A little brighter in Staten Island

[GadgetBoy]

Well, my electrician came to the house today and upgraded me from my old fuses to a beautiful 200 amp circuit breaker panel.

Let the games begin!

 

[jlehnert]

Is the rest of the house wiring still in the "fusebox" age? Sounds like you might be running some romex soon.

 

[GadgetBoy]

Is the rest of the house wiring still in the "fusebox" age? Sounds like you might be running some romex soon.

Everything in the house is BX, and I think I am required in NY to have that as code - I don't think Romex is allowed.

Then again, I could be wrong.

Now my problem is that I have to wait for any inspector to come to the house for a final inspection. Until then, the electrician suggested I not re-install the Leviton Coupler. X-10 is spotty, at best... I am thinking of installing a 220V outlet just to buy a plug-in coupler to last me a few weeks. I am afraid the WAF will drop considerably without the coupler. She is already beginning to complain.

 

[Skibum]

Ahhhh BX...

I have not had the pleasure since living in New York!

 

[Joe W]

As a former NY'er myself, NYC requires BX to keep rats from chewing through your electrical wiring. Or so says a friend of mine who worked as an electician.

It's a PITA until you get used to it.

 

[Rupp]

What's BX? Found it on Google. Bummer so that probably means you have metal switch boxes as well. That would be a RF switches worst nightmare.

 

[jlehnert]

Yup. BX is not fun to work with. Chicago requires it also. Never thought about the impact of metal boxes on RF devices, but Rupp is probably right. Also never seen a deep metal box, so look forward to having fun getting everything to fit.

 

[GadgetBoy]

I've never worked with anything else so I am really not affected, I guess.

It is a pain in the ass when you wire something, but I honestly didn't have many problems with my setup (BX). I have Homeseer on a 2.4gig somewhat dedicated PC (I use my laptop mostly but occassionally use the Homeseer PC to surf a bit) with a CM11a, Leopard II, a Leviton Coupler and a W800RF antenna. My x-10 works quite well in the house. Then again, my house is not large (nowhere near Rupp's status, lol). I am upgrading to a T103 computer interface when Martin gets them back in stock at Automated Outlet just because I would like to have the best interface to avoid any issues and the posts I read comparing it to the CM11a helped push me over the edge. Anything to push me closer to perfect response helps the WAF factor.

Unfortuanately, not having the coupler installed (as I siad above) is KILLING my x-10 transmission in the house.

 

[NoisyOldRadiator]

I guess my monopoly of being the only Staten Islander on here is no more.....

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Metal boxes shouldn't hurt RF devices much. Most of them have the transmitters and receivers in the front of the switch - although I have not tested the efectiveness of them in a metal box....

 

[Bruce L]

I've had problems with Zwave switches not responding when in metal boxes. Which I why I'm still looking into UPB and Insteon.

 

[GadgetBoy]

I guess my monopoly of being the only Staten Islander on here is no more.....

What part of the Island are you from?

 

[AutomatedOutlet]

Bruce,

Yes, I understand!