Whole-Home Automation Planning Checklist
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A stage-by-stage checklist that walks a luxury residence from the first discovery conversation to handover, so nothing is decided out of order or left behind a closed wall.

[ ] Write a one-page description of how the household lives: who is home, when, and what a typical morning, evening, and weekend look like.
[ ] List every room and outdoor area, then note which of lighting, shading, climate, audio, video, and security each one actually needs.
[ ] Rank the subsystems by daily impact, with lighting, shading, climate, and the network at the top, before any product is discussed.
[ ] Decide which of the household's routines should run automatically on schedules and sensors rather than by touch.
[ ] Confirm the automation design meeting happens during architectural design, before framing and electrical rough-in.
[ ] Reserve a dedicated equipment room or rack location with ventilation, clean protected power, and service access.
[ ] Specify structured cabling to every display, access point, touch panel, camera, lighting processor, and shade motor location.
[ ] Leave conduit or empty pathways to key locations for the cable runs no one has thought of yet.
[ ] Size the network for the full device count of the finished home, not the count on move-in day; the sizing calculator at /tools/home-network-sizing/ helps here.
[ ] Choose a platform approach, proprietary, open, or hybrid, and record who can service it, how it is updated, and how it can grow.
[ ] Confirm that lighting and shading will be controlled from the same scenes and the same keypads, whatever platform sits behind them.
[ ] Agree on keypad locations and engraved button names for every room, using plain words the household will recognize.
[ ] Decide where touch panels belong and where they would simply be ignored, and remove the ones that would be ignored.
[ ] Confirm the mobile app and any voice control are secondary layers, not the primary way the house is operated.
[ ] Collect at least two written integrator proposals that itemize design, programming, and commissioning separately from hardware.
[ ] Check references from clients whose systems have been live for several years, not only recent installations.
[ ] Read the proposed support agreement before signing: response times, remote monitoring, programming changes, and what is excluded.
[ ] Set aside a contingency reserve in the budget for the changes that will surface once the family is living in the home.
[ ] Ask for as-built documentation: cable maps, rack layouts, IP address schedules, and a full scene and schedule list.
[ ] Schedule a walkthrough with every adult in the household before handover so each person can operate their own spaces.
[ ] Book a follow-up programming visit for a few weeks after move-in, once real habits have replaced the planned ones.