Tag: children’s room

Smart Home case study: children’s room

You shouldn’t start planning your rooms from the aspect of functional elements, such as lighting, heating, shading, and so on… let’s start from everyday situations and describe them to the contractor since it’s a liveable home you want at the end, not a completed tick list.

a) Daytime

  • Lighting is to be on only when it’s necessary according to the external light sensor. And if it’s is, all the lights can be on because the kids are playing. This lighting is not necessary during a power outage.

  • Blinds must go up at wake-up time except for weekends or when the school holiday option is set.

  • playing music is allowed

b) Before bedtime

(later on the case of “I’m on my computer, leave me alone”)

  • As for lighting only the mood lighting option is to be on, but only when the external light sensor says so. For example, during preparations for afternoon naps it’s not needed. It is unnecessary during a power outage.

  • Blinds are to go down and full shading is to be activated.

c) Sleep time

  • Only night lighting must be switched on. It is also needed during power failures.

  • Music stops and cannot be restarted.

General lighting (normal and before bedtime) is controlled by the presence sensor. If there is any motion in the room and there isn’t enough light according to external light conditions, lights are on. The presence sensors should be set at the sensor or at the home management system with a delayed activation. This way a lack of movement will not trigger the OFF mode immediately. For us, a delay of 120 sec works best.

Reading lamps are manually operated.

d) Shading

Here comes the complicated part, shading, which is controlled by similar principles in the other rooms used for sleeping.

  • Blinds must go up at wake-up time if it is not a weekend or the school holiday option is not active, but it also has to take into account that there is no strong wind.
  • If there is a strong wind, the blinds are to go down and are set in a middle position (allowing light in), BUT only when it is not sleep time.
  • Based on the orientation of the room the system should check every 15 minutes whether shading is needed
  • (orientation is crucial because in west facing rooms shading does not need to be dealt with before 3 pm.) it can decide whether level 1, 2 or 3 shading is the most optimal (level 3 is the closest to blinding but it is still not dark).
  • When there is no need for shading BUT no one is asleep OR there is no strong wind, blinds are to roll up.

To sum up

  • Usually there is no light switch, only ‘I am inside’, ‘before bedtime’ and ‘sleep time’ switches.

  • Blinds operate automatically according to everyday scenario / external light /wind, we’ve never had to touch it.

  • If you can leave the house through the room, the system should also check the door. The blinds should not be lowered when the door is open.

Coming up next: living room