgerald and her husband discovered smart home integration, became KNX certified partners, and created a vision of an energy efficient smart home for themselves.

“Originally, we wanted the house to be energy efficient with a focus on energy optimisation, with zone-controlled heating, automated lighting, shading to protect from overheating, and we wanted to have the comfort of visualisation of the system on our phones and iPad,” Fitzgerald explains. “We didn’t imagine back then that it would evolve into our show home and be the backbone of our smart home business but the great thing about using KNX is the possibility to evolve as your needs change and this has definitely been proven with our home and continues to do so.”

DIY pro

Plans were made to begin the renovation in 2013 but they had trouble finding an integrator. “The biggest challenge was finding an electrical partner to do the project,” Fitzgerald admits. “At the time there were not many integrators in the South of France, so we decided to do it ourselves and lead the design and installation.

“This was our first ever KNX project,” she continues. “We were working with electricians who had not installed KNX before, so we had to plan and explain everything and supervise all elements of the installation in detail. It turned out to be the perfect first project! We learned so much that we decided to go into the smart home business as a result."

Based near Montpellier, South of France, the house is home to Fitzgerald, her husband and their three children. It was important that the install was family friendly and easy to use for the children, adults and guests who often visit.

Transformation

Formerly the wine cave, the main living space is open plan with large doors opening onto the terrace. Shading was important, with large glass doors, to keep the area from overheating in the summer. “We used Orientable Solar Shading from Griesser to protect the south and west facing façades from overheating,” explains Fitzgerald. “They have Basalte Sentido keypads next to them but are mostly controlled using pre-programmed scenes on either the Basalte Ellie Touchscreen, iPad or through automations.”

She adds: “The house also has zone-controlled underfloor heating as well as air conditioning controlled by KNX, and mechanical ventilation heat recovery throughout the property. All rooms have solar shading in the form of Brise Soleil Orientable (BSO) or a screen built into the windows. They are all controlled on the Ellie touchscreens, Basalte Home App, on smartphones/tablets, or through the Sentido keypads, as well as automations.”

Using a Basalte Eve iPad mount, an iPad Pro is used as the central hub in the open plan kitchen. Fitzgerald reveals: “We have recently added two Basalte Aalto D3 active in-wall speakers to the columns either side of the stairs in the living space. They are stunning and are always the talking point of the main living space. We have also installed an Ellie touchscreen to control the audio but it is also used to communicate on intercom with the bedrooms to hurry along the children!”

Audio is installed throughout the property using various speakers. “We have Basalte Asano M4 amplifiers with KEF Ci160QR speakers, Basalte Aalto in-wall D3 speakers, an Aalto B2 subwoofer in the main living area, and an Aalto D4 on-wall soundbar for the office TV,” Fitzgerald says. “We also currently use Sonos’ Play:5, One, Move and Roam for bathrooms and outdoors.”

As with many projects we see, lighting plays a big part in this installation. Using Gira and Theben dimming and switching actuators for around 100 circuits of lighting, controlled sockets and lamp circuits, the lighting is designed to create different ambiances in the rooms.

Fitzgerald adds: “All bathrooms have night lighting with Basalte Auro PIRs. We used a Theben presence detector in the hallway for night lighting of stairs for safety. In the office we have a JUNG PIR for constant lighting control to ensure the correct luminosity for screen work without eye strain. Outdoor and staircase lighting are on timers, but we also use Theben motion detectors for the automated outdoor lighting to come on when movement is detected.”

With futureproofing in mind, the staircase was designed to wrap around a void which can later integrate a glass lift between floors should the family ever need it. “The staircase is 13m high!” exclaims Fitzgerald. “It goes down to the media room, showroom and office where we have a Basalte Aalto D4 soundbar on the wall and Basalte Cielo in-ceiling speakers all controlled with a Sentido. The rack is also on show in this area to demonstrate the S4 and M4 from Basalte.”

“I now use this experience to put extra conduits in our client’s installations to futureproof for changes in the lifetime of the building.”

The staircase also leads to two upper floors where the bedrooms are. The first floor has a central hallway with VIA LED lighting for night safety. The master suite and three children’s bedrooms are also on this floor. The top floor is not yet renovated but will be a guest suite and games room.

In terms of control, various Basalte keypads, switches and touchscreens have been used as well as iPads and smartphone controls. A Basalte Miro remote is used to control the Samsung 75” TV.

Each room also features an Ellie touchscreen which allows the family to use the intercom function as well as control the music, lights, blinds and climate control in each room. The children’s bathrooms also have customised Zennio TMD4 pushbuttons and Zennio temperature and humidity sensors for towel radiator control and ventilation.

Coming together

With so much technology installed throughout the home, it’s important to choose the right control system to manage it and allow the setup of pre-programmed scenes and automations. As already mentioned, this integrator used KNX with Basalte Home for the installation.

“KNX is the heart of the system, but we use Basalte Home as the visualisation and control system with scenarios being a central part of the solution,” Fitzgerald explains. “Even the children create their own scenes, and they also understand that the flexibility of the KNX system allows them to ask us to change their bedroom pushbuttons to do different functions.

