C-Bus does more than lights: blinds, fans, gates and the 6pm scene
Most C-Bus houses only use 60% of what they already own. Here is the rest of it, and what it costs to switch on.
If you have C-Bus, you probably use it like a very good light switch. Press a panel, a light comes on.
The system can do considerably more, and most of it is configuration rather than hardware.
Blinds and shutters
If the blind motors are wired to C-Bus relay outputs — common in homes built after 2005 — they can be grouped, scheduled and put in scenes. Morning: living room blinds up at sunrise. Afternoon: west-facing blinds down before the sun hits the lounge.
If the motors are on a separate remote system, they can usually still be brought in through the app, but that is a different job.
Fans, pumps and towel rails
Anything on a relay is controllable. Bathroom exhaust fans on a timer, pool pumps on a schedule that matches your electricity tariff, towel rails that only run for two hours in the morning.
The value here is not convenience. It is that these things stop running for eight hours by accident.
Gates and garage doors
If the motor has a dry-contact input — almost all do — C-Bus can trigger it. That means the gate can open from the same screen as the porch light, and it can be part of an “arrive home” scene.
Scenes: the thing people actually love
A scene is one button that sets several things at once. The three that clients use every day:
- **Leaving** — everything off, blinds down, alarm armed
- **Evening** — living areas on at 40%, hallway on, outside lights on
- **Goodnight** — everything off except the hall, blinds down, alarm armed
Setting these up is a conversation, not a technical exercise. We ask what you actually do at 10pm, and build that.
What it costs
If the wiring is already there, this is programming: part of the takeover visit, no extra hardware.
If the wiring is not there — the blind has no cable, the fan has no relay — that is where Shelly comes in, at around quoted per point per point.
The point
You already paid for this capability once, when the house was wired. Most of it is sitting there unused because nobody ever sat down with you and asked how you live.
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