My house has a First Alert 148C, which is basically a rebranded Vista 15. I'm looking at replacing this with an ELK M1 and HAI OmniPro II. I also want to replace the two thermostats and add a few UPB switches to control the lights. I want to keep this around $2k to start and add devices later as money permits.
I like the ELK Navigator touch screen as the bezel is small and the interface looks modern. However from what I've read you can't change the thermostat temp. The HAI 5.7e touchscreens are over priced and the bezel looks huge, but it can control the thermostats and even view IP cameras. I like that HAI has everything basically on one board. With ELK I need to purchase the ethernet interface, the retriofit data base hub, and the upb interface. Am I correct that I don't need the equivelant of the retriot fit hub with HAI to hook up more than two keypads with 4 conductor wire?
I would like to receive email alerts from the panel without a third party program. I know the ELK can do this. On the HAI website they make it sounds like you need their PC software running for the alerts to be sent. Can anyone confirm this?
My current alarm has two keypads. I have a third keypad prewire by the front door. I've never put a keypad there as the front door is glass and you can see the alarm status indicator. I read with the ELK the keypad can turn off after 60 seconds. Does this option work as advertised and with what keypad models? I'm looking for a keypad where you can't tell the system status without pressing a button. Does HAI have any option like this?
As far as thermostats I want them to be hardwired. I've looked at HAI and RCS. What I'm not sure about is how thermostat program interacts with the HAI or ELK panel. If I program the schedules and then override the temp with the HAI or ELK I'm assuming that is the same as pressing the temp button. At the next schedule interval will it revert back to the thermostat program schedule? How do most configure this? Do they go with a basic thermostat and create the program in the HAI or ELK system?
I'm also not 100% on the UPB switches. They looked like the best option as they work with both ELK and HAI. I have also looked at RadioRA and ZWave. I breifly looked at Insteon, but HAI isn't compatible. However the ISY99i is intriguing with what it can do. With the ELK only supporting around 500 program statements it might be nice to have extra capabitiy. It is hard to estimate how my program statements I will need.
I like the ELK Navigator touch screen as the bezel is small and the interface looks modern. However from what I've read you can't change the thermostat temp. The HAI 5.7e touchscreens are over priced and the bezel looks huge, but it can control the thermostats and even view IP cameras. I like that HAI has everything basically on one board. With ELK I need to purchase the ethernet interface, the retriofit data base hub, and the upb interface. Am I correct that I don't need the equivelant of the retriot fit hub with HAI to hook up more than two keypads with 4 conductor wire?
I would like to receive email alerts from the panel without a third party program. I know the ELK can do this. On the HAI website they make it sounds like you need their PC software running for the alerts to be sent. Can anyone confirm this?
My current alarm has two keypads. I have a third keypad prewire by the front door. I've never put a keypad there as the front door is glass and you can see the alarm status indicator. I read with the ELK the keypad can turn off after 60 seconds. Does this option work as advertised and with what keypad models? I'm looking for a keypad where you can't tell the system status without pressing a button. Does HAI have any option like this?
As far as thermostats I want them to be hardwired. I've looked at HAI and RCS. What I'm not sure about is how thermostat program interacts with the HAI or ELK panel. If I program the schedules and then override the temp with the HAI or ELK I'm assuming that is the same as pressing the temp button. At the next schedule interval will it revert back to the thermostat program schedule? How do most configure this? Do they go with a basic thermostat and create the program in the HAI or ELK system?
I'm also not 100% on the UPB switches. They looked like the best option as they work with both ELK and HAI. I have also looked at RadioRA and ZWave. I breifly looked at Insteon, but HAI isn't compatible. However the ISY99i is intriguing with what it can do. With the ELK only supporting around 500 program statements it might be nice to have extra capabitiy. It is hard to estimate how my program statements I will need.