“We have different access rights for the children; they cannot control each other’s bedrooms for example, and they have limited access to control certain rooms in the house,” she continues. “The admin access we use has all the technical controls and global centralisations to turn off all the air conditioning or set summer mode, for example. When family visit, they have a guest login so they can control the music around the pool from their phones, and they love the fact they can control the lighting, blinds and music in their bedrooms too.”

This installation led to the founding of the couple’s integration business, Dmoti. They have now converted some of their basement into an office and showroom for customers. It is all connected and controlled by the same KNX and Basalte Home system so that customers can see it working in a real-life situation. They also have various pushbuttons and touchscreens in the showroom to demo.

“As we’re in the South of France, we often have family and friends over to visit so it’s a good opportunity to have feedback on the usability of our home for guests,” says Fitzgerald. “As integrators, you know how everything works but having other people interact with it easily helps us to know we’ve got it right. We also use our house as our showroom so clients and electricians can interact with our home to see how it will work for them in their future homes.”

Retrofit

This installation was a complete renovation, being careful to keep the original stone and structure of the 18^th century Maison du Vigneron. Many installations are carried out in new build homes that are designed around the technology, but this isn’t always possible when it comes to renovations. Some of the technology had to be retrofitted.

“Our home shows that a smart home can be a renovation and not always a new architect villa,” Fitzgerald explains. “We had to run new audio, power and networking cabling in closed and immaculately finished ceilings in order to add in the Aalto speakers and the new Basalte amplifier to the office and showroom. We managed to do this by removing the lighting, making some discrete access points and feeding the new cabling into the technical ducts. One issue we came across was the underfloor heating screed had partially blocked the duct, so we had to open this and carefully pass the wiring from floor to floor. With the use of cameras and cable pulls and a lot of patience, we successfully completed the installation.”

“Our home shows that a smart home can be a renovation and not always a new architect villa.”

Looking back, Fitzgerald says that she wishes she had futureproofed the property more: “I would have run more empty conduits in the ceilings to allow for modifications in the future – I now use this experience to put extra conduits in our client’s installations to futureproof for changes in the lifetime of the building.”

Additions

Although the project was officially completed in 2019, the couple have been making additions ever since with more plans to continue.

“We want to add a summer kitchen, bar and outdoor cinema to the recently added pool area with audio and lighting scenarios,” says Fitzgerald. “It will have video projection on the tall wall behind the pool and the area will have e-key access. This is very exciting to work with landscape gardeners to plan the lighting, water systems and audio.”

There are also plans to add Basalte Plano R5 in-wall speakers as well as a Marantz AVR into the showroom. An entrance courtyard will also be added to the main property with a 2N IP Style door entry system. Finally, a summerhouse for the children will be built sometime in the future which will be another KNX project.

All images credited: Kerry Morgan Wow Maisons

Tech Spec

Airzone Gateways

Apple iPad Air

Apple iPad Pro

Arcus-EDS SK08-WAQ Swimming Pool Monitoring & Control       

Basalte Aalto B2 Active Network Subwoofer

Basalte Aalto D3 Active In-Wall Speakers

Basalte Aalto D4 On-Wall Soundbar

Basalte Asano M4 4-Zone Amplifiers

Basalte Auro PIRs

Basalte Chopin Switches

Basalte Cielo In-Ceiling Speakers

Basalte Core S4

Basalte Ellie Touchscreens

Basalte Eve Desk Stand

Basalte Eve iPad Mount

Basalte Fibonacci Switches

Basalte Miro Remote

Basalte Sentido Keypads

GIRA Blind Actuators

GIRA Dimming & Switching Actuators

GIRA S1

GIRA Smoke Detectors

Griesser Orientable Solar Shading

Internorm Windows with Integrated Blinds

Intesis Gateways

JUNG Flood & Leak Sensors

JUNG Mini Basic PIRs

KEF Ci160QR In-Ceiling Speakers

Normalux VIA LED

Samsung 75” Frame TV

Sonos Move

Sonos One

Sonos Play:5

Sonos Roam

Theben AG Binary Door Contacts

Theben AG Dimming & Switching Actuators

Theben AG Switching Actuators for Towel Radiators

Theben AG theLuxa P300 Motion Detector

Theben AG theRonda S360 KNX Flat Presence Detectors

Theben AG Underfloor Heating Actuators

Ubiquiti Dream Machine UDM Pro

Ubiquiti Edgeswitch 10XP

Ubiquiti Protect G4 Bullet

Ubiquiti Switch 24 PoE

Ubiquiti UniFi Nano Access Points

Ubiquiti UniFi Security Cameras

Zennio Temperature & Humidity Sensors

Zennio TMD4 Pushbuttons

Showroom Demos of Various Touchscreens & Pushbuttons from:

• Basalte
• Ekinex
• GIRA
• JUNG
• Schneider Electric
• Siemens
• Tense
• Theben AG
• Zennio