On 10/25/2010 2:31 PM, Robert Green wrote:
"Jeff wrote in message
...
I've been redoing my house and I'm thinking this is a good time to
consider some home automation. I notice that there is a slew of options,
upb, Insteon, Z Wave, among others.
The price per switch, from what I can tell, seems high. What is
reasonable and doable? Or is this not quite there yet?
Jeff
I and many others use X-10 successfully but with important caveats. Out of
the box, the signals aren't strong enough to cope with today's noisy
environments. But there are fixes that when all is totalled are still less
$ than Insteon. X-10's patent has expired, so many people are making X-10
gear.
I like that.
Who would support the proprietary Insteon line if Smarthome went
bankrupt? I've found that the much cheaper, license free, non-single source
X-10 protocol gear is more than up to the task of automating most homes but
only *with* addition of Jeff Volp's XTB line of X-10 signal boosters.
http://jvde.us/xtb/xtb_reports.htm
I'll look into that.
After I purchased the XTB-IIR I went from having X-10 issues every day to
maybe one every two months or even longer. I have X-10 gear from 10
different manufacturers and the standard's an open one so there's no
proprietary BS to deal with. With the XTB-IIR, I press the buttons and the
lights do what they should. The only really bothersome problem left is the
CFL issue: lights turning back on by themselves or flashing even when
turned off. Other protocols don't suffer from that problem because they
don't even offer the option to turn equipment on and off via local control,
a feature I find quite useful. That means that you can control a device
remotely, but you don't have to. Anyone who's had a lamp on a 24 hour "peg"
type timer and had to reach behind a table to turn it on manually knows what
a pain a lack of local control can be.
snip
If you're going to do it big time, X-10 makes sense and costs less.
I had written off X10 but I think it is worth another look, if for no
other reason that I can't afford the other gear!
I'm putting in some overhead lights in the kitchen and wanted to
control some of them individually. The option being running multiple
power down to a bank of switches, which didn't make sense. At
$50+/switch for the others, that didn't make sense either.
Do you know where I can find just the module without the plug and
outlet? I haven't seen it yet, but it would seem like it has to exist. I
can think of more uses...
Jeff
Automating a single porch light is something I wouldn't recommend X-10 for
because without the XTB the signal can get stepped on by UPS's, CFL's and
any number of line noise generators. Plus, Jeff's technical support is
"Best in class"
--
Bobby G.