Centralite JetStream

[Captain Caveman]

I forgot to add that the JetStream light switch firmware is field upgradeable.

 

[dutchyn]

Wired versus wireless -- that is the question. I have a baseless belief that wired lighting (eg. Centralite Elite) is considerably more expensive than wireless (eg. Centralite JetStream). But, I should verify this belief: we're planning to build a 2000 sqft house sometime in the next 6 months, and therefore a wired solution is technically feasible. But, I've persisted in considering wireless solutions because I don't have $150,000 to spend on it. What are realistic estimates for wired home automation--themostats, lighting, garage doors, motion sensors, smoke detectors?

Chris Dutchyn

 

[Ranger Digital]

Wired versus wireless -- that is the question. I have a baseless belief that wired lighting (eg. Centralite Elite) is considerably more expensive than wireless (eg. Centralite JetStream). But, I should verify this belief: we're planning to build a 2000 sqft house sometime in the next 6 months, and therefore a wired solution is technically feasible. But, I've persisted in considering wireless solutions because I don't have $150,000 to spend on it. What are realistic estimates for wired home automation--themostats, lighting, garage doors, motion sensors, smoke detectors?

Chris Dutchyn

Cave, if you considered an ALC lighting system (On-Q or HAI, others support it as well) you are a minute fraction of $150K! you can do a 2000 sq ft house for well under 0ne tenth. maybe less than 10 grand. do it all yourself and your now talking way less than 10k. and its hardwired and it just plain works.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Wired versus wireless -- that is the question. I have a baseless belief that wired lighting (eg. Centralite Elite) is considerably more expensive than wireless (eg. Centralite JetStream). But, I should verify this belief: we're planning to build a 2000 sqft house sometime in the next 6 months, and therefore a wired solution is technically feasible. But, I've persisted in considering wireless solutions because I don't have $150,000 to spend on it. What are realistic estimates for wired home automation--themostats, lighting, garage doors, motion sensors, smoke detectors?

Chris Dutchyn

Cave, if you considered an ALC lighting system (On-Q or HAI, others support it as well) you are a minute fraction of $150K! you can do a 2000 sq ft house for well under 0ne tenth. maybe less than 10 grand. do it all yourself and your now talking way less than 10k. and its hardwired and it just plain works.

Hey, hey, hey - that wasn't me that said $150k. Even if he stuck to Centralite it should be nowhere near that, the house is only 2000 sq ft.

Centralite and ALC are both excellent systems. Pick the one that will give you the results your looking for.

 

[Ranger Digital]

cave, lol, my bad! i meant chris! and even then, it likely teh 150k was for the whole house, not the lighting, lol.

 

[dutchyn]

cave, lol, my bad! i meant chris! and even then, it likely teh 150k was for the whole house, not the lighting, lol.

I'm surprised at how little it is (relatively speaking); we interviewed a builder who showed us a $1.4 million house (about 4500sqft), and said that it had 250K of wiring and controls in it -- for lights, blinds, audio, and security. And he said that most of that cost was the central control systems, not the actual conductors in the walls. Based on that I guessed $150K for half that size; he response supported that number.

Chris D.

 

[Herdfan]

Chris,

What kind of controls. A Crestron or AMX system + lighting can easily run into those figures. But you are also talking about control of almost every system and subsystem in the house. And actually its not the control systems, but the touchpanels and the programming that run the costs up.

A good hardwired light system should run you $4-6 per square foot on top of Sparky. My Lutron Homeworks Wireless system cost me around $5 per square for the hardware and I did the installation and programming.

 

[blackbelt]

I recently purchased a 96 Load Elegance package for $21,000. Since then I have heard of others getting them for $2-4,000 cheaper. They are still sheetrocking so I havent had a chance to try it out yet. I bought the system, my electrician wired it and I plan on programming it. Later I will integrate with Elk and CQC.