One of the first questions potential home automation customers ask when they call our company is: How much does Home Automation cost? Although this is a very difficult question to answer, I will try to do my best here to explain general pricing guidelines.
The purchase of home automation is much like the purchase of new vehicle or even a home. There are lots of options available and price ranges can vary drastically. Especially once you add in all the optional upgrades. And just like vehicles once you choose a product the parts are not that interchangeable.
Types of Home Automation:
We break home automation systems down into two basic categories DIY home automation systems and professional home automation systems. In the last 3 years, we have seen a major interest in the home automation space from the DIY manufacturers and they are making a lot of noise lately with lots of new products coming to market. These manufacturers are Apple with Home Kit and more recently Google with Google Home, and don’t forget Amazon with its Alexa platform. Although Amazon’s Alexa is more of a voice style control point than a platform in its own right.
Now for some projects, a DIY style solution will be totally suitable, but most of the time once we have completed a thorough needs analysis, we find the DIY solution does not meet the needs of our clients nor is it suitable for the size of the property. Now in saying that we have plenty of projects that this approach works well in, and we will always provide the client with this option as a comparison if this solution meets their needs. We call this our “DIY do it for me” option and in certain cases it just what’s required.
But regardless of the type of home automation solution that’s right for you and your property the following fundamentals still apply.
The Fundamentals:
You are going to use your home automation system every day for as long as you live in your home, and picking the right home automation system with the right subsystems the first time is critical to ensure maximum enjoyment with a minimum of maintenance. The majority of our customers elect to get the solution that will make them happiest in the long-run.
Most buyers when considering a home automation system tend to focus on the initial price with the goal of finding the cheapest home automation contractor and equipment available therefore sacrificing low-maintenance, quality, warranty, after-sales support, and aesthetics, which inevitably leads to regret – especially considering that unlike a vehicle a home automation system cannot be traded in if one is dissatisfied or disenchanted with the outcome.
Successful home automation is the result of bringing together lots of separate subsystems into one easy to use overall user interface that meets the client’s needs perfectly, and balances the other design elements in the project.
Common Subsystems a Home Automation System Controls:
Below is a short list of the most common subsystems a home automation system has to be able to control:
- The simplification of controlling and selecting your properties audio & video equipment as well as being able to hide it away out of site.
- Remote access and the ability to control your security system (home alarm), vehicle gates and pedestrian gates, garage doors (is it open or closed?) and video/audio intercoms and smart doorbells and door locks. Who rang the doorbell? Can I let them in when I am not home?
- The ability to adjust your heating and cooling relative to outside conditions or just on demand. Control of blinds and shades, motorized windows and skylights, all working together, to control temperature.
- Lighting control by removing multiple banks of ugly unnamed light switches with the ability to use scenes (lights grouped together), the use of motion or occupancy/vacancy sensors in hallways and other transient areas so as not to waste energy on continuously lighting unused rooms or areas.
- Being able to control your Pool or Jacuzzi temperatures or Pool covers or all of these items, from anywhere in the world.
- Getting the home network (internet) sorted and house wide WiFi coverage. All home automation systems need a solid home network to operate on. As well as allowing access to streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV’s and Spotify and other music services.
Equipment Selection is Critical:
Now you may have picked up on the fact that a Home Automation Integrator’s solution can have an effect on and has to work with multiple trades and areas of work that in the past may have been handled by 8 or 9 separate trades or vendors and you would be right.
So one of the biggest challenges in completing a home automation project successfully is nailing down all the subsystem equipment that the home automation system is going to control. We need to be very clear on things like the make and the brand of the equipment, the quantity of the items we are going to control.
Also the most critical point with product selection is, does your brand or product you want to control or have chosen integrate well with others? Has it been done before? Or is my place going to be a guinea pig testing ground only to discover it won’t work as intended?
Believe it or not, there are plenty of brands of products that will not work with a 3rd party control system or worse they used to work well and now don’t due to updates and software changes. A very important question to ask your integrator is have you integrated or worked with this brand before? What are its limitations? An experienced home automation integrator will be able to point this out to you and have an honest discussion. The more products we need to control generally the more expensive the solution will be in terms of hardware required and implementation time required to deliver a working solution.
Expectation Setting:
The second biggest challenge in completing a successful home automation project is to make sure we set what we like to call accurate expectations of what the final project outcome will look like. How will it function? How or what are you the user going to need to do to interact with your system? And does this make sense from a practical point of view? Using your phone, for example, to start music in a master bathroom is just not practical when a simple button press with a preloaded favorite radio station or playlist is far more practical for 90% of the time. We like to do this in plain English with what we call our project foundation document.
