Apartment building with Home Assistant onboard

Hello everyone!

My name is Vadim Manaenko. I am a co-founder of Pinout LTD and one of the key developers in the Robonomics Network project. Today I want to share with you big news: Pinout LTD has signed a contract with the developer CCS for the automation of 28 apartments and common area in the Residence 28 building. Work will begin in 2024.

About the Project

The developer CCS has been operating on the market since 1997 and has built more than 600 properties. The Residence 28 project is located in Limassol, Cyprus. The building will consist of two blocks with a total living area (covered part) of about 1800 m2. This will be the first apartment building in Cyprus with a smart home system built on Zigbee wireless devices controlled by the open source Home Assistant software, remote access will be provided via the Robonomics Parachain Web3 cloud.

What Will Future Residents Receive?

Below is a floor plan of one of the two blocks and a designation legend.

Don't be confused by the word "Wired". This means that the device requires constant power, while the devices in the “Wireless” column are battery operated.

What new will the installation of all these devices bring to apartments?

Smart switches will allow residents to control lighting both in the usual way and through a smartphone application, set up schedules and scenarios. For example, while in the bedroom, you can turn off the lights in the entire apartment or create the atmosphere for the evening with a defined scene.

Programmable IR remote controls can handle multiple devices from one location. For example, turning on the air conditioner on a schedule or to maintain a set temperature in the room.

Curtains can be tied to your alarm clock to make waking up a more pleasant experience.

A smart boiler button will allow you to set the schedule once and no longer think about hot water in the winter.

Various sensors will give you complete information about the place where you live. Are all your doors and windows closed, what is the temperature and humidity in the nursery, how much electricity do you consume and for what, is there a water leak somewhere.

For greater comfort for residents, Pinout engineers will create seamless Internet within the apartment so that you have no dead zones.

Common Area

The building would not be called smart if the matter was limited only to automation inside the apartment. In a common area, smart relays will monitor the time of sunrise and sunset in order to turn on street lighting when it is really needed, without wasting resources. Lights in the lobby and staircases will turn on only when movement is detected.

Regarding security, residents will have access to the intercom system from a single home control panel. We will also install CCTV cameras for security.

Conclusion

Do you have the feeling that all this has already happened somewhere? Smart houses and apartments have been built for decades. So what new are Pinout engineers doing?

Your apartment is the most intimate place. It’s unlikely that you would be comfortable knowing that all your data ends up on a server somewhere outside your home. In this project, each apartment is equipped with a home server with Home Assistant. This software allows you to combine all devices into a single system, and all data will remain inside your apartment.

This way we get rid of delays in transmitting commands over the global Internet. If I’m at home and press “turn off the lights,” there’s no point in sending a signal somewhere and waiting for a response.

Moreover, Home Assistant itself will understand that a new smart device has appeared, for example, a TV or a robot vacuum cleaner, and will offer to add it. You yourself can expand the smart home system and customize automation to suit your habits.

Residence 28 is not just a new residential complex with automation. This is a smart home that easily adapts to your life.