Video series about Velbus hardware and how to install and use

Hardware Home Automation
1

Hello everyone

We all know only too well that we can’t automate our properties without hardware.

I make no secret of the fact that I am involved with the www.velbus.eu hardware range.

So with that in mind, I’m sharing what we are doing to promote the Velbus products and break down the barriers.

For example, over the last 3 years we have seen a number of projects get ruined (and I do mean ruined) because a builder has talked a customer OUT of installing the type of hardware they want.

Comments like,

  • “Yeah okay, we can put it in downstairs, but what’s the point in putting it in upstairs?”

  • “I get that you want zoned heating downstairs (UFH) but why bother with the bedrooms?”

  • “Nar mate, that digital stuff is unreliable”

  • “Nar, I don’t install that new stuff, you’re better off with a proper (by which they mean old style) install”

or my personal favorite

  • “Well okay, I’ll run in the digital stuff, but because I know you’ll hate it, I’ll also put in classic cables”

Most of the above “input from builders” results in some pretty unhappy customers.
For which there is very little we can do for them, without making their homes really complicated and vulnerable.

So what we are doing is creating bite-sized training videos that customers can force / encourage their builders to watch, just to show how simple a professional system is to install and how reliable this “new stuff” is.

Even if builders / electricians / plumbers don’t want to take on the commissioning (at first, most of them do in the end when they realise it’s not complicated, in fact we have a lot of installers who now ONLY install Velbus solutions), they can at least understand that a fully wired control system isn’t hard to install and circuit test.

One electrician rang me the other day because he’d been called out to perform an annual inspection on a Velbus system, he firstly complained about the amount of cables in the cabinet, but 30 minutes later he rang me back to apologise and say that once I had explained the basics, he was actually finding it really easy to test individual circuits and sign them off.

All this has inspired me to create a series of videos to pull the curtain away from the world of digital control systems and make the important information accessible to everyone.

(I’m not advocating that a non-qualified person should or can install this kit, I’m just putting the info out there so that homeowners can point their contractors to the videos, so that they can get the hardware installed that they want and ultimately get the property running how they want it to)

Later in the series, there will be a whole episode (maybe more) dedicated to how to pull all the Velbus assets into openHAB and do wonderful things with them.

For example, it took me less than 2 hours to pull in a client’s Velbus assets to their openHAB setup and create them a basic HABPanel and Sitemap, so that they had something to build up from.
I don’t sell openHAB, I just offer specific Velbus support to users.

These are the videos that I’ve made so far

I would welcome any questions and suggestions to cover in later videos.

Even if you think your question is too basic, if you’ve thought of it, I can promise you that someone else has too but hasn’t asked it.

For anyone that is interested, we now have a number of colleges in the UK that are adding Velbus hardware to their year 2 and 3 electrical & plumbing training courses.

Not specifically to train the students on Velbus, but to introduce them to the concept of professional grade digital control systems, so they can enter the world of work ready for 21st century tech.

If you know a local college that you’d like to see offering this kind of training, please introduce us.

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