Automating your home
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3. Automating your home
Automating your home is the key to making it behave just the way you want, whether its energy
efficiency you are after or just plain living comfort. With Asema E you can automate your home in
many ways by adding not only controllers that do the hard work but also sensors that make the
system work more intelligently as the environment changes.
This chapter gives an overview of what kind of devices you can add to the system. Please refer
to the corresponding chapters in the System Setup section for information on how to actually
configure them.
The compatibility of your Asema E can also be expanded with radio expansion cards. These cards
are specifically programmed to support industry standards such as ZigBee to further expand the
number of devices you can control in your home. Visit www.asema.com for details.
3.1. Devices and appliances you can use for au-
tomation
3.1.1. Appliance controllers
Controllers are devices that do the actual work of automation, typically by switching electrical pow-
er ON and OFF from appliances and lights. Asema E is compatible with a range of controllers from
various manufacturers and Asema Electronics offers a family of energy aware wireless controllers,
the Asema S series, that are specifically made for an energy efficient house.
Asema S1
is the Swiss Army knife of automation. It is a very thin relay controller, specifically
designed to fit into tight spots like inside your wall socket or a crammed electrical distribution box.
Asema S2
is a DIN rail mountable group controller, ideal for controlling groups of appliances from
the distribution box. In a typical home many appliances are usually grouped into sets of appliances
that reside behind a circuit breaker. You don't need a separate controller for each and every one
of them (unless you absolutely insist, of course). Instead, attach an Asema S2 into the group and
control all of them at once.
Asema S3
is a very easy-to-install external controller with Schuko connectors. Just connect your
appliance into it like you would do with an extension cord and off you go. The Asema S3 has been
designed to be installed in a multitude of locations so you can wrap and unwrap the cables and
detach parts to make the controller fit tricky locations like behind a sofa.
All Asema S series controllers support both switching power and measuring consumption. Refer
to the installation manual of each controller for more info on how to make the physical installation.
Then refer to Section 1.2.4, “Adding controllers and connecting to appliances” for info on how to
pair them with the system.
3.1.2. Central electricity meters
Central electricity meters are your primary tool when you want to know how much electricity your
home is actually consuming and want to get estimates of your electricity bill. Unlike controllers, a
central meter is designed to measure everything in the home. Note also that there is always only
one central meter in one Asema E installation.
If you live in a home with a modern electricity meter (the so called AMR meter), the meter from
your utility might actually already be compatible with Asema E. Check http://www.asema.com/
