Hi everyone, We’re doing a full house renovation and planning to install around 45 Shelly devices, mostly Shelly 1 Gen4 and Shelly 2PM Gen4.
Our electrician is very good, but they haven’t done a Shelly install at this scale before. They’re experienced with KNX and general electrical work, so I trust them, but I want us to prepare a proper plan before we start throwing devices behind switches everywhere.
I’m thinking about:
Any real-world dos and don’ts for a project this size?
Cheers!
Since it’s a renovation, I’d at least ask if some of this can be centralized. If every relay ends up hidden behind random switches, troubleshooting later can be annoying. A central cabinet is cleaner if the wiring layout allows it. Not always possible, but worth discussing before the walls are finished.
@Circuit_Breaker_4 We looked at that, but unfortunately the wiring isn’t really a star layout.A lot of circuits continue from box to box, so most of the Shelly devices need to live close to the thing they control. Centralized would be nicer, but I don’t think it fits this house without rewiring way more than planned.
40+ IoT devices on a poorly planned Wi-Fi setup is a recipe for disaster. Do yourself a favor: grab NetSpot, upload your floor plan, set your wall types, and model the coverage before buying anything. Plan your AP placement now, then run a real survey after they’re installed.
A Shelly doesn’t need much bandwidth. The issue is stability, airtime, signal quality, and whether your 2.4 GHz network is sane. One bad AP placement can make a few devices flaky forever. I’d make a dedicated IoT SSID, keep 2.4 GHz simple, avoid weird band steering for IoT, and don’t onboard all 50 devices in one chaotic afternoon.
Since these are Gen4, decide early what protocol you’re actually using. If you’re going Wi-Fi/Matter over Wi-Fi, then Wi-Fi planning matters a lot. If you’re moving some of them to Zigbee, then you also need to think about coordinator placement, mesh routing, and what devices act as routers. Don’t mix protocols randomly just because the devices support it. Pick a design and document why.
Thanks, a lot of information to take in. I’ll need to go through all of this properly and refine the plan step by step.