I’m having my bathroom redone early next year, and want to take the opportunity to bring some ‘smart’ to the room. Wondering if anyone had done anything similar recently and have any tips or feedback on my approach?
I’m planning to install the following:
Sensor: aeotec multi sensor 6; mainly used to trigger lights (motion/light) and extractor fan (humidity); with recessed fitting
Lights: either 5x philips GU10s or 5x ecoled ZEP1s
Fibaro single switch: connecting extractor fan to smartthings
(if using ecoleds) Fibaro dimmer: connecting lights to smartthings
RetroTouch 2 way rocker light switch: override for lights and fan if (/when…) smartthings plays up
Some questions I’ve got at the moment:
am I going to have trouble fitting two fibaro modules into one standard light switch box (behind the faceplate)?
I’m not sure about my wiring re presence of a neutral; will it be relatively trivial for an electrical to run neutral to the light switch? I’m assuming there is a neutral in the vicinity - is that a safe assumption? Obviously I’ll check with electrician when I get nearer but just want a sense whilst I’m doing early planning.
Smart bulbs vs non-smart bulbs + fibaro dimmer; apart from the obvious, any insights from experiences of using one or the other, especially in a bathroom context?
Am I over complicating the extractor fan approach? Would an extractor fan with it’s own humidity sensor built in be a ‘better’ approach? (e.g. Airflow iCON 30 with humidity module).
Sourcing appropriate (& matching) gu10 zone 1 & 2 rated fittings that will take the phillips GU10s (I need some fixed and some adjustable). Seems like quite a few fittings aren’t deep enough?
Have read quite a few of the threads on here about lighting options (and a few on extractor fans) in the UK, which has been very helpful in getting me this far.
We recently added a downstairs master suite to our house and below is what I did. My wife is great at turning on lights but terrible with turning them off so I had to solve that.
All light and fan switches are smart switches
I used a dimmer on main lights and toilet closet light for late/early trips to bathroom so they don’t blind you
When the shower light switch is turned on, the exhaust fan automatically turns in via Smart Lighting
we have a recirculating pump on our hot water heater and it turns on automatically once the shower light is turned on and turns off once shower light is off.
Aeon Multisensor 6 in the ceiling senses the humidity and a Core piston will turn off the fan after the shower light is turned off once the humidity reaches a certain level. I also have a time limit just in case as well.
The Aeon multi will turn off lights if no Motion within 30 minutes
Have Motion sensor in toilet closet that will turn off lights after no Motion
Toilet closet exhaust fan will turn off after set period of time after light turns off
On a related topic, having music in bathroom has been awesome. I installed ceiling speakers and they are connected to a Bluetooth volume control where an Echo dot provides music. A 12v DC transformer supplies power to the volume control in the wall. Here is the specific volume control: https://www.amazon.com/Pyle-Bluetooth-Receiver-Amplifier-Microphone/dp/B010U5EGKE/
I also ran LED tape lights along door trim inside the bathroom closet. A DC motion sensor will automatically turn on the LED lights when the closet opens or senses motion. The same 12v transformer that powers the volume control also powers these lights.
Zooz Multi Sensor for Humidity and Motion (Hard-wired)-Motion is slower than expected
GE Smart Dimmer for Main Bathroom Light
GE Smart Dimmer for Main Bathroom Can Lights
GE Smart Switch for Main Bathroom Fan
GE Smart Dimmer for Vanity Light 1
GE Smart Dimmer for Vanity Light 2
Xaomi Smart Button x(2) to activate different scenes (Mines and Hers)
Iris Smart Outlet (hair curlers and what nots)
Iric Contact for Main Bathroom Door
GE Smart Dimmer for Toilet Light
GE Smart Switch for Toilet Fan
Iris Motion for Toilet Area-Motion is instant!
Iris Contact for Toilet Door
Alexa Echo
All Bulbs are Dumb LED
I think you are on the right path. The coolest part for me is the auto fans. Both comes on when humidity rises above 60% and the toilet one comes on when someone has been in the toilet room with the door closed for more than 5 minutes.Both comes on if the main bathroom door is closed and motion stays active in toilet room for more than 5 minutes and the toilet door is opened.
Alexa Echo does a great job at filling the space with decent audio.
