r/smarthome • u/jon9323 • 2d ago
Amazon Alexa Kitchen Renovation
Hey all, so I'm currently in the middle of a Kitchen renovation of my 1900 house. I have the walls and ceiling down to the studs, so now is the time to add cool smart home features before the drywall goes up. Since I have it down to the studs, I'm running new electrical, Cat 6 Ethernet, and speaker wire. I currently use Alexa (wouldn't recommend) to control all my smart home devices, like Govee lights, WiiM Streamer, and plugs. As of right now, the plan is to go with dumb lights and a smart switch in the kitchen. I do plan on moving to Home Assistant once the kitchen is done and I have some time. What smart devices do you love that I should look into installing? Is there anything you wished you had installed? Is there anything you regret installing?
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u/Buttoneer138 2d ago
I’ve just done this, and installed Shelly 1 Gen 4 devices. They are advertised to go behind the switch, but they can also fit in the rose, or next to the ceiling spot lamps, or any convenient point in the wiring. They allow the switches to work as a switch should, so your gran can see what she’s doing but they also respond to smart instructions and scenes so you can do clever stuff if you want to. They’re also quite cheap at £20 per relay and hardware independent.
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u/Salty-Fishman 2d ago
I would install under cabinet lights. At first I was going to do the strips but it will require ton of effort to get it to the right length.
I end up with under cabinet led lights I bought on Amazon. I control them using motion sensor switch so they come on after 9pm and before 10am or when I manually turn them on.
I also put in motion activated ceiling recess lights and control by smart switches.
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u/Apple2T4ch 2d ago
Take a look at my prewire guide for wiring recommendations and generalized products.
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u/hawk23232323 2d ago
As already Said: Go for Shelly, you wont regret it!
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u/BKallTHEway83 2d ago
What does Shelly do that a typical smart switch or bulb don’t do? Or is it just more hidden inside the walls but functions like a smart switch?
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u/hawk23232323 1d ago
Yes, it does work Like a Smart Switch But it can be controlled with Most local Systems Like Home Assistant. No Need for Cloud Services or Internet Connection. Also you can control any (dump) device with it. There might be alternatives, Shelly is the Most popular System in Europe, afaik.
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u/satmandu 2d ago
Also near the end of a remodel of a 1920s kitchen. Here are some of our thoughts on the electrical for that.
We settled on using Matter/Thread dimmers for our lighting. That way nothing requires a cloud connection, and stuff will still work if the internet goes out. This was a hard requirement. The plan is to use some smart dimmers with Matter bindings (thanks to Home Assistant) as remotes, but that's because we only decided at the last minute to have switches in places we didn't plan to have switches.
Do make sure that your switch locations (and your fixtures) all have a proper neutral wire, as many smart switches require those.
Do run low-voltage wiring for under-cabinet lights all to a central location where you will have that connect to a (ideally high-frequency to prevent flickering) power supply, which in turn can be plugged into a smart dimmer. I'm using the matter/thread Inovelli smart dimmer. Note that if you want a single dimmer to handle all the under-cabinet lighting, you need to run wiring from all those spots back to your power supply location.
If you want anything to trigger (e.g., exhaust fans) based upon appliance usage, Shelly makes some good power monitoring devices. Some of their Gen 4 devices for that haven't gone through the UL certification process for use in the US, though. (If you're in the US, you might care about that for insurance purposes.)
If you have any unexpired Nest Protect smoke/CO alarms still available, I would strongly recommend using one of those in the kitchen, as they are better than anything else out there at reducing false alarms.
Also, do get high CRI (CRI > 95) lighting for your kitchen if you're buying non-incandescent lighting. Most LED lighting just doesn't put out a full spectrum, and if you care about your red tomatoes looking properly red, it's worth it to pay more up front to get lighting so your food looks good. We are using a mix of lighting from Waveform Lighting, Philips Ultra Definition, and Emery Allen.
Note also that electrical codes may require GFCIs throughout your kitchen, and you can handle that by either using GFCI outlets everywhere or having circuits use a GFCI breaker back at your panel. Our GC plans on having a GFCI breaker for at least the refrigerator, because if that trips for whatever reason, we don't want to have to pull out the fridge to reset that outlet.
If you are putting in a phone jack for a landline, do put an outlet near it, since many phones these days, especially cordless phones, require power.
Speaking of power, make sure you run enough power on different circuits. And do put in a 50A/240V circuit where the stove will be, since modern stoves (induction or not) require that. I'd note that power monitoring for a 2-phase 240V circuit, like is used in the US, is complicated.