User Interface:
Once the equipment specification is nailed down we can then address how or what the control point or user interface is going to be. Take turning on a light in a bathroom, for example, a control point or user interface could be a combination of a light switch and a sensor and voice or just a sensor on its own. For watching TV it might be single remote control or a phone or tablet or touch screen or combo of all three. These control points and how many there are, and how accessible they are, is critical in how easy to use the system is going to be. It’s not much use if your phone or tablet’s battery is dead or it’s lost (down the side of the couch) and the music is blaring and your work phone is ringing with an important work-related phone call and you can’t turn down the music.
As you can see, there are many variables to discuss and agree on and many product options available. When you receive a proposal from our company, we will have thoroughly discussed each option with you to educate you on the options and benefits available and what is right for you and your situation. You will also have had the experience of being able to interact with the various user interfaces we offer by visiting our experience center.
Why Property Scale Matters:
How property scale and the amount of equipment required affects the cost? When someone inquires how much our home automation solutions cost, the scale of the property, the equipment required and the extent of the installation is also a key factor. As some of the products we use in smaller projects or properties don’t allow us to scale these same products in larger homes. We also have some solutions that have been designed specifically for smaller projects that don’t require all the options under the sun.
Renovations vs New Builds and how it effects the cost:
Renovation projects can have slightly higher installation costs than new building projects depending on how much of the properties walls and ceilings are being opened up.
If only a small portion of the ceilings and walls are being removed then a lot more care and time needs to be allowed for when trying to run new cables between areas.
Renovation projects also require careful testing and managing of any existing cabling, especially if it’s suitable for reuse. A majority of the time repositioning of the existing incoming Telco/ISP connections and any cable connections is also required. This work needs to be completed with care so delicate cables and connections are not damaged during the renovation process
Building and Renovating in Condos in San Diego
There can be significant time spent in Condo projects protecting and cleaning up the common area access ways.
Parking and access costs can also mount up with Condo projects with the use of multiple trades using lifts and stairs to gain access as well as time spent searching for parking spots close by. Trash and debris removal can also be more time consuming.
Examples & Costs:
Listed below you will find a number of examples of completed projects, across our more common project types and property sizes and broken down between new construction and renovations.
Design Only:
We work for some clients on a design only basis either because they need to submit the work to main contractors to be incorporated into their package or because the supply and installation of the equipment needs to be priced out for implementation by others. The average price is between $3,000 – $5000, depending on the complexity of the project and amount of equipment requiring control.
- Multiple iterations of cable drawings showing all relevant low voltage cables such as network, audio visual, speaker, heating control and lighting control cables
- Layout plan drawings completed on a per-subsystem basis
- initial calculations of conduit sizing’s for the cable bundles at the point of ingress to any equipment cabinet location
- a detailed Bill of Materials comprising a full system architecture to deliver the functionalities listed in the Project Foundation Document
- Sizing’s for the equipment cabinets needed to house the components (e.g. main patch & comms racks, lighting control panels, etc)
San Diego New Build Single Room Solution
The great thing about our home automation solutions is you can start small with a single room or a few rooms and grow the system.
The average price is between $5000 – $10,500 (excluding the cost of TV’s as this can have a major or minor effect on the pricing depending on the size of the TV and the specific TV model) this example includes equipment supply, installation, and support for the following items. In most cases, we can also use some of your existing equipment
- creating a stylish surround sound area within a multipurpose room
- 5 in ceiling speakers and subwoofer (white in color so it blends in)
- wall mounting the TV and hiding all the cables in the wall
- Apple TV, Cable box, and Bluray player integration
- single system remote control & recharge cradle to simplify the user experience
- phone and tablet control of the system.
- upgraded home network and WiFi equipment
- streaming music from Spotify, Deezer, Pandora & TuneIn Radio (plus many others available)
- lighting control of 3 circuits of lights within the room
New Build Condo 1000 – 3000sq.ft.
In this example, a new stylish downtown condo in San Diego is being built and the owners want to ensure that they could enjoy some music in key areas of the property as well as enjoy their TV viewing experience. Simplification of the audio video systems was very important as well as ensuring all the visible technology worked with the decor, and space was at a premium. Price Range $35,000 – $45,000
They decided to implement:
- a full design service to document all aspects of structured cabling layout, rack positioning, and sizing etc. This can be used to support the system against in later years.
- structured cabling to provide a fast Ethernet backbone for their WiFi, home offices and all connected hardware (both at the point of completion and ready for future devices)
- multiple wireless access points located in key areas of the condo to ensure full house WiFi coverage including the outdoor areas.
