Hey Melissa! It's funny that you bring this up, i've literally just spent this morning building a z-wave mesh network at a friends tuition centre, and I have the same thing set up in our cowork space, so could probably give a few pointers!
We use Samsung Smart Things (built for residential use, straight out the box) and its great once you start to learn a bit more about hacking your way through it, which by the sounds of it you will have no problem being experienced with other smart home tech and Pi's. My problem was that we needed to automate lighting and heaters as we do not have central heating, and lights often get left on when there is no need. To solve this I installed an app called webCore which allows you to create complex conditional actions with little to no coding - all logic. So if the temperature drops below 20 degrees (C) during opening hours in our space, the electric heaters turn on. In the summer we will do the same with fans. We are also setting it all up in the meeting rooms and kitchen to turn on lights and AV when someone walks into the room either via the door opening sensors or the motion sensors. In hindsight, we will buy a controller that is built more for commercial networks in the future, but for now Smart Things works perfectly for us. The great thing is there is an absolute plethora of products that are compatible, and a thriving online community (like this one) of smart things nerds who are massively helpful when things don't quite work as advertised. You can automate heaters, lights, fans, blinds, sirens, smoke alarms, cctv, traditional central heating and more! I would also recommend looking on a site like vesternet.com (for the UK its great, if you're in the US im not sure) and forums when deciding which accessories and gadgets to buy - if you do go down the smartthings route, there are often lots of better quality extras by other manufacturers (Fibaro to name one) Tip: Label EVERYTHING. people like to fiddle/remove plugs, and this will disturb your network. I have labels on the plugs and the devices that are within members reach with "do not remove" or "smart device - do not change settings" if its something like a electric heater or fan. *Disclaimer: Heaters technically shouldn't be controlled by the power socket. I have read this on all packaging of heaters we have bought. Something to do with the internal thermometer getting confused/upset by it. So be weary of this incase it is dangerous/voids insurance should the worst scenario ever happen. I'm doing it, but make your call :)* Hope this helps! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
