John Tyson, Director of Smart Home Plus, was recently commissioned to install Niko Home Control at an eighteenth century farmhouse on the North Lancashire/Cumbria border.
The property was in need of some TLC having been a working farm for a very long time. The renovation was carried out over the course of a number of years (2005-2014) and as well as some basic changes to insulate, upgrade and modernise the interior—including an extension to provide additional kitchen/family room—the outside space and garden were the focus of the latter stages of the project.
The clients were particularly keen to focus on the lighting and heating aspects of the design. The installation of under-floor heating on the ground floor introduced six independently controlled zones of heating, allowing rooms to be heated based on their use and not from a central thermostat.
It was important to get the lighting right, due to the age of the property. The installer used a lighting designer to ensure that the zoning was correct before the wiring was completed.
The main contractor’s electricians were used to run the basic wiring as part of the initial renovation and their technology division installed and commissioned the Niko (Nikobus) components but Smart Home Plus completed the final programming.
The installation was straightforward, wiring back to two control points—one in the main house situated in the boiler room and one in the garage to control all the outside lighting.
Using a designer to get the light zoning right allowed the client and Smart Home Plus to gain a cost-effective solution from the outset by ensuring the right circuits were installed to allow flexible control. Based on the basic cost of wiring, it turned out to be far more efficient to have too many circuits that too few.
John Tyson recently upgraded the Nikobus system to Niko Home Control to take advantage of the new features that are on offer. A wireless key fob access was also set up so the client could enter the property from the car. The next step of the project is to upgrade the heating system to allow it to communicate with the lighting system in order to fully utilise Niko Home Control’s ‘scene’ options and what’s more, allow the client to access all heating settings from outside the home.
The best features of the project include; route lighting and security. The route lighting means that as soon as the garage door is opened, for example, the garage light turns on and so does the route to the kitchen. The security features also allow for all lighting to be turned off from the front door and also sets the system to simulate presence by turning on chosen lights at random. All internal and external lights can also be switched off from one switch in the bedroom and there is a ‘welcome home’ switch at the front door, which turns on the hallway, kitchen and family room lights. What’s more, LED feedback allows clients to see exactly which lights are on from one central panel and all Niko switch covers are beautifully designed and come in a range of colours and materials.
Equipment List
Main Cabinet
1 Home Control Gateway
1 26v Power Supply
1 Controller
1 IP Interface
2 Rail Coupler
3 6-way Switching Modules
2 3-way Switching Modules
6 2-way Dimming Modules
1 Apple Airport Extreme (for wireless connectivity to the cabinet)
6 Programmable Thermostats
Garage
1 26v Power Supply
1 6-way Switching Module
2 3-way Switching Modules
1 Easywave RF Interface
www.niko.eu
John Tyson is the director of Smart Home Plus, a small company based in the Northwest of the UK specialising in Niko Home Control systems. The firm offers a range of design advice and consultancy services to full project management of your Niko installation.