PHouse Home Automation

The Home Automation in PHouse

There are three main parts of the Home Automation system in PHouse:

• the built-in 240V wiring aspects
• control system
• additional "smart" devices in rooms connected via the PHouse Networking

The main control of PHouse Home Automation is PHouse Server, currently an Acer Aspire R3-131T running Debian Testing, connected via USB to a Freetronics LeoStick (PHouse LeoStick) running the phouse control program.

Built-in 240V Wiring

The built-in 240V wiring has/will have three main customisations:

• Lighting
• Power
• Current Measurement

Lights and Power will both be controlled by Solid State Relays mounted on DIN rails in the electrical switchboard enclosures, located in the Laundry area.

Lighting

All light fixtures and similar fixed appliances (exhaust fan, heat lamp, heated towel rail, under-floor heating) are independently wired back to a wiring enclosure and controlled by independent Solid-State Relays (SSRs) (total of 16 channels).

The SSRs are Zelio (Schneider Electric) SPST-NO 3-12V control, 280VAC/2A mounted on Zelio 1 Piece Solid State Relay Mounting Kit for DIN rails (RS Components stock item numbers 9221827 and 9221874 respectively).

The SSRs are controlled by a MicroChip MCP23017 I/O port-expander, connected via Two Wire Interface bus to the PHouse LeoStick. This _will be_ all be mounted on a PCB in a "6-way" DIN enclosure, with appropriate screw-terminals.

Power

Most of the GPOs will be wired to one of two circuits that can be switched off via larger SSRs and the PHouse LeoStick. As well as the two circuits for the GPOs, the induction cooktop, solar hot-water booster and the 4 reverse-cycle air-conditioner units will also be controlled by SSRs in the electrical switch enclosure.

One GPO circuit will not be controlled by the Home Automation system: this circuit will power the fridge, the Home Automation control gear and one dual GPO in each bedroom and the lounge for clock radios etc.

Current Measurement

Current transformers will be installed on the incoming 3-phase power as well as on selected power circuits to manage power consumption. More details to come.

Development

Development of the Lighting and Power control is done using a Linksprite I/O Expander Shield with MCP23017 as purchased from Jaycar Electronics catalogue no. XC4547.

Control System

User Controls

House occupants will have a number of ways of controlling the lights and other factors in the PHouse environment:

• by PHouse Light Switches in each room (connected via One-Wire busses)
• by a central control panel mounted between the kitchen and the lounge area
• by individual Wi-Fi connected devices (laptops, Android devices etc.)
• remotely by a Web interface

The PHouse LeoStick will control all the light and power relays in two modes:

• when it detects polling from the PHouse Server (over USB), it will respond to commands from the server
• when it detects no polling from the server, it will monitor the PHouse Light Switches over One-Wire directly and respond to user events

Normally the PHouse Server will poll all the light switches and other sensors (PIR, light level, temperature) and issue control commands to the PHouse LeoStick to control lights and power, or other systems to control room heating etc.

The PHouse LeoStick will be master of three One-Wire busses, each with an accompanying 12VDC power rail. Three busses mean that each can be kept to a minimal length, and if one fails it won't necessarily adversely affect the other sensors on the other busses.