/ Smart Living
What ₹35 lakh of home automation actually buys — an anonymised BOQ
Quick answer
₹35 lakh on a 2,800 sq-ft villa fit-out, in our practice, typically buys: Rako-led wired lighting automation across 9 zones (~₹9 L), motorised shading on 14 openings (~₹4.5 L), distributed multi-room audio in 5 zones (~₹4 L), a 7.1 family-cinema with mid-tier electronics (~₹6 L), 8 IP-camera CCTV with a 30-day NVR (~₹2.2 L), bio-metric access at three doors (~₹1.2 L), full Cat6A structured cabling with 28 outlets (~₹3 L), Wi-Fi 7 in three APs (~₹2 L), an online 6 kVA UPS (~₹1.5 L), and a Silver-tier 36-month AMC (~₹1.6 L). Numbers are indicative bands, not a quoted price — the same scope swings ±18% by brand, civil readiness and site logistics.
We are asked the same question almost every week: *what does ₹X buy in a real automation fit-out?* The honest answer is a bill of quantities, anonymised against a real villa we have delivered, with the brand bands and indicative rupees that explain where the money actually goes. The version below sits at the ₹35 lakh band — a meaningful Indian residential automation budget, but not the top of the market. The villa is 2,800 sq ft, two storeys, North-East India; the owner is a self-described ‘premium but not maximalist’ buyer; the brief is reference-quality engineering without ostentation.
## What the ₹35 L scope contains
The scope below is what we delivered, organised by discipline. The rupee figures are indicative bands rather than the quoted price on that specific job — the same scope swings ±18% by brand selection, by site logistics (lift availability, working-hour windows, civil readiness), and by whether the integration is taken on as turnkey or as point-supply.
## Trade-offs we made and would make again
Three deliberate trade-offs shape this scope. First, Rako rather than KNX — at 9 zones, KNX's vendor independence and 20-year horizon are real but the entry cost is 2× and the programming overhead does not pay back at this scale. Second, mid-tier AV electronics (Marantz Cinema 50, Polk Reserve speakers) rather than a reference 9.4 system — the room geometry does not justify the reference uplift, and the budget delta would have come out of acoustics where it matters more. Third, Hikvision IP CCTV rather than Axis at this stage — Hikvision delivers 4 MP IP cameras with H.265 and 30-day retention at roughly 35% of the Axis line cost, and the difference at the camera layer is not visible to the owner when the lens, mount and lighting are correct.
## What we did not include at ₹35 L
A premium home cinema (₹15-30 L on its own), KNX with a full BMS layer, Crestron control across AV, motorised opening windows beyond the shade scope, EV charging integration, or a backup-power tier above ride-through UPS. Each of these is a separate conversation; bundling them all into a single ₹35 L scope would mean compromising every line item below threshold. We would rather deliver one tier at full reference quality than five at the floor.
## What changes at ₹50 L and ₹75 L
₹50 L buys: KNX in place of Rako (vendor independence and a longer horizon), reference-grade acoustics in the cinema, Axis camera stack, Crestron AV control across the home rather than just the cinema, and a structured 5-year preventive AMC. ₹75 L lifts the audio tier to JBL Synthesis or Bowers & Wilkins, replaces the 7.1 cinema with a 9.4.6 Atmos room properly engineered, and adds either solar+BESS or a redundant power tier depending on the load profile.
## Anonymisation discipline
The BOQ below is anonymised: room counts and zone counts are real, brand selections are real, rupee bands are within ±15% of the actual quote. Customer-identifying particulars (locality, household composition, security details) are excluded. We publish this as a practice-norm reference for architects and owners trying to scope work — not as a marketing claim about a specific project.
## What this means for an owner reading from cold
Three readings to take from this BOQ. First, automation is a discipline scope, not a brand-shopping list — the spread is in pathways, panels, programming and AMC discipline more than in marquee badges on individual devices. Second, civil readiness eats budget invisibly; ask your integrator about the assumptions baked into the rupee figure and what changes if civil is not ready on schedule. Third, AMC is a programme, not an invoice — if your integrator quotes an AMC at less than 4% of installed value, ask which line items they have quietly excluded.
