hello from columbus ohio

[usuallyresourceful]

Hi all,

I just got real serious about home automation. I've been saving up my money and I am about to build a system to control the lights and expand to other devices after that. I've been reading on this forum all day and googling as well. I put together a complete x10 system, but with the information in this forum i don't think it would work well for me. There is a lot of information out there and so many combinations its made my head spin. But i think I have a good grasp so far.

Without boring you with details, my friend and i decided that we can automate the lights in the house and make things work over the internet for about $2700

We have 20 different sections of the house that we would like to group in order to be able to turn the lights on and off, and maybe some other cool stuff in the future. There are 4 different breaker boxes throughout the house (which concerns me a little as far as distance and all the devices being able to communicate). Here is the x-10 setup i mentioned earlier.

X10 Pro Inline Appliance Module to control the groups of lights from the junction boxes.

Software to control x10 hardware with mobile devices.
Melloware X10 Commander

Software to control X10 hardware.
Active Home Professional $49 for basic hardware


But after scouring through the forums I am considering z-wave, but they have no inline modules.. or upb which does have inline modules. I think that there are just too many lights to install individual switches, unless we have too.

I am still researching upd systems and accessories, the hardware list I found on the forum was from 2005 so I am gathering other resources. If you have any good places to start or resources to help build a system please post.

Thanks I look forward to sharing my knowlegdge and becoming a community member.

 

[tmbrown97]

Check my signature for info on Simply Automated UPB - what I went with.

X10 can be made to work with enough tuning effort - but most of us find it too limited; ZWave and UPB seem to really be the popular ones.

Elve is a good new product for automation control - or if you have a hardware controller central (like Elk or HAI) you can find software that controls that platform, which will in turn get your lights, security, and anything else you hook in.

You have a lot of reading to do - things have changed a lot even in the 3 years I've been doing this - but when you get some ideas, post them and we'll help out.

I'm curious about your take on the inline modules vs. switches? It seems much easier to me to automate the switches if possible - unless you have loads that are directly powered off the breaker panel? Can you elaborate a little?

 

[usuallyresourceful]

hi work2play,

I agree that zwave and upb seem to be the most popular. I did not plan on using a hardware controller, although I have read a lot on other people using them. I planned on using a usb bridge to the power line and use a dedicated computer and software to control everything.

using inline modules vs switches was my initial idea coming into this. If the breaker box is wired in groups for lights, and separate for outlets (which is probably not true) or the runs for the lights and the outlets split at a junction box, it seems more logical to wire in line modules at the breaker box or the junction boxes over replacing all the switches to simply turn objects on and off, inline modules that dim are available to. I just want to do things the best way, i'm not afraid to tear up and repair some dry wall. I could be completely wrong, and maybe replacing the switches is the best way. I'm too new to tell.

I'm not too good with electric terms, but you said "It seems much easier to me to automate the switches if possible - unless you have loads that are directly powered off the breaker panel?" I had to google the definition of load, which just seems to be a circuit or device. In that case, no, no light source is directly powered by the breaker panel, all the lights have a switch. I spent all last night as well checking through the forums, this stuff is pretty cool.

 

[Rupp]

You should give HomeSeer a trial as it will work with X10, Z-Wave, UPB and Insteon as well as others at the same time so you can use the best of what each protocol offers. http://www.homeseer.com http://www.homeseer.com/downloads

 

[tmbrown97]

OK - you'll definitely want to automate the switches. Your wiring goes from the breaker panel to the switch then to the load - and probably splits in a lot of places in the walls (like a single switch box can have 3 switches/loads controlled from one feed) - if you try to tackle that from closer to the breaker panel, you'll be controlling way too much stuff - possibly split loads (lights, outlets, etc) - it's just not going to work right. Also, you'd still have switches - so their on/off status would be in addition to the inline module. Very little is home-run to the panel - it generally gets split out and daisy chained at various switch boxes throughout the house.

When you automate the switch you automate only the load behind the switch - the thing you want to flip on/off. Also you're replacing the switch itself so when you want manual control it's in-line with the control system so flipping that switch turns the load on or off and sends a signal to the rest of the system letting it know what's going on.

I don't want this to sound offensive, but it seems like we need to work on your understanding of how a house is wired before you think about what system to use. So far I think you're lacking some really important foundation experience in electrical wiring. Once you "get" how homes are wired this will make so much more sense.

Also - replacing switches is the intent of all of these systems by the way - inline is only for things that have full-time power and need control "in line". Replacing a switch does not mean drywall repair - most things can be accomplished purely in the switch box.