- music streaming system for four rooms as well as surround sound system for the occasional movie night in a multi use room.
- a number of dedicated touch screens were installed in key locations throughout the property so an always charged always on always there solution was achieved
- they wanted high definition cable TV and other sources available on the in-built TVs in the core viewing rooms and bedrooms. This is controlled via a simple-to-use single remote from Control4.
- They then took the support package with its integrated remote monitoring equipment, power maintenance for the properties systems and network management allowing us to give them proactive remote support for years after the installation.
New Build of a Single Family Home 2000 – 5000sq.ft.
In this example, a single family house is being built in La Jolla and the owners were wanting to ensure that they plan out their technology implementation and simplify the audio visual portion as well as make sure they had great WiFi throughout the home, with a limited amount of lighting control in a few key areas was also a requirement. An integrated security, CCTV and access control solution were also must haves. Price range $125,000 – $175,000.
They decided to implement:
- a full design service to document all aspects of structured cabling layout, rack positioning, lighting panel sizing etc This can be used to support the system against in later years.
- structured cabling to provide a fast Ethernet backbone for their WiFi, home offices and all connected hardware (both at the point of completion and ready for future devices)
- multiple wireless access points located on all 3 levels of the house to ensure full house WiFi coverage including the extensive pool and tennis court areas.
- multiple CCTV cameras and dedicated recording device for 24/7 camera monitoring of the property and grounds.
- dedicated touch screens in all areas of the property for communication between floors as well as having high tech audio/video gate intercom communication system.
- multipurpose movie room, with full surround sound system
- multi-room audio in 16 areas of the property, with access to all the popular music streaming services, Spotify, Deezer etc
- they wanted multiple high definition cable boxes and other sources available on the in-built TVs in the core viewing rooms and bedrooms. A total of 5 TV’s all together. These are all controlled via a simple-to-use single remote from Control4.
- Control of heating and cooling was also included through out the property.
- A limited amount of lighting control was included in the open plan kitchen, dining and living rooms to minimize wall clutter so they did not have a bank of 8 unnamed light switches to deal with.
- the client then took the support package with its integrated remote monitoring equipment, power maintenance for the main house systems and network management allowing us to give them proactive remote support for years after the installation.
New Build of a Large Custom Home 5000sq.ft.plus
In this example, a large custom home is being built in Rancho Santa Fe and the owners were wanting to ensure that they plan out their technology implementation and simplify the audio visual portion including a dedicated movie theatre as well as a large scale outdoor audio system and outdoor kitchen entertaining area. Great WiFi throughout the home and extensive grounds and guest house were a given. Whole home lighting control was also a requirement. An integrated security, CCTV and access control solution were also must haves.
Price range $250,000 Plus
They decided to implement:
- a full design service to document all aspects of structured cabling layout, rack positioning, lighting panel sizing etc. This can be used to support the system against in later years.
- structured cabling to provide a fast Ethernet backbone for their WiFI, home offices and all connected hardware (both at the point of completion and ready for future devices)
- multiple indoor and outdoor wireless access points located on all levels of the house to ensure full house WiFi coverage including the extensive outdoor kitchen area, pool area, guest house and grounds.
- multiple CCTV cameras and dedicated recording device for 24/7 camera monitoring of the property and grounds.
- dedicated touch screens in all areas of the property for communication between floors and buildings as well as having high tech audio/video gate intercom communication system.
- dedicated home theatre room, with theatre style seating, large format screen and appropriate surround sound system to fill the space.
- multi-room audio in 16 areas of the property, with access to all the popular music streaming services, Spotify, Deezer etc
- large scale outdoor audio system implemented in the gardens and grounds around the property to provide rich warm sound.
- they wanted multiple high definition cable boxes and other sources available on the TVs in the core viewing rooms and bedrooms. These are all controlled via a simple-to-use single remote from Savant.
- a large outdoor TV was installed in the generous outdoor kitchen area and integrated into the video distribution system.
- control of the properties fountains and irrigations systems was also a must have.
- also included was control of the propertys Pool, Pool cover and Jacuzzi.
- control of heating and cooling was also included throughout the property and guest house.
- whole home lighting control was implemented to reduce light switch wall clutter, and group multiple lighting circuits into scenes, and streamline light selection illuminate key art pieces and enhance architectural aspects
- motorized shades were also required throughout the property and control was integrated into the light switches as well as the Savant system. Scenes were setup so at the push of one button all the shades could be opened or closed.
- the client then took the support package with its integrated remote monitoring equipment, power maintenance for the main house systems and network management allowing us to give them proactive remote support for years after the installation.