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Renovating a home in Europe, whether it's a modern apartment in Berlin or a character house in the Cotswolds, means working with some of the highest electrical standards in the world. This focus on safety and precision provides the perfect foundation for building a truly smart home, starting at the very core: your consumer unit.

If you're planning a renovation, this is your golden opportunity to move beyond basic wiring. By integrating smart technology from the beginning, you can create a home that is safer, more energy-efficient, and seamlessly convenient, all while adhering to strict European regulations.

Why Your Consumer Unit is the Key to a Smarter Home

Your consumer unit (also known as a distribution board or tableau électrique) is the command center for your home's electricity. Traditionally, it's filled with standard MCBs (Miniature Circuit Breakers) and RCDs/RCBOs (Residual Current Devices/Breakers). By upgrading these to their smart equivalents, like Tongou’s DIN Rail Smart Circuit Breakers, you transform it from a passive safety box into an active energy management hub.

Designed for the standard 230V/50Hz European system, these smart breakers provide:

• Complete Remote Control: Left the heating on in the guest room? No problem. Shut down the entire circuit from your phone, wherever you are.

• Detailed Energy Monitoring: Track the energy consumption of specific circuits in real-time. Discover exactly how much your heat pump, EV charger, or kitchen appliances are costing you, and make informed decisions to reduce your bills.

• Enhanced Electrical Safety: With built-in over/under voltage, overload, and leakage protection, our smart breakers offer a level of safety beyond standard devices. They can automatically trip in milliseconds during a fault and send an immediate notification to your phone.

• Effortless Scene Automation: Create a "Vacation Mode" that shuts down everything except essential circuits like your fridge and security system with a single tap.

A Crucial Note for European Homeowners: Professional Installation is Non-Negotiable

Across the EU and the UK, electrical regulations are stringent and for good reason. All work on your consumer unit must be carried out by a qualified and certified electrician. This is not a DIY job. A professional will ensure that your installation is safe, compliant with all local codes (like BS 7671 in the UK), and properly certified.

When discussing your project, ensure your electrician is comfortable installing smart devices and verify that any products you choose, like the Tongou range, are CE certified, confirming they meet EU standards for health, safety, and environmental protection.

3 Steps to Planning Your Smart Electrical System

Step 1: Define Your Smart Home Scenarios

Before meeting with your electrician, think about your lifestyle. What would make your life easier, safer, or more efficient?

• Safety: Do you want immediate alerts if the circuit for the children's room trips?

• Convenience: Would you like to schedule your electric towel rails to warm up just before you wake up? Want to ensure your EV charger only runs on cheaper, overnight electricity tariffs?

• Energy Efficiency: Are you aiming for a higher Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating? Do you want to track your solar panel output versus your consumption?

Your answers will form the brief for your electrician.

Step 2: Design Your Circuits with Your Electrician

Work with your electrician to design a "granular" circuit layout—this is the key to effective smart control. Instead of having one circuit for all the lights upstairs, for example, separate them.

A good plan might include:

• Dedicated circuits for all high-power appliances: Oven, hob, heat pump, EV charger, sauna, etc.

• Separated lighting circuits: Kitchen lighting, living room lighting, outdoor lighting.

• Separated socket circuits: Downstairs ring circuit, kitchen counter sockets, home office sockets.

This granularity allows you to install a dedicated Tongou Smart Breaker on each circuit, giving you pinpoint control and monitoring.

Step 3: Choose Compliant and Compatible Smart Devices

1. For the Consumer Unit: Your entire smart system is built upon the standard DIN rail, which is ubiquitous in European consumer units. Our smart breakers are designed to click directly onto this rail, ensuring a seamless and professional fit alongside your other components.

2. For Your Walls: Replace traditional wall switches with Tongou Smart Wall Switches. These fit into standard European back boxes and give you both manual and smart control over your lighting. Unlike smart bulbs, they work even if someone has physically flicked the switch off.

Real-World Scenario: The "Good Morning" Scene

At 7:00 AM, an automated scene triggers:

• The smart breaker for your heated floors turns on.

• The smart switch for your bedroom lamp gently fades the light on.

• The circuit for the coffee machine is enabled, and the machine starts brewing.

• The water heater, which was off overnight to save energy, is powered on.

Conclusion

Renovating your home provides a rare opportunity to install a truly modern electrical infrastructure. By planning from the consumer unit outwards with a focus on granular circuit design and using certified, compatible devices like Tongou’s smart breakers, you can create a home that is not just smart, but also fundamentally safer and more energy-efficient.