We are just finishing up building our new house.
My wife is paralyzed from the shoulders down ( she can use her arms but not her hands ). She can type on a computer with the use of splints.
We were on a very tight timeline with the bank (who kept wanting us to roll ever the construction loan in spite of the fact that twice we had contractors just disappear on us) and we are tight on money.
I had done a house over once before for a friend using X10. I realized this was "old" technology.
I also realized that no matter what I put in today, in a few years I might have to switch out the entire system.
So ...... what I did was home ran every light to a panel (4 ft x 4 ft box with lots of terminal blocks). I also home ran every switch using 3/14 wire to the same panel ( for now on two way switches, I just do not use the red wire). I "jumped" the wires in the panel so that right now, the house lighting is wired in a conventional manor, the only difference is that rather than going from the switch right to the light, I go from the switch to the panel and then to the light. I have included two pictures of this. Power is fed from the breaker box to the black wires ( bottom of second and forth row ) ... black wire goes to switch ... read and white wires on left side of first and third row return from switch .... black wire on top of second and forth row go out to lights ... white wire in middle of second and forth row come back from lights and go back to breaker panel. Jumpers between rows connect switch with lights.
My thinking is that I now need to find a PLC ( I have a background in industrial electronics so this is common to me). I was going to put two momentary push buttons in place of the switches and feed this to the PLC input. I would then take the lights and hook them to the PLC outputs. In other words, the PLC inputs and outputs would take the place of the jumpers between rows one and two and rows three and four.
I am hoping (thought I have not done any homework yet as I am still working on the house .... we are living in VT in an RV while I finish a lot of items .... we just did what was necessary to get the bank off our backs) that there is a PLC that will have an app or that I can find an app that will work with a PLC so that she can control all the lights from a tablet hooked to WiFi or something similar. The momentary switches ( I will run them on 24 vdc) are so I can control the lights from a normal switch.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what I have done so far? Any suggestions on a PLC or controller I could/should use?
I did zone the furnace and put in three WiFi thermostats. She is able to set the temperature of the house from inside the RV.
I still need to think about door openers. I just got a quote on a unit ..... $1500 ... out of our budget. I am thinking about how I can build my own.
I am in the middle of building an elevator to get to the second floor. A purchased unit (with door closers and such) was quoted to use at $40K! We were told we could get a grant so we built a two story house ( .... long story why ) anyway, grant was approve for ony $5K .... we don't have $35K. I purchased an electric forklift for $850. I have now stripped it and have the mast section inside the house. I am going to begin putting it back together ( mast section and hydraulics only ... not the body) and that will become the elevator.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks ..... Mike
We are just finishing up building our new house.
My wife is paralyzed from the shoulders down ( she can use her arms but not her hands ). She can type on a computer with the use of splints.
We were on a very tight timeline with the bank (who kept wanting us to roll ever the construction loan in spite of the fact that twice we had contractors just disappear on us) and we are tight on money.
I had done a house over once before for a friend using X10. I realized this was "old" technology.
I also realized that no matter what I put in today, in a few years I might have to switch out the entire system.
So ...... what I did was home ran every light to a panel (4 ft x 4 ft box with lots of terminal blocks). I also home ran every switch using 3/14 wire to the same panel ( for now on two way switches, I just do not use the red wire). I "jumped" the wires in the panel so that right now, the house lighting is wired in a conventional manor, the only difference is that rather than going from the switch right to the light, I go from the switch to the panel and then to the light. I have included two pictures of this. Power is fed from the breaker box to the black wires ( bottom of second and forth row ) ... black wire goes to switch ... read and white wires on left side of first and third row return from switch .... black wire on top of second and forth row go out to lights ... white wire in middle of second and forth row come back from lights and go back to breaker panel. Jumpers between rows connect switch with lights.
My thinking is that I now need to find a PLC ( I have a background in industrial electronics so this is common to me). I was going to put two momentary push buttons in place of the switches and feed this to the PLC input. I would then take the lights and hook them to the PLC outputs. In other words, the PLC inputs and outputs would take the place of the jumpers between rows one and two and rows three and four.
I am hoping (thought I have not done any homework yet as I am still working on the house .... we are living in VT in an RV while I finish a lot of items .... we just did what was necessary to get the bank off our backs) that there is a PLC that will have an app or that I can find an app that will work with a PLC so that she can control all the lights from a tablet hooked to WiFi or something similar. The momentary switches ( I will run them on 24 vdc) are so I can control the lights from a normal switch.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what I have done so far? Any suggestions on a PLC or controller I could/should use?
I did zone the furnace and put in three WiFi thermostats. She is able to set the temperature of the house from inside the RV.
I still need to think about door openers. I just got a quote on a unit ..... $1500 ... out of our budget. I am thinking about how I can build my own.
I am in the middle of building an elevator to get to the second floor. A purchased unit (with door closers and such) was quoted to use at $40K! We were told we could get a grant so we built a two story house ( .... long story why ) anyway, grant was approve for ony $5K .... we don't have $35K. I purchased an electric forklift for $850. I have now stripped it and have the mast section inside the house. I am going to begin putting it back together ( mast section and hydraulics only ... not the body) and that will become the elevator.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks ..... Mike
