Smart Home Automation

Imagine a smart home that’s scalable to your lifestyle, and your budget

Imagine no more!

 

Smart Homes by Powerex are simple, yet ever so powerful

Smart home technology has traditionally been expensive, and reserved for the higher end homes only – not anymore! Powerex install and recommend PDL Wiser. Wiser doesn’t just make your home smarter – it can make life easier, more convenient and more energy efficient too. And all for a very reasonable price

PDL Wiser can be retrofitted into any home, new or old. You can have as much or as little as you want – and that’s the great thing about it, it’s adaptable and scalable to suit your home, your needs, and your budget – and that is why we install and recommend Wiser to our clients

Get a free estimate today!

There are three areas that make up the wiser system – the products, the app and the installation/configuration

Wiser product

Check out the products that make up the Wiser eco system

Wiser App

Check out what the Wiser by SE app can offer you in terms of control and convenience.

Wiser Installation

All wired Wiser product should be installed by a Wiser accredited installer

The Wiser Product

The Wiser Hub is the core of your smart home, enabling easy automation of your home environment. It connects Wiser devices and enables communication between the devices via the Wiser app. The hub also allows remote access capabilities.

 

The hub can be wall mounted or you can buy an optional desk stand. Alternatively, you could house the hub near your router. It only needs USB power to work – it can be connected to your home network either via Wi-Fi or via a ethernet cable (recommended). The hub sends and receives information from all of your Wiser products throughout your home and ties them all together

The hub should be installed and set up by a Wiser accredited installer

The Wiser Iconic range of switches are available in 2 modes – ZigBee to work with the hub, or Bluetooth so no hub is required – this is a great way to get started with home automation – you could (for example) install a Iconic switch for your outside lights, and have it set up to automatically turn the lights on at dusk, and off at 9:30pm. If you hear a noise outside after the lights are off, you can open the app and turn the lights on from anywhere in the house (within Bluetooth range)

The dimmer module has all the functionality of the switch module with regards to timer function, scheduling and automation, plus it can dim the lights. Additionally it has a function called controllink – which allows it to be controlled from another switch, similar to a conventional 2-way light switch

The 10AX switch is the same as the dimmer, just with no dimming functionality

The 2AX switch has all the functionality of the 10AX switch module with regards to timer function, scheduling and automation, but it doesn’t have the controllink feature – so if your room has more than 1 switch that operates the lights, you will need the 10AX switch instead.

These switches are great for automating lighting control, are you sick of the kids leaving the toilet light on? No problem install the 2AX switch and set an automation that turns the light off 5min after it was turned on, or have it set to automatically turn off at 9pm once the kids are in bed

All of this functionality is available with or without the hub, the difference being with the hub you can incorporate the actions of these switches with the actions of other items to create routines. The other advantage of these switches – they work just like a normal wall switch too, so visitors can operate the lighting just like normal and wouldn’t even know that you have smarts controlling things in the background

Wiser modules sit behind your switches and need to be installed by a qualified electrician. These modules allow you to retain your existing face plates so you don’t need to upgrade those too when automating your home. These modules only work with the hub

The blind controller module is self explanatory – its designed to open and close your blinds. Via the app, you can control how far the blinds are opened and closed, and you can set automations – such as a morning routine could be something like open the blinds 10% at sunrise, then another 10% every 10min until they are fully open – but on weekend days don’t open until 8am

The dimmer module is designed to sit in the box behind your switch plate. Your switch plate will need to have its switch module swapped out for a momentary press module, but will generally look the same as it currently does. You press the switch and the lights turn on or off, but if you press and hold the switch, the lights will dim up and down

The switch module works the same as the dimmer module (without the dimming function), and again your switch plate will need to have its switch module swapped out for a momentary press module. This switch also has independent contact terminals, meaning the switch can control other loads such as garage doors, alarm systems, gates and the like.

Our techs can give you advice on which module is best for your use case, all of these modules have the sane functionality as the Iconic switch modules with regard to timer function, scheduling, automations etc – with the added advantage that you can retain your existing face plates

The Wiser socket is a handy little addition to the Wiser product line-up. Each socket on the dual plate can be individually controlled via the Wiser app

You could use this in the kitchen – put some bread in the toaster before going to bed, have it automatically turn on at 6:45am and the coffee maker plugged into the other socket could be brewing away too. Or you could use it in the kids bedroom – when you say lights out, you really mean it – off goes that gaming machine!

This little gem can convert ZigBee signals to Infrared – this allows you to integrate your television, Hi-Fi, Heat pump etc into your smart home. Sick of grabbing the wrong remote, no problem – operate your TV and Hi-Fi from your phone!

