Central light vs. Insteon
- Thread starter DJK
- Start date
Sorry, but Insteon and 11,000 sq. ft. new construction do not go together.dkolva said:
Look at all the hardwired choices like Lutron, Litetouch, Centralite and Vantage. Centralite will be the cheapest, but count on $4-6 sq. ft. on top of Sparky.
Are you the builder or are you the one it is being built for?
Herdfan and Rocco,
Thanks for the replies. I am the owner (and carpal tunnel from the checks
).
The builder introduced me to a specialist who recommended the Vantage system.
Sounds to me that I should be running hardwire to the switches. Any recommendations between Lutron, Litetouch, Centralite and Vantage?
Thanks for the replies. I am the owner (and carpal tunnel from the checks
).The builder introduced me to a specialist who recommended the Vantage system.
Sounds to me that I should be running hardwire to the switches. Any recommendations between Lutron, Litetouch, Centralite and Vantage?
Any of the 4 hardwired systems will do what you want and more. For me it came down to the wife preferred the Lutron keypads over the Centralite ones. (I am RF based, so my two choices were Lutron Wireless and Centralite's Starlite system)
An 11K sq. ft. house is a large project, but have you consulted a Custom Installer/Integrator?
An 11K sq. ft. house is a large project, but have you consulted a Custom Installer/Integrator?
Yep, talked with a Vantage installer today, and the bill is around 95K. I was hoping for a DIY configuraiton that I could implement over time, but it seems that the DIY solutions are Inseton, UPB or Zwave and not a hard wired solution.
I'm a software guy and was hoping for a Homeseer or other DIY solution. Good thing the wiring is required for another 3 months, I got tons to learn!
Does anybody have "large house" experience with UPB?
I'm a software guy and was hoping for a Homeseer or other DIY solution. Good thing the wiring is required for another 3 months, I got tons to learn!
Does anybody have "large house" experience with UPB?
rocco
Active Member
Hi, Don:
I compared the different systems only enough to know that they all met my modest needs. I then selected Centralite based on price.
$95K seems awfully high, but 11,000 sq-ft. seems awfully big. I'm paying $2.6K for LiteJet, but it's DIY, except for the wiring. The central wiring is actually saving me money over conventional wiring.
Here is the centraLite 'Elegance' system, which is LiteJet's big sister.
I compared the different systems only enough to know that they all met my modest needs. I then selected Centralite based on price.
$95K seems awfully high, but 11,000 sq-ft. seems awfully big. I'm paying $2.6K for LiteJet, but it's DIY, except for the wiring. The central wiring is actually saving me money over conventional wiring.
Here is the centraLite 'Elegance' system, which is LiteJet's big sister.
Welcome to the group Don.dkolva said:
I'm about 3 or 4 months from completing our new home. My wife is the general on the project.
Our house in modest in size compared to yours, around 7000 square feet. A fellow software type as yourself, I'm installing a Centralite Elegance system ala DIY. (I tread lightly here, Centralite doesn't condone homeowner installs of the Elegance system and some of the big ca hones from Centralite have been participating at the CocoonTech boards
). But, you should probably talk to your local rep, I'm GUESSING half the price of the Vantage system installed.My plan is to integrate the Elegance system with both the ELK M1 and CQC.
Isn't it great, making decision after decision after ....
Brian
Brian,
Thanks for the info and congratulations on your new home.
Seems that the more I learn, the more I learn what I don't know. These forums are worth their weight in gold, because I had decided on Insteon after many hours of research, but that seems like that would have been a huge mistake.
Thanks for the callouts on the other items as well, I on the trail right behind you!
Don
Thanks for the info and congratulations on your new home.
Seems that the more I learn, the more I learn what I don't know. These forums are worth their weight in gold, because I had decided on Insteon after many hours of research, but that seems like that would have been a huge mistake.
Thanks for the callouts on the other items as well, I on the trail right behind you!
Don
Hi, Don, and welcome.
Yes, this site is the best. I can't believe how selfless and non-judgemental the members are. I mostly lurk because I'm a noob with HA stuff, but am looking forward to the time I can return some of the help I've received.
You can just about read any of the marketing material for lighting control and come away thinking that it will work fine for you. We're building in SW FL, nothing as grandiose as your home (only 3,500sf), and wanted lighting control. At first, I thought Insteon would be great. Then I read about UPB. Hmmm, that would be great, too. Z-wave? Sure, that can do the job, if you believe the brochures. The recurring recommendation here is if your walls are open then hardwire. As my respect for the members here grew, I realized it was the right recommendation. My Centralite LiteJet panel was installed this week. I didn't do the whole house; tried to focus on the essentials. Figured I could supplement with UPB or other non-hardwired solution later. One of the difficult aspects of my build is we currently live on Long Island and can't be at the build as often as I'd like.
Good luck with your decisions and your build. Let us know what you decide.
Kevin
Yes, this site is the best. I can't believe how selfless and non-judgemental the members are. I mostly lurk because I'm a noob with HA stuff, but am looking forward to the time I can return some of the help I've received.
You can just about read any of the marketing material for lighting control and come away thinking that it will work fine for you. We're building in SW FL, nothing as grandiose as your home (only 3,500sf), and wanted lighting control. At first, I thought Insteon would be great. Then I read about UPB. Hmmm, that would be great, too. Z-wave? Sure, that can do the job, if you believe the brochures. The recurring recommendation here is if your walls are open then hardwire. As my respect for the members here grew, I realized it was the right recommendation. My Centralite LiteJet panel was installed this week. I didn't do the whole house; tried to focus on the essentials. Figured I could supplement with UPB or other non-hardwired solution later. One of the difficult aspects of my build is we currently live on Long Island and can't be at the build as often as I'd like.
Good luck with your decisions and your build. Let us know what you decide.
Kevin
Don, Cinemar now supports both the Vantage and Centralite systems. Centralite is brand new to us. Our experience with Vantage has been excellent. So far, this is the best lighting control system we have integrated with. This comment is not inclusive of Centralite as that is brand new to us (and definately me as I was not involved in that development).
For the house the scale you are building, hard wire a central lighting controller. I wouldn't use a powerline system. The Vantage price you got is about where I would expect it to be with only having the Sq ft as input on your setup.
For the house the scale you are building, hard wire a central lighting controller. I wouldn't use a powerline system. The Vantage price you got is about where I would expect it to be with only having the Sq ft as input on your setup.
Now why would you want to leave the high taxes, utilities, potholes etc for a warm sunny climate?????
Pretty soon Florida will be known as the "New" New York.
Back to the subject.....
I would invest in a real good whole house surge suppression system as well. Also you will most likely be required by local codes to have a whole house generator. You might want to automate your house to shut off all non essential lighting and appliances when the utilities are lost to maximize your generator run time (unless its connected to a natural gas feed).
Hi, Digger.
We've been wanting to leave Long Island and move to Florida for 20 years. Planeed it for when the kid graduated med school. That happens in May and we're moving in June. We're lucky our son cooperated with our schedule.
One thing we're actually not getting rid of is the high taxes. Our property taxes on Long Island are $11,000 per year. We're expecting the Florida house to be $15K to $20K. Add $6,000 for homeowners insurance. It's not that cheap to live in FL anymore. BTW, we're moving to the west coast (Port Charlotte area) so there are many more Midwesterners than New Yorkers.
They're installing a whole-house suppressor and we've ordered a 30KW whole-house generator. Unfortunately there's no natural gas in the street, but we're burying a 500 gallon propane tank for the generator. Depending how carefully we manage power, that will give us four days to a week of electricity.
Charlotte County is regulating what we can run off the generator. Another brilliant building code that requires your generator has to be big enough to run the whole house if you want it wired that way. Like I'm not bright enough to realize I won't be able to run both A/C units, the pool heat pump, the induction cooktop, the electric dryer all at the same time. Even if I tried, the generator would shut down if it was overloaded. So what we're doing is putting the essentials on a panel fed by an automatic transfer switch and then just have to throw a manual transfer switch to power the rest of the house. Just a minor inconvenience, but at least we can power the whole house.
Thanks for the suggestions,
Kevin
We've been wanting to leave Long Island and move to Florida for 20 years. Planeed it for when the kid graduated med school. That happens in May and we're moving in June. We're lucky our son cooperated with our schedule.
One thing we're actually not getting rid of is the high taxes. Our property taxes on Long Island are $11,000 per year. We're expecting the Florida house to be $15K to $20K. Add $6,000 for homeowners insurance. It's not that cheap to live in FL anymore. BTW, we're moving to the west coast (Port Charlotte area) so there are many more Midwesterners than New Yorkers.
They're installing a whole-house suppressor and we've ordered a 30KW whole-house generator. Unfortunately there's no natural gas in the street, but we're burying a 500 gallon propane tank for the generator. Depending how carefully we manage power, that will give us four days to a week of electricity.
Charlotte County is regulating what we can run off the generator. Another brilliant building code that requires your generator has to be big enough to run the whole house if you want it wired that way. Like I'm not bright enough to realize I won't be able to run both A/C units, the pool heat pump, the induction cooktop, the electric dryer all at the same time. Even if I tried, the generator would shut down if it was overloaded. So what we're doing is putting the essentials on a panel fed by an automatic transfer switch and then just have to throw a manual transfer switch to power the rest of the house. Just a minor inconvenience, but at least we can power the whole house.
Thanks for the suggestions,
Kevin
I am in the middle of installing a Centralite LiteJet system in our 5150 sqft home. Because of the great deal my installer got thru his distributor who was scaling back, we opted for a LJ48 and a LJ24. Controlling both will be a challange from a whole house automation viewpoint. An Elegance system would have been easier, but more expensive.
These systems can do a lot of automation tasks on their own as they support scenes, timers, astronomical clock, sending acsii test to third party systems via RS-232,etc. When integrated with a HA system, it should allow even more sophisticated control.
Good Luck
These systems can do a lot of automation tasks on their own as they support scenes, timers, astronomical clock, sending acsii test to third party systems via RS-232,etc. When integrated with a HA system, it should allow even more sophisticated control.
Good Luck
