My Journey
I was about to build our forever home, having retired from industrial automation after co-building a power station, a dredger, a sawmill and a milk factory, then becoming a certified energy manager.
The house, built on a slope to give a great view, required space for a lift and needed to be automated. I browsed the net and found a system that looked reliable - not going for Wi-Fi with the light switches, I wanted brilliant reliability as my wife would be using the system and didn't want any "why did you do that" comments if it failed.
My son and I finished building the house - it took about 9 months doing most of the work ourselves. I ran all the 240V AC lighting and fan cables to a central location where the network hub and secondary switchboard are located. I also ran low voltage cables to all my windows from the control room to power electric blinds at a later date.
Installing spare cables to the light switches (I used Ethernet cables that are cheap, buying rolls of 305m), Ethernet outlets for media centres, WiFi access points, security cameras, front door bell and computer terminals - all back to my control room.