apostolakisl
Senior Member
If you want 100% success, go with a hardwired solution. If 99% is OK with you, then PLC/RF systems will do the trick. Lighting isn't critical in my mind, if a light fails to turn on or off on rare occasion, it doesn't really matter to me. In my Insteon system, the only failures I encounter are rarely with large complex scenes where one of the devices might not respond. I have my Elk relays run all the stuff that must work 100% of the time. They are hardwired in and include the irrigation system, overhead garage doors, whole house water valve, and a few other odds and ends.
At probably 5% or less of the cost of a Crestron system, I can live with that. UPB will be about 2 or 3 times Insteon, but still well less than Crestron. Z-wave is probably in the same boat. In a straight up installation without any regard for signal issues, UPB and zwave will beat Insteon. With a little effort, Insteon should work at the same level.
I don't really know much about ALC but the fixture prices seamed to be just a bit higher than UPB. But you do have to consider the labor and materials running all that cat5 wire. It could take you a couple days to do that yourself, and that still leaves you with installing and programming the switches later on. And if a mistake is made in the hardwiring of your house, it might not be so simple to correct it. The RF/PLC systems allow you complete flexibility to do whatever you want in the future regardless of what you prepared to do.
At probably 5% or less of the cost of a Crestron system, I can live with that. UPB will be about 2 or 3 times Insteon, but still well less than Crestron. Z-wave is probably in the same boat. In a straight up installation without any regard for signal issues, UPB and zwave will beat Insteon. With a little effort, Insteon should work at the same level.
I don't really know much about ALC but the fixture prices seamed to be just a bit higher than UPB. But you do have to consider the labor and materials running all that cat5 wire. It could take you a couple days to do that yourself, and that still leaves you with installing and programming the switches later on. And if a mistake is made in the hardwiring of your house, it might not be so simple to correct it. The RF/PLC systems allow you complete flexibility to do whatever you want in the future regardless of what you prepared to do.