FRONT ROOM

The Front Room another long term energy usage areas in the home, and required monitoring devices to monitor and control the energy usage.

  • 1 x smart 4 gang to control power for connected devices
    (Surround Sound Amp, Nvidia Shield, Sky Q Box, RF Box)
  • 1 x smart 4 gang (Meross) to control power for connected devices
    (TV, Projector, 4K Box, Network Switch)
  • 4 x 9.5w Philips Hue wifi led bulbs
  • 2 x Philips Hue dimmer switches
  • 1 x tasmota smart plug with energy monitoring (Entertainment System)
  • 1 x Amazon echo 4th Gen
  • 1 x tasmota smart plug with energy monitoring (Russ Heater)
  • 1 x SwitchBot temperature and humidy sensor
  • SwitchBot Hub Plus
  • Broadlink RM4 Pro
  • Remote Control Blackout Roller Blind motor
  • TP-Link Deco M5 Mesh Wifi Extender
  • Cyberpower BR700ELCD UPS

PRODUCTS

Meross WiFi smart plug with 4 A/C outlets

I have 2 of these devices connected to my entertainment area to control:

Meross 4 Gang (1)

  • Surround Sound Amplifier
  • Nvidia Shield Pro
  • Sky Q 2TB Box
  • Technomate TM-RF HD Modulator

Meross 4 Gang (2)

  • Samsung Smart TV
  • Netgear Network Switch
  • 4K HDMI Splitter

Wifi Smart Plug with Energy Monitoring

I have this plug conntected to a 8 gang extention lead where my two Meross smart 4 gangs are connected along with other devices.

This plug allows me to turn on/off everything at once and provides energy monitoring statistics.

SwitchBot Hub Plus

I have configured my SwitchBot hub to connect with:

  • Front room thermometer / hydrometer
  • Kitchen thermometer / hydrometer
  • Dining room thermometer / hydrometer
  • Bedroom 4 thermometer / hydrometer
  • Conservatory / Gym thermometer / hydrometer
  • Network room thermometer / hydrometer
  • Poppy room thermometer / hydrometer
  • Landing thermometer / hydrometer
  • Conservatory / Gym switch / hydrometer
  • Hallway thermometer / hydrometer
  • En Suite Shower room thermometer / hydrometer
  • Bedroom 1 thermometer / hydrometer
  • Office 1 thermometer / hydrometer
  • Bedroom 2 thermometer / hydrometer
  • Office 2 thermometer / hydrometer
  • Bedroom 3 thermometer / hydrometer
  • Attic thermometer / hydrometer
  • Conservatory SwitchBot

Smartbot Temperature & Humidity Sensor

As winter approached it was important to monitor the homes temperature and humidity to reveal if there were any issues with heat escaping or high humidity causing damp and mould.

Blackout Roller Blind (240cm x 165cm)

We often watch movies during the day when it can be too bright to view due to weather conditions.

This blackout blind cuts out the incoming light so we can watch movies in the cinema room in darkness.

This is a manual blind, so I connected it up to the Ajax Smart WiFi blind motor so it could be remote controlled or voice controlled.

Echo 4th Generation

This 4th generation Amazon echo is this locations voice assistant used to control devices and run set routines.

Broadlink RM4 Pro IR & RF Universal Remote

This smart device controls my:

  • Samsung TV (On/Off)
  • Projector Screen (Up/Down)
  • Projector (On/Off)
  • Surround Sound Amp (On/Off)
  • Changes Amp Channel (Movies/Sky)
  • Remote TV Bracket (Moves TV to Wall & Back)

I have also enable the Alexa skill so I can simply say either “Movie Time” or “TV Time” and it executes a routine:

  1. Moves TV to wall
  2. Turns off TV
  3. Lowers Blackout Blind
  4. Lowers Projector Screen
  5. Changes Surrond Sound Channel to Movies
  6. Turns on Nvidia Shield On
  7. Turns off Philips Hue Lights

ENTERTAINMENT SETUP

Our front room is our main entertainment hub. We spend our evenings and weekend here watching TV and Movies via our cinema room setup.

Over time, more and more smart devices have been added and routines created to improve the comfort and technical feel to this room.

During our last conversation about an upgrade to our TV, I suggested instead of getting an even bigger set that would be 1K, 2K, 4K or 8K, flat or curved, 50″, 55″ or 65″ we should consider a projector.

This would provide a huge screen (120″) and we would use a TV for watching normal things, but when it came to movies, we could have a near cinema experience.

Samsung 55″ TV

Sky Q

Nvidia Shield Pro 4K

Poineer HTP-076 Home Cinema

Projector Screen

Technomate HDMI RF Modulator

4K /1080p HDMI Splitter

Epson EH-TW7000 4K Pro-UHD

Ajax Online Smart WiFi Blind Motor

This Wifi smart blind motor is connected to our blackout roller blind.

It can be controlled by a remote control, by voice assistant or from a routine.

This is used daily to close when it gets dark and also used when watching movies.

TP-Link Deco M5 Mesh WiFi

Our smart home WiFi solution is provided by this product.

We have 5 of these Deco’s positioned at location around the house to provide a strong and fast WiFi mesh.

Philips Hue White Smart Bulbs (x4)

Our lighting in the front room is provided by 4 Philips Hue white smart bulbs.

We have them setup with 3 modes for differetn brighness levels to save energy and have enabled alexa voice conrol if required.

We have 2 Philips Hue dimmers installed to control the lights from both ends of the room.

Philips Hue Smart Wireless Dimmer

I have installed 2 wireless dimmers in this room.

One is position at the entrance of the room and the other is at the control area where all the remotes are located.

They control the 4 Philips Hue light bulbs providing 3 light settings depending on what brighness is required.

Cyberpower BR700ELCD-UK Line-Interactive UPS

With the possibility of energy blackouts from 5pm – 7pm, I decided to purchase some UPS’s to install at certain areas around the house to provide some power in order to shut down hardware in a safe way.

This UPS only lasts up to 15 minutes based on the 150w draw of all the equipment in the entertainment area. 

In order to have a proper blackout protection solution, we are upgrading our solar / battery solution to turn the home into an island from the grid. The 2 x 9.5kwh batteries are more than sufficent to keep the house running for the 3 hours during a predicted blackout.

What this UPS does is keep the amp spike to a minimum if not zero. The danger of a blackout is that the ampage would exceed the 15amp ceiling and trip the inverter. This prevents those horrible amp spikes being sent to the inverter once the power has been restored.