Dipping my feet into Z-wave

royalj7

Active Member
Morning folks. I was wondering if anyone knows of a starter kit for Z-wave lighting that includes wall swtichs as opposed to lamp modules? I was thinking something along the lines of what Smarthome offers for Insteon. Thanks!

--Jamie
 
I have not seen one yet. The reason they ship with the lamp modules is so you can get started right away simply by pluging in the module and not having to install the switches. On a side note you may want to hold off on any of those kits because the current remotes that are available just are not that great and Harmony and Monster both should be releasing their remotes soon which provide a ton more features. They cost a lot more also but they are upgradable which the current 'boxy' looking remotes are not upgadeable so you may end up having to buy a new one in the future anyways. Also, there are a few new manufactures coming out with new devices early this year (Prob by march/april) and they are supposed to have more funtions than the current devices all bundled into the same device at a lower price. In particular the intermatic pro line has one switch that can act as 3 or 4 differnt typs of the existing switches including 3-way, dimmer, and transmitter all in one switch.

So my point is you should probably hold off before investing too much into z-wave at this point because you will take your self broke only wanting to have the next best thing later and not be able to afford it.
 
I wanted to say that also Brian but I have said it so many times now that I am actually starting to feel bad about bashing ACT. I am hoping that they are finxing their problems because they are discontinuing some of their faulty/crapy devices.
 
Thanks for the replys guys. I saw BSR's report on the Monster remotes and they look pretty promising. Maybe I'll get enough confedence in Insteon to go with them, but just dont' have that right now. UPB is great, but a little pricey for me. I wanted to get a starter from both Z-wave and Insteon and see which one worked best in my situation. I have a netural going to my switches, and have replaced more than I'd like to count, so lamp modules aren't my first choice for experimenting. I'll probably wait until the new gen of Z-waves comes out to play around with it.

--Jamie
 
Personally I only use my remote to learn devices and then teach them to HomeSeer. After that it's put in the drawer for another 6 months. The last time I needed the remote I couldn't even find it.
 
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