/ Reference table
Anonymised BOQ — 2,800 sq-ft North-East villa, ₹35 L band
| Discipline | Scope | Brand band | Indicative ₹ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighting automation | 9 zones · 64 circuits · 11 keypads | Rako Wireless + Wired | 8.5–9.5 L |
| Motorised shading | 14 openings · roller + sheer + blackout | Somfy / Vestamatic | 4–5 L |
| Multi-room audio | 5 zones · in-ceiling Sonance + amp rack | Sonance + WiiM Pro | 3.5–4.5 L |
| Family cinema | 7.1 channel · 110″ screen · projector + AVR | Marantz Cinema 50 + Polk Reserve | 5.5–6.5 L |
| CCTV surveillance | 8 IP cameras · 30-day NVR · 4 MP H.265 | Hikvision i-series | 2.0–2.4 L |
| Access control | 3 doors · fingerprint + RFID + door magnet | Hikvision DS-K1T series | 1.0–1.4 L |
| Structured cabling | 28 outlets · Cat6A · channel-tested | CommScope / Schneider | 2.8–3.2 L |
| Wi-Fi 7 wireless | 3 APs · seamless roaming · VLAN | Aruba Instant On / TP-Link Omada | 1.8–2.2 L |
| Online UPS | 6 kVA double-conversion + LFP | Vertiv / Delta | 1.4–1.6 L |
| AMC (36-month Silver) | Quarterly visits · 24h response · spares pool | TechnoGuru programme | 1.4–1.7 L |
| Engineering + commissioning | Design + project mgmt + handover docs | Bundled overhead | ~3 L |
Indicative bands at 2026 prices, excluding GST. Civil and electrical pre-works are owner-scope. Brand choices are illustrative — every project is engineered against the architectural reality, not the catalogue.
/ Frequently asked
Quick answers from the practice.
- Why are these rupee figures bands rather than a fixed quote?
- A quoted price depends on civil readiness, working-hour windows, lift access, brand availability on the day, customs lead-times on import-stock and the structure of the contract (turnkey vs. supply-only). A band of ±15% across these variables is the realistic precision for a published reference; a specific project quote is tighter because those variables are pinned down.
- Could we deliver the same scope at ₹25 L?
- Yes, with substantive compromises — wireless lighting in place of wired Rako (loses retrofit-future-proofness), thinner CCTV retention, lighter Cat6A run count, no UPS, no AMC. The ₹25 L band is a viable entry point; the ₹35 L band is where the system stops feeling like a compromise on every axis. Below ₹20 L we recommend phasing the scope across two years rather than thinning every line item.
- How much of this can a homeowner self-procure?
- Hardware can be self-procured for roughly 8-12% saving on list, but the saving is usually consumed by the engineering and commissioning overhead an integrator would otherwise absorb (BOQ resolution, brand-version compatibility, warranty claims, commissioning labour). For automation specifically — Rako, Fibaro, KNX — self-procurement also voids the in-house programming continuity that an integrator-owned project provides.
- Does the AMC tier really matter at this budget?
- Yes. The single most consequential post-handover decision is the AMC. A Silver-tier programme at ~5% of installed value (₹1.6 L on this scope) buys quarterly preventive visits, 24-hour first response, configuration-baseline retention and a documented spares pool. Without that programme, the system gradually drifts from the commissioning baseline — and the cost of recovery five years on is typically 3-4× the cost of the programme itself.
- Will TechnoGuru actually price-match the upper end of these bands?
- We will quote against the brief, not against the band — the band is a reference for architects and owners trying to scope work. Where the brief allows, we will recommend specifications that land inside or below the indicative band; where the brief asks for a richer scope, we will price accordingly and document the engineering rationale.
/ What to do next
Three next steps for owners and architects
- Send a project brief to the studio →Six structured questions; written response within two working days.
- Compare automation platforms side-by-side →Rako vs Lutron vs KNX vs Crestron — honest comparison across scale, cost, longevity.
- Read our procurement and process method →How we engineer a turnkey integration from brief through 36-month AMC.
/ Discuss your project
If this article matches a brief you are working on, the next step is a thirty-minute call with a project lead.
We do not run sales pipelines. The first reply comes from a project lead, within two working days, and it goes straight to the engineering question rather than a brochure.