Home Automation

I've been looking for some relays that I could use for home automation.

What I had in mind was a relay that can go in the electrical box with the light switch. It is usually kinda cramped there so low profile would be necessary.

My plan was to use a PLC, and a touch screen that has a web UI so I can also use my phone, and use the PLC for timers when on vacation and touchscreen when around the house. Touchscreen would be installed in a wall.. not a wireless tablet type of thing.

Or am I going about this the wrong way?
Is the wiring / labor to install cost the same or greater than just buying wireless light switches??

What do you guys use for home automation??

I thought about stuff like that as well, but it just doesn't compare to buying off the shelf components.

Price of doing it yourself would be cheaper, but the labor involved doesn't even come close. If the home was new and everything was accessible then it would a lot easier to install everything, but what new building contractor would be okay with that? PLC what?!

I have the Philips Hue setup - all of the timers and phone capabilities are built in and has worked perfectly since I installed it last year. Adding new bulbs or routines takes a few minutes tops. Amazon/Home Depot/Best Buy usually have good deals on the Hue starter kits

Yeah I would definitely recommend off the shelf on the hardware side. You also avoid any building code issues with random hardware in the walls.

Check out https://home-assistant.io/ or https://www.openhab.org/ for an all in one software package for connecting different vendors together.

and for more info: https://www.reddit.com/r/homeautomation/

Yeah, you don't want to get into wiring stuff up in an existing house. Even in our industry, tons of PLCs can host VNC HMI over ethernet, so you could still do PLC stuff and use a touchscreen. BUT, wireless IO is a bit more rare and if you're running wiring to all your switch plates it's still a nightmare.

The consumer stuff does wireless per device or uses the power circuit to communicate, way, way easier.

I have been in the house of a PLC brand executive and they used all their products and it was pretty cool (in 2007), but besides the motion stuff moving parts of the house around, you could do all the lighting/music/etc with off the shelf stuff these days.

One potential problem with all of this home automation is the ratings of the relay contacts that you install. If the branch circuit CB is 20A then the relay's contacts should be rated for 20A also. That's a big relay and expensive.