HAI Price increase!
- Thread starter Frunple
- Start date
tmbrown97
Senior Member
Wow - the HA landscape just doesn't look that great these days... HAI acquired by Leviton and prices skyrocket; Elk barely shows any signs of life; the real innovations in HA seem to by dying off and the market is being saturated by these poor excuses for HA that won't be reliable or integrate with anything (ADT, Verizon, AT&T, and whatever others that are packaging up crappy excuses for HA).
Makes me reconsider if I want to go with HAI now, but as someone else mentioned, elk isn't putting out any innovating products. I really don't want to go with one of the "packages" from comcast, adt, etc. I'm in the wiring phase, so my options are still open, but will be closing up walls in the next couple weeks.
neillt
Active Member
I have been thinking about this all day. HAI still seems to be in the ballpark, while the cost increases sting a little bit, it's not immediately pricing themselves out of the market.
More "upscale" systems such as Crestron, AMX, Control4, and even lighting specific systems such as Lutron RadioRA and Centralite have shown the high end market has a play, above the fray of the bottom feeder cable/phone company "automation bundles".
More "upscale" systems such as Crestron, AMX, Control4, and even lighting specific systems such as Lutron RadioRA and Centralite have shown the high end market has a play, above the fray of the bottom feeder cable/phone company "automation bundles".
I don't know for sure, but my guess is the Leviton is just answering complaints from their installers that say their customer's see HAI systems available much cheaper to DIY users than they are selling them for. So Leviton is raising the price for us, and leaving them the same to their installers. Rather than to have users pay more for an install and less for equipment, now we are being bent over the coals to give installer a bigger margin.
I think this could backfire for HAI when they see their DIY crowd disappear, but that is their decision.
This is certainly true and I have written about this before. There is a Home Automation grab, where now everyone is in the Home Automation business. But they really care little about Home Automation, what they care about is that reoccurring service revenue. Go luck even trying to buy a high-end HVAC system that communicates with anything but their proprietary systems. Want to control your Trane or Carrier system remotely? Its easy through their proprietary portal with their apps. Want to control your home through ADT or Verizon, just pay your monthly fee, get their proprietary app and its easy. All the while, we are the losers here.
I think this could backfire for HAI when they see their DIY crowd disappear, but that is their decision.
Work2Play said:
This is certainly true and I have written about this before. There is a Home Automation grab, where now everyone is in the Home Automation business. But they really care little about Home Automation, what they care about is that reoccurring service revenue. Go luck even trying to buy a high-end HVAC system that communicates with anything but their proprietary systems. Want to control your Trane or Carrier system remotely? Its easy through their proprietary portal with their apps. Want to control your home through ADT or Verizon, just pay your monthly fee, get their proprietary app and its easy. All the while, we are the losers here.
I had a hard time paying $1000 for the OmniPro II. I wouldn't have considered it for $1,400. The circuity on the board is not much more than the $200 alarm panels. Yes it is a self contained automation controller, but for 2013 the hardware is outdated and limited in functionality. I program in C# for my day job and the HAI logic is annoying as it can't add or subtract from set points and doesn't have an else function. At $1000 I was okay as I appreciated the simplicity on the all in one system. If I were to purchase again I would be considering a DSC or Elk panel and a PC based solution. I also would consider the Proliphix thermostats over the OmniStat 2 as they are IP enabled. The OmniStat 2 gets the job done, but I have to walk to the thermostat to see filter reminders and change settings besides than the temp.
Ranger Digital
Active Member
HAI is already overpriced. not a good mood.
however, I doubt the DIY portion of there business amounts to much at all. IMO.
however, I doubt the DIY portion of there business amounts to much at all. IMO.
rsw686 said:
It looks like Proliphix thermostats are $500+ even for the wired models from what I can find on line. Omnistat2 supports an extensive protocol over RS232, you can get/set filter reminders, run times, schedules etc.
While HAI price increase is not a good news for DIY, even worse trend I see is the disappearance of controllable devices that can be integrated into HA system via RS232 or other simple means, and proliferation of proprietary gadgets with point-to-point control by smart phones.
They used to have a $300 model, which looks to have been discontinued. If the Omnistat2 has the capability why doesn't HAI update the OmniPro to take advantage of the features. I would be fine with a price increase for an updated panel. Basic security feature are missing like no CO zone type, no ability to program wireless sensors from the console keypad, no walk through zone test mode, no clean me 2 wire smoke detector support, etc.picta said: