Central light vs. Insteon

[Herdfan]

Ok, so going with a centralize system means that I will NOT be able to do a DIY.

Not necessarily.

Find a dealer that will work with you and your level of expertise. You may want to do all the LV and let Sparky/Dealer do the HV. You may also want to program it yourself or at least have the software to make changes later.

You do have options, you just have to find the right person/dealer.

 

[ctay]

Just FYI, I went with a centralite litejet 48 and I'm DIY. Just working with the sparky to get things in correctly.

Good luck!
Chris

 

[Steve]

Hi Don,

I'm a bit late to this thread but you have received the right advice to hardwire. It's almost a no-brainer in a large new home where you have the budget. But keep in mind the hybrid option, where you would hardwire at minimum all of your critical lighting and as much other 'switch based' stuff as you could. Then you could supplement that with a powerline protocol like UPB (which I recommend over Insteon). You could put in UPB outlets instead of say a regular outlet an lamp/appliance module. I think its Centralite that also controls UPB, but if you put in a panel like the HAI or Elk it really wouldn't matter. Pretty much all of the major hardwire players are pretty good quality, I would look at which control pads/switches you like best. Another option is the SquareD/C-Bus/Clipsal system. If you are ever in the Orlando, FL area they have a designer showroom that shows all their stuff - it was very interesting. I'm only around 3 hours from your new place and would love to see it.

Just don't forget the prewire - thats the most critical part of your whole HA/security system. I can see miles of wire in that place. Also, if you haven't already, try to identify a decent size closet or room to be your HA room. I'm sure you need a place for your structured wiring, security panel, distributed audio, HA pc, etc...

And you're right, don't move to FL for the cost of living, the latest polls show South FL 2nd most expensive, just behind Honolulu!

 

[Herdfan]

But keep in mind the hybrid option, where you would hardwire at minimum all of your critical lighting and as much other 'switch based' stuff as you could. Then you could supplement that with a powerline protocol like UPB (which I recommend over Insteon).

To add to that, Lutron and I think Centralite (someone please correct me if I am wrong), can integrate their wireless protocols into a wired system. So you could do critical areas hardwired and leave other areas until later and then do them wirelessly.

 

[Kevin L]

But keep in mind the hybrid option, where you would hardwire at minimum all of your critical lighting and as much other 'switch based' stuff as you could. Then you could supplement that with a powerline protocol like UPB (which I recommend over Insteon).

To add to that, Lutron and I think Centralite (someone please correct me if I am wrong), can integrate their wireless protocols into a wired system. So you could do critical areas hardwired and leave other areas until later and then do them wirelessly.

Thanks Steve and Herdfan. That's what I planned to do. Partly because of time constraints, partly because of money, I put in a Centralite LiteJet 24-load panel and did a homerun of my critical first floor and outdoor lighting. After I move in and see how we're using the house, I'll change some of the non-LiteJet loads (switches and outlets) to a non-hardwired solution. Right now I had planned on UPB, but haven't given it a lot of thought. I'll research more thoroughly when I'm ready to make the change.

Kevin

 

[DJK]

OK, I think that I will go with a central light system (Centralite, Lutron, Vantage or Litetouch, others?)

I think that these are high voltage and low voltage home run lines. Since this is an 11k ft2 home, multiple home runs in various spots and then tied together to the HA closet near the center of the house. I think that selection of the switches is an important decision factor.

Are any of these systems better for DIY than others?

Base the selection on switches?

Do any of these work better with ELK, HAI and/or homeseer?

Thanks for all the help fellow cocooners, I am getting closer thanks to everyone's help.

 

[Herdfan]

OK, I think that I will go with a central light system (Centralite, Lutron, Vantage or Litetouch, others?)

I think that these are high voltage and low voltage home run lines. I think that selection of the switches is an important decision factor.

Are any of these systems better for DIY than others?

Base the selection on switches?

Do any of these work better with ELK, HAI and/or homeseer?

1) Yes and no. Each light area or fixture would be homerun. For example, in a single room, the recessed lights would be homerun, the uplights would be homerun and the bathroom lights would be homerun. I am not sure, but I think some of the keypads use addressing and can be daisy chained.

