After price, it is the second question. And unlike price, here we can give concrete numbers, because timelines depend on three things known from the site visit: the type of property, wireless or wired, and whether the home is finished or under construction.
Apartment with wireless devices: one day
It is the most common project in Panama. Main lights, AC units, living-room curtains, one or two cameras, a smart lock and the local server. Everything is Zigbee, Z-Wave or WiFi, installed behind the existing switch plates or on current equipment, with no construction.
What the day looks like: the team arrives in the morning, installs the devices, configures the local server and the network, programs the scenes and schedules agreed in the proposal and, by late afternoon, hands you the app with your name on it and shows you how to use it. That night you already sleep in an automated home.
What you need ready: access to the router, the WiFi password, and knowing which AC units and lights you want to control. If there are new motorized curtains, they must be installed beforehand or the same day by the curtain installer.
House with structured cabling and enterprise WiFi: two or three days
When the house is large or the current WiFi does not reach every corner, the project includes a wired network and professional access points. That adds time because data cable must be run, the rack mounted and the network configured before the devices.
Day 1: network cabling and rack mounting.
Day 2: access points, local server, devices.
Day 3 (if needed): fine programming, scenes, training and adjustments.
We work without making the house uninhabitable: cabling runs through ceilings and existing ducts, and we clean up every day.
KNX residence in new construction: at the pace of the build
Here there are no "installation days" but stages that follow the construction:
1. Drawings. KNX topology design over the electrical plan. One or two weeks of office work, in parallel with the architect's design.
2. Shell stage. Supervision of the bus run and the boxes for touchscreens. Spot visits during the weeks the electrical installation lasts.
3. Finishes. Mounting panels, actuators and touchscreens once paint is done. One to two weeks depending on size.
4. Commissioning. ETS programming, scene-by-scene testing, training and documentation. One week.
In total, DiraSmart's work on a KNX residence adds up to four to six effective weeks, spread across the build. The delivery date is set by the construction, not by us.
Commercial projects
Premises (office, restaurant, gym, clinic) with zoned automation are done in four to eight weeks from visit to handover, almost always without closing the business: we work during off-peak hours. A full hotel or building with BMS, KNX and DALI takes three to six months, coordinated with the electrical works. A hotel pilot floor, weeks.
What stretches a project (and how to avoid it)
- Changing the scope midway. Adding five devices on installation day is possible, but it can turn one day into two. Better to decide it in the proposal.
- Third-party equipment not ready. Curtains without motors, AC units not installed, locks that have not arrived. We coordinate with the curtain installer and the AC technician, but they need to be there first.
- Saturated home WiFi. If you chose not to change the network and devices then keep disconnecting, we have to come back. That is why we evaluate it at the visit and say so clearly.
After the installation
The system is not handed over and forgotten. During the first weeks we adjust schedules and scenes to how you actually live, over WhatsApp, without a visit. And when you want to add something, a new device is integrated in a short visit or, often, without one.
If you want to know how long your case would take, message us with the type of property and whether it is finished or under construction. With that we give you the timeline the same day.