Automated Home Friend, Markby, covers her latest DIY smart home project as she converts her home to use the Shelley module …
There is no shortage of devices aimed at transforming your home into a smart home. Over the years I have tried many devices from lesser mainstream manufacturers like Sonoff from major brands including TP-Link and Belkin. I have doubled the WiFi, Zigbee and Z-Wave ecosystems from Ikea and Devolo. I installed Efergy to gain insight into my energy consumption at home and in my EV. Everyone has their good and bad points and I have never been too committed to any particular platform or manufacturer, instead opting for integration under the Alexa umbrella as a lightweight home automator.
Introduction to Shelley
Recently I saw a lot of devices from a Bulgarian company called Alterco Robotics, they use Shelley Cloud Creates a range of products including branding and relays, power monitoring, lights, motion sensors and many add-ons. They have a growing ‘Pro’ range that includes Dean Mounted 4-way relays and power monitoring.
What will Shelley do?
So far I’ve added 37 Shelly devices to my home and I’m finding many more uses that I plan to add as time and budget permits. Here’s what I’ve added and what they do:
- 12x Shelly Duo RGBW GU10 – Used for Outdoor Building and Landscape Lighting
- 8x Shell d – Used for lift control, electric gate, garage door control and electric vehicle charger control
- 6x Shelley 1 p.m. – Used for power management of major appliances including dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer, boiler and water heater
- 4x Shell Button 1 To remotely switch the Shelly relay
- 2x Shelley Uni – Used in alarm control panel to give smart output and allow remote access to garage without disarming alarm
- 2x Shelley Temperature Addon – Used for more precise control of water temperature, the water tank now has 3 temperature probes to determine how much hot water is available.
- 2x Energy Monitor – Used with 4 City clamps To monitor grid, electric vehicle charging, solar PV generation and overall power consumption from main ring circuit
- 1x Dimmer 2 – Used to lower 12 down lighter GU10 in lounge
It is fair to say that I have done all the work on Shelley, from removing the previous devices to implementing many new small projects.
So why Shelley?
I’ve made a bigger promise to Shelley than any other device manufacturer, and here’s my reasons in no particular order:
- It is WiFi based so no hub or gateway is required. I have good WiFi coverage provided by 3 indoors and outdoors TP-Link Deco X20 And 3 Deco M5Which can handle up to 150 network devices.
- They have a wide range of products for multiple uses ranging from plug and play bulbs to Uni which can be integrated into many appliances or devices.
- There are multiple ways to control devices. You can use the Shelly app and Cloud Control, use your favorite voice assistant, or have local controls through other systems, such as Home Assistant. They support OpenHab, iBroker, Hubitat, Homey, Domoticz and MQTT. You can make it as simple or complex as you like or need. Each device has an embedded web server.
- They respond quickly to clouds. Pressing the app button or opening the door or turning on the light is instantaneous.
- They are great value for money. A Shelley 1 costs about £ 9-12.
- The amount of tailoring or customization is fantastic, the key allows multiple options as a hop pen when you flick a switch.
- They are invisible, not literal but the end user does not know they are there. Shelley 1 can be installed to use existing lighting wiring and switches. This means that the lights can be turned on and off with the familiar advantage of a traditional switch.
- A Shelly 1 can run on voltages ranging from 12v DC to 240v AC, the relay also has a set of volt free communication, making it an ideal device for smart switching of things like gates or garage doors.
- Lots of resources like support forums and lots of other user experience to take advantage of.
- They have power monitoring functions to identify areas of load and potential optimization. This can be at a device level or at a circuit level.
- These are small enough to fit inside most back boxes
- They have a relay that works without a neutral wire, important in the UK because most light switch plates are supplied only with live wiring.
- So far they have worked flawlessly
How easy is it to set up?
As already mentioned, there is a lot of use for Shelley devices. How far you want to go with them probably comes down to your level of skill and comfort working with electricity. Many installations involve mains voltage (230v) which can cause death, serious injury or damage. Only accept work that is safe and in accordance with local law.
Many installations resemble a plug cable. For example I converted a small dumb light into a smart light, I illustrated the process below. Other applications involve changing your lighting circuit wiring so you need extra knowledge to protect yourself and your property.
When installing on light circuits I removed the traditional junction box and used one Wago connector box Which neatly and securely accommodates wiring, connector and shell devices.
I’ll post some follow-up articles in the coming weeks, covering how we’ve installed our devices and what they’ll be used for in the future, but here’s a general introduction to get you started.
Make a dumb light smart
A Shelley d can be combined with a Shelley buttons Make a smart light switch. The button is a custom-made mold that matches a Shelley 1 or so Shelley 1 p.m.. Previously I used the smart socket to turn the lights on and off. It works until a person is identified. To turn off these lights someone usually had to turn to a socket to turn off the light via a smart plug, easy, right? Wrong! What usually happens is that someone chooses the most convenient option and turns off the light via the in-line switch by disabling the smart plug.
North Shelley button placed. This eliminates the smart plug and makes it more convenient to turn the lights on and off than to find or shake the smart plug for bulb holder or inline switch. It can’t get any simpler anymore.
This is not the only way to solve the problem. Shelley creates a WiFi button that can be used to coordinate them with a light or a series of lights or a light switch equipped with a Shelley and can be used to switch remote devices. It shows the great flexibility of the Shelley ecosystem.
Instructions
Follows the manufacturer Instructions and warnings
1. Shell 1 and unbox the button. 5 of the buttons have already been stripped, attach them to the Shelly 1.
2. Make sure the light is unplugged before the next step
3. Disconnect the light’s in-line switch when connected or disconnect the wire near the lamp to insert the button
4. Connect the power to the shell button terminals
5. Connect the lamp to the Shelley button terminal
6. Screw the cable root and button off
7. Plug in Shelley and power up
8. Make sure you’ve downloaded the Shelly Cloud app and created an account
9. Go to your device’s settings and search for available Wifi connections, the Shelly device should appear with its own SSID, connect to it.
10. Open a browser and go to 192.168.33.1, this is the IP address of Shelley device web server
11. Go to Internet and Security Settings button
12. Tick Connect Client and add local Wifi SSID and password and click Save. The device will now connect to the local network.
13. Open the Shelly Cloud app and ‘Discovered Devices’ will appear. You can create a room via the menu on the left and then click on Discovered Devices to add the device to the room by following the prompts.
14. You will be asked to enable cloud functionality and open the settings when the device is ready and update to the latest firmware version if necessary.
This is enough to get you started with a smart light.
Next time
There are many more things you can do in the device’s settings, for example, change what the Shelley device will do based on a long button press, or turn off the light after a certain time interval. You can use the available schedule functions or set up a routine. You can also add Shelley skills to Alexa for voice control.
Check out Part 2 where I look at some more relocations of my home to the Shelley Smart Home system.
Last Updated on 2021-10-04 / Affiliate Link / Image from Amazon Product Advertising API