Couple this with a temperature/Humidity sensor and you can setup routines such as “hey Google – watch a movie”

  • The TV turns on, and changes source to the Netflix app
  • The Hi-Fi turns on and outputs the sound from the TV
  • The blinds close
  • The lights are turned on and dimmed to 20%
  • The heat pump turns on, and sets the room temperature to 21 degrees

You walk in the room (that’s right, you can initiate this routine from anywhere) the blinds are closed, the lights are dimmed down to your desired level, the temperature is set to how you like it, and you are presented with the TV set to Netflix waiting for you to select the movie you want to watch. You start the movie and you are surrounded by theatre like sound from your Hi-Fi

This is just some of the comfort/convenience a Wiser smart home can give you

* Disclaimer – your TV, Hi-Fi, Heat Pump etc needs to be compatible with the IR Converter

The Wiser array of sensors give you the ability to set up “if this, then do that” automations. If the temperature in the lounge drops below 20deg, turn the heat pump on, and set it to 22deg – but only if the room is occupied or if the garage door is open for longer than 5mins, then close the garage door – but only if t is after 7pm (you accidently left the garage door open)

The motion sensor is self explanatory – if movement is detected, turn on the light – etc, but the motion sensor also has a handy built in lux (light level) sensor, so you can create routines such as if the light level drops to 50lux, close the curtains to retain the heat in the room, if someone then walks into the room turn the lights on

The temperature sensor could be used to monitor and control the temperature in a room, and via the IR converter operate a heat pump, but this sensor also has a humidity sensor built into it, so you could install it in a bathroom/laundry and have it turn on the extract fan if the humidity increases to a set level

You can also set up push notification alerts – If a door or window has been left open, send an alert – but only if you’ve initiated the “leaving home” routine first. Concerned about the dishwasher or washing machine leaking – sit the leak detector under and get an alert

With the addition of some or all of these Wiser sensors, the possibilities of what can be done is up to your imagination

The Wiser App

If you are starting out, and don’t want a hub just yet you can connect to your Wiser devices with your phone using Bluetooth. If you only have 1 or 2 switches and perhaps a socket then Bluetooth could be a good solution for you, but please remember you will not be able to program any “if this then that” automations and additionally there are a limited number of Iconic switches that have Bluetooth connectivity

The Bluetooth switches and dimmer will still give you the ability to set schedules, so this is a great low cost solution to automate exterior lights or perhaps your bedroom lights – you could set them to turn on at 20% when your alarm goes off, and then slowly ramp up to full brightness over the next few minutes while you wake up

       

As you can see, you have the same level of control for each Bluetooth connected device, and the options to schedule the device to turn on/off/dim (if its a dimmer) are all available. But this device can’t interact with any other device, and no other device can tell this device to turn on/off. Additionally, you need to be within Bluetooth range to be able to operate this device with your phone

The Wiser Hub is the core of your smart home, enabling easy automation of your home environment. It connects Wiser devices and enables communication between the devices via the Wiser app. The hub also allows remote access capabilities.

The app communicates with the hub via your Wi-Fi, and the devices communicate with the hub via the ZigBee protocol. You can install the app on any modern Android phone/tablet or any modern Apple phone/tablet, and you can have multiple phones connected

When the app is communicating with a hub, you can create automations (if this then do that scenarios) and you can also create moments (otherwise known as routines or scenes) where you can press 1 button and many things will happen

             

You can see from the above screenshots that its very easy to setup and use, and when you operate a moment the response is near instant

For even more simplicity, you have the ability to control your Wiser Smart Home via the switches on the wall, your voice or using the Wiser by SE app

The Wiser hub is compatible with most voice assistants such as Google Assistant, Siri and Amazon Alexa. If you’ve got a Google Home or Amazon Echo, you can control your Wiser Smart Home with voice commands. Plus, if you already have other automation apps such as Samsung’s Smart Things, you can mesh these together with Wiser via the Google Home app

Voice control compatibility lets you set the lighting for a ‘dinner’ Moment without leaving the table, or activate a ‘sleep’ Moment in the kids’ room while you’re doing the washing up. Its also useful for opening the garage door as you approach the driveway “hey Google, Open the garage door”. “Hey Google – I’m leaving the house now” and all lights switch off, the heat pump turns off and the alarm sets

The Wiser Installation

All wired Wiser product should be installed by a Wiser accredited installer. A Wiser accredited installer is also a qualified electrician so you can rest assured your devices are correctly connected

A Wiser accredited installer has been trained on not only how to installer the Wiser product, but also how to configure it, and the configuration is where all the magic happens

Our techs are trained and accredited Wiser installers, they have experience with configuring the product and they will sit with you and discuss all the different automation options available with your chosen setup and they will ensure everything works as it should before handing over the controls to you

   

You can learn more about Wiser Smart Home on the PDL website. There you will find video’s showing Wiser in action and lots of downloadable content

Get a free estimate today!