If you’d like to see what some other people have done, you can look at the project report section in the community – created wiki on the quick browse lists. At the very end of that section there is a list by room, and there’s one for bathrooms. A lot of the reports are from US members so the device selection may be a little different, but it might give you some more ideas.
I like the idea of a door sensor to give some extra information for rules, and I hadn’t thought about music. I have a couple of echo’s already, so adding one in the bathroom would be a simple add-on.
My “smart” bathroom consists of a motion sensor in the hallway leading up to the door (this will ensure the lights are on before I get the door opened since there is a slight delay).
I have 3 Hue lights (went with the Hue before I had ST, and just incorporated appropriately) in the 3-bulb fixture above the bathroom sink. It’s nice because I can set them to be only 40-50% brightness late at night so I don’t get blinded if I woke up to go use the bathroom.
I added a smart switch for the exhaust fan. It comes on automatically with the lights (when motion is detected) and shuts off a little time after the door is shut.
My door has a contact sensor on it. I live alone, so I have no problem leaving the bathroom door open when using the bathroom (although I have a virtual Guest Switch I can activate to help out when I have company). When the door shuts, the lights go off and then the fan switch will go off a few minutes later. The Guest Switch I have will override the “off” functions and make it auto-on only, allowing guests to close the door.
I just added an Echo Dot to the bathroom that is hanging on one of the outlet mounts made for it (plastic shell that hangs on the outlet plug for the Dot, the Dot then slides into it and is suspended).
I’ve also got a Homeseer HSM200 in there, although I haven’t expanded use to it yet. The plan was to add it to my notifications since it has a color-changing light on it. This would allow me to get notifications of things in the bathroom via IFTTT (new text message, UPS package, missed call, etc) as I have that elsewhere using Hue light strips and Blooms.
I did try one of the NYCE Hinge sensors for the door and just didn’t find it consistent enough. While I do like the look of a non-permanent hidden sensor (as opposed to a recessed one, since I rent), it just didn’t work out well. The standard ugly contact sensor is fine on the inside of the bathroom though, since I am rarely in there with the door closed.
How do you have the Echo connected to the receiver? Are you using the bluetooth connection out of the Echo?
Also, where is it located - in the same room or in some wire closet type area? I’m thinking of doing a whole home setup using multiple Dots to do the zones. I want to wire all of the speakers back to my basement to a few Dots. Then I can ask Alexa to “play music outside” or “play music in the dining room” or “everywhere”. Does this make sense or am I overcomplicating it?
I have speakers in my family, dining, and kitchen rooms and outside on my deck. They all run back to an AVR in my family room cabinet. The AVR is a Denon and I have a custom DH that I can control via ST. Speakers outside family room are on the second zone which has a separate DH. My Echo in kitchen is linked to one in family room via Alexa multiaudio so I can have one control another. At some point I hope to use EchoSistant to control it all via voice but I am waiting on new version.
If you would like to have multiple rooms play the same audio having a central AVR is the way to go, however I did this years ago all before the Echo multiroom audio. I much prefer hard wired speakers than wireless.
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it odd to control bathroom fans with ST?
I’ve just replaced my old bathroom fan with an Xpelair Simply Silent fan. It has a trigger switch (connected to the lighting circuit) and a humidistat. It has built in controls for both time to run on trigger (30s to 30min) and level of humidity to trigger (50% to 95%).
On an unrelated note, CPC do an excellent range of dumb dimmable LED GU10s, including 110° floods.
As the old saying goes, “your use case is not my use case.” Meaning different households have different needs.
One family might have a young child on the autism spectrum who is frightened by the fan and so might want to have an override for the automatic functions.
And many people use the bathroom fans to help with odor control, not just humidity management. In that case you might want the fan automated to allow for voice control. (I myself am quadriparetic. Touchfree switches are essential.)
Bathroom fans are also useful on cleaning day if the products used have toxic fumes. This is another time when voice control for the fan can be very convenient, especially if one is also carrying buckets and cleaning supplies on the way out of the bathroom.
So the automatic fans are great for many households. But other people also like the convenience of being able to either override an otherwise scheduled event, or a touchfree method of starting the fan on demand.
And our house we just have the old fans that were already there and we changed the switch to a smart on/off switch, in our case Lutron ( but those are not available in Europe).
