Recent content by cfoxga

Actually the OneLink First Alerts do pretty much everything logat requires, though they use the Insteon Smoke Bridge to connect to Homeseer (via the Insteon PLM).  I have them and they work well.  There have:   - hardwired with battery backup and battery-only units - ionic units, photoelectric...

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-9-5-Watt-60W-A19-Warm-White-2700K-LED-Light-Bulb-1-Pack-BA19-08027OMF-12DE26-1U100/203991774#.UVIHQRzbP4U   Not sure how new these are, but I just picked up this Cree 9.5W 800 lumen bulb from Home Depot for $12.95 last night.  I love the CR6 bulbs in our kitchen...

Thanks for the info kwilcox; I can't believe I missed this.  The yellow Philips A19 bulb has long been my favorite LED.  I've tried just about every 60W LED from Lowes and Home Depot, and I prefer the Philips above all of the others.  I immediately went to Home Depot to pick up one of the new...

Thanks for the info gatchel. I purchased some CR6 bulbs a while back for my kitchen and love them! Assuming the CR6-800 can get down near the $40 range like the CR6, I might be willing to move my current lights to the basement and put those in the kitchen. I'm not sure if I really need the...

wuench, I was also looking for bulbs that could be used in an enclosure. I found these at Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&R=202668646&catEntryId=202668646 for $24. I'm pretty sure the box states that it can...

It is a tough call. If you expect everything to be inexpensive and work perfectly, you will probably be unhappy with all of the manufacturers for one reason or another. I was in the same boat you were in 2 years ago: a house full of X10 and a desire to improve things. Back then, Insteon was...

I'm not a Brighthouse customer (Comcast in my area), but I was with DirecTV before I moved two years ago. Here are some random thoughts: 1. If you are paying $150/month and about $45 of that is Internet access, then you are paying around $100/month for cable + STB leases. To compare apples to...

I'll second MikeB's recommendation of the Cooper Aspire. I replaced all of the plates in my house with them recently and couldn't be more pleased with the outcome. They look great and didn't cost a fortune. Other than being a bit of a hassle to remove (though I try to remember blame Insteon...

Other than a lower rating, the Icons I have the same feature set as my V2s and Keypadlincs (except for perhaps a smaller link table, which is not an issue for a small or medium install). So for a small load, I can easily do an apples to apples comparison to UPB. There is no need to put a 1000W...

3/4 of a second would bother me quite a bit, though I'm sure I would eventually get used to it. But I'm pretty anal about stuff like that :) The mismatched LED colors and bright keypad LEDs bug me every time I look at them. That would certainly be a nice feature to have in Insteon. The...

I'm sure you've figured out by now that there is no "best" choice out there. Everything depends on your individual preferences, tolerances and needs. I, for one, am reasonably happy with Insteon (I use mostly Icons). There is a laundry list of things that I wish were different, but there are...

I'm far from an expert, but my understanding that in order to really get an improvement over 100 mbps switches, you need a switch that supports jumbo frames. Looking at the Linksys and Netgear links, only the Netgear advertises jumbo frame support...

I got a response back from Smarthome stating that they expect a new shipment in a week or so. At least it was not "sorry, we no longer manufacture green Icons"... Keeping my fingers crossed... Chris

I was hoping to buy 7 more relays with green LEDs, but Smarthome has them backordered and AutomatedOutlet no longer shows them on their site. Most of the house is using green and my wife prefers it to the amber. Any idea how I might find some (or am I SOL)? Chris

Since I was replacing X10 switches, I had assigned an X10 address to each Icon switch after installation. To my surprise, the ramp rates worked! I've set both local and remote ramp rates on all of my Icons: The local ramp rate (and on level) must be set at the dimmer. But a trick to get a...