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A bit of a straw poll about device connectivity
As you are likely aware, I recently provided a series of articles about home automation. The idea was to provide some insights into how to bring your heat pump, solar PV, EV charger and other disparate pieces of smart kit together into one cohesive home solution. I've had some positive feedback from all that, but it also got me thinking.
Whatever kit we're bringing together, it all relies in one way or another on being able to talk with the Internet, and in many cases that means whatever our broadband provider installed. In essence, we spend perhaps 5 figures on kit to heat and power our home and then channel quite a bit of its functionality through a £50 router that our ISP gave us "free" as part of the broadband installation.
Speaking personally, I chose to invest a bit in a more robust home network infrastructure and have never regretted it. However, is that a topic many forum members would find of interest? It's certainly starting to stray quite a bit from the core focus of this site and may well therefore be a bit too arcane to warrant an article. However, it's also technology we all of us use, so perhaps it's worth discussing.
I leave it to you, therefore, to decide. @editor has said that if I write such an article he'll publish it, but if I did so would you be interested or quickly skip past?
105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs
"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"
Yes indeed Major! We have a 1930’s built brick construction and found that pushing wifi signals around the whole house warranted a MESH network, so we have a router and FIVE more nodes. Yes a good subject network kit - why not? Changing from Virginontherediculous to Zen Internet next month here. Regards, Toodles.
Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.
Its an important part of running a heat pump for many, and other renewable technologies, so I think it merits coverage.
4kW peak of solar PV since 2011; EV and a 1930s house which has been partially renovated to improve its efficiency. 7kW Vaillant heat pump.
Yes, please.
Retrofitted 11.2kw Mitsubishi Ecodan to new radiators commissioned November 2021.
14 x 500w Monocrystalline solar panels.
2 ESS Smile G3 10.1 batteries.
ESS Smile G3 5kw inverter.
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