Refurbishment and Restore Issue 20 2020 | Page 44

Smart Farm Nestled away in rural Bedfordshire, for all intents and purposes Pedley Farm appears to be the quintessential historic farmhouse. However, within the 300-year old shell lies a smart home firmly routed in the 21st century. Despite its rustic exterior, Pedley Farm is very much the modern home. Purchased by Neil Badcock, owner and director of JetSet Home Automation, in 2017, the inside of the farmhouse was completely stripped back before a new layout optimised for home automation was designed and built. Neil’s expertise in the design and installation of home automation systems was central to the finished property; and his experience of living in the house upon completion has given him a deep understanding of how to really live in a connected home – something which he has in turn applied to his own customer installations. an end user perspective, you quickly begin to learn how to tailor each system to the room in question – rather than having an ‘always on’ approach to functionality, which can sometimes detract from the end user benefit.” “When you’re actually living in a property and using the systems you install for customers every day, you really get a much greater insight as to the functionality and capacity of a system, above and beyond what you may take from a brochure,” begins Neil. “From both an installer and Pedley Farm is equipped with a host of home automation technology. The property can be accessed via a keyless Bticino touch pad, while the Bticino Classe 300X touch screen video internal unit with integrated Wi- Fi connectivity provides an intelligent door entry system. This can be controlled via the screen or the dedicated Legrand Door Entry app. Requiring a simple 2 wire installation, the built-in Wi-Fi connectivity meant no additional wiring was required. Unlike many other products on the market, the Classe 300X self-configures to the domestic Wi-Fi via a simple ‘search and connect’ function. On a practical level, the Wi-Fi connectivity avoids any extra expense stemming from complex wiring and ethernet configuration. A CLASSE APART Moving further inside the property, 12 4.3” Equinox keypads and two Equinox 73 LCD touch screens from Legrand’s Vantage home automation range are installed throughout the house, each powered by a single RJ45 (PoE) connection. The Active Matrix Colour LCD keypads are able to control a host of different functions via different user interface widgets, ranging from lighting and climate control, through to multi-room home audio and video systems. 44 - www.refurbandrestore.co.uk