2) Centralite would be your best shot for DIY, followed by Lutron (but you would need to find a cooperative dealer and they do exist)

3) That was my (actually my wife's) deciding factor between Lutron and Centralite. She liked the Lutron keypads better plus Centralite was not available in black.

4) Elk: Centralite for sure. Lutron RadioRa does, so there is probably a way to integrate Homeworks. Send an e-mailt o Elk products and they will give you an answer.

4a) You might want to take a look a CQC instead of Homeseer. No recommendation here, just providing the info.

 

[DJK]

Herdfan,

Thanks for the quick reply and the additional information.

I think that I am thinking about HomeSeer since it uses C# and seems to have a dedicated set of users, but do to the duanting nature of this project, I'm taking this step at a time, with wiring first.

Another question, can I engineer a centralized lighting plan, have sparky do the work, and then make the final decision between Centralite, Lutron, Vantage or Litetouch, others? In otherwords, do they all utilize the same wiring configuration?

"Inch by inch" and boy do I feel like an inch worm!

Thanks again for the postings!

 

[Herdfan]

Another question, can I engineer a centralized lighting plan, have sparky do the work, and then make the final decision between Centralite, Lutron, Vantage or Litetouch, others? In otherwords, do they all utilize the same wiring configuration?

In a house that size I don't know if I would risk that. In a smaller house where you were going to have 1 central panel, you would probably be OK, but in one that size, you may have several panels at locations throughout the house. Different brands have different size panels so you would want to know what size panels are available and make your wire decisions based on that.

Of course, you can always find out what size panels each manufacturer makes and plan accordingly. Good luck.

 

[DavidL]

dkolva,
MainLobby supports all of the lighting controllers you are looking at. So, from a DIY perspective, all of them are easy to use with MainLobby. I don't think Homeseer / CQC support all of them you list. Each does some, but not all (I am pretty sure). Now, if you are talking about DIY with respect to installing and programming the actual panel and the lighting controller, that's different. I kinda doubt that you are looking forward to doing that? With a house of the scale you are building, and with all else that goes on with a new construction project that you likely will be dealing with, I assume you will have an electrician / dealer install the core lighting system and do it's programming. Make sure that contractor is aware that you will be tieing into a PC based automation system as that should be figured into your low voltage wiring (serial / TCP wiring from PC server to panel).

with at least the Vantage and the Litetouch, you definately will have multiple load centers as each load center can contain X load modules, and each load module can control Y loads with a max of Z watts per module (dependent on module type) etc. My hip pocket guess is three load centers :blink: The design of this system is an important value add that your dealer will do for you. Takes quite a bit of time to come up to speed with all of the issues.

 

[brotsten]

dkolva,
Now, if you are talking about DIY with respect to installing and programming the actual panel and the lighting controller, that's different. I kinda doubt that you are looking forward to doing that? With a house of the scale you are building, and with all else that goes on with a new construction project that you likely will be dealing with, I assume you will have an electrician / dealer install the core lighting system and do it's programming.

I can only speak to the Centralite Elegance system. It was very easy to program, it took me about 3.5 hours to program mine (96 loads and a dozen or so scenes) from cold turkey noob. Granted, I haven't completed my installation yet and it's quite possible my well pump will shut down when I activate my theater lights.... :blink:

Brian

 

[matthew999]

dkolva,
Now, if you are talking about DIY with respect to installing and programming the actual panel and the lighting controller, that's different. I kinda doubt that you are looking forward to doing that? With a house of the scale you are building, and with all else that goes on with a new construction project that you likely will be dealing with, I assume you will have an electrician / dealer install the core lighting system and do it's programming.

I can only speak to the Centralite Elegance system. It was very easy to program, it took me about 3.5 hours to program mine (96 loads and a dozen or so scenes) from cold turkey noob. Granted, I haven't completed my installation yet and it's quite possible my well pump will shut down when I activate my theater lights....

Brian

I am in the planning stages of building a 4100sqft home and am also at a crossroads of what to install/have installed.
I would like systems that are comprehensive and support DIYers. The various systems mentioned in this thread
sound quite impressive. Some of the web sites are great at explaining what they do and others also have
manuals and guides.

One that I haven't seen mentioned is this one, OnQ. I think it is the same people that make vantage.
Whats the consensus? Anyone with experience installing? Looks comprehensive and a DIYer system.