Lighting automation for several buildings on a farm - which products?

[geekdrew]

I've been reading about home automation for quite some time, but am just now ready to get started.

My first project is to automate the outdoor lighting on several buildings on a farm. There is a barn and a shed sitting on one side of a driveway, and a house on the other side. I need the ability to simultaneously turn on outside lights on all three buildings, from multiple locations (from two different locations in the house and from vehicles (I assume a keyfob or something along those lines)). Electric from the utility meter runs directly into one box with a transfer switch, and there are separate runs from that box to each building. The buildings themselves are not directly connected in any other electrical/data way.

Where I'm asking for advice is in choosing the products to do this. I'd like to control the outdoor lighting circuits in each building by replacing existing light switches. Beyond that, I don't really have any direction when it comes to what products can do this, or which would be best for my situation. Are there some that could carry the signals across the power line in my scenario? Or should I rely on wireless between the buildings? The buildings aren't that far apart... perhaps a hundred feet or so.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.

 

[sic0048]

I'm not an expert as I haven't installed any lighting control, but I suspect 100' is too far for the typical wireless lighting control system. Most wireless systems are a mesh type system where the signal gets sent from one switch to another switch and the more switches you have installed the better. 100' seems like a long distance for most of those types of systems. I think many of them suggest placing switches no more than about 60' from each other.

So some sort of system that uses the HV wires themselves might be the best/only option without running more wires. Since the whole farm is controlled via 1 main electric box, it seems that type of system should work.

 

[DavidL]

Insteon / UPB won't have any problem with 100 foot. My barn is probably double that and no issue at all.

 

[Neurorad]

I'd look into UPB first.

Lutron Radio RA2 offers, I've heard, a wired repeater, if you want to run an ethernet cable to each building. Radio RA 'Classic' only had wireless repeaters.

 

[znelbok]

I do this with C-Bus.

I have the house, two large sheds, a small pump shed and a second house all connected together using C-bus.

For the underground run, I use a gel filled cat6. It has never been a problem in the 7 years that it has been installed.

There is a wireless C-Bus as well that should easily go the 30 odd meters you are looking at. You can mix wired and wireless together easily as well.

CQC is running on top as well over the two sheds and house.

You will not regret going with C-Bus.

Mick

 

[lsu_guy]

I would get ethernet out to all the buildings. Each building runs its own individual system. (LC&D, ZWave, UPB).

To get ethernet to each building, you can do one of 2 things:

1) Get a directional WIFI antenna and a wireless bridge at the receiving side


2) Run a CAT5 between the buildings

 

[pete_c]

Where I'm asking for advice is in choosing the products to do this. I'd like to control the outdoor lighting circuits in each building by replacing existing light switches. Beyond that, I don't really have any direction when it comes to what products can do this, or which would be best for my situation. Are there some that could carry the signals across the power line in my scenario? Or should I rely on wireless between the buildings? The buildings aren't that far apart... perhaps a hundred feet or so.

Welcome to the forum. You'll find a wealth of information here. I would "test" some powerline to see how it fits. If all you are after is lighting then it looks like it work work for you. You can also utilize WLAN and create a wireless meshed network for other features. The options are endless.

 

[Fiasco]

I'd look into UPB first.

Lutron Radio RA2 offers, I've heard, a wired repeater, if you want to run an ethernet cable to each building. Radio RA 'Classic' only had wireless repeaters.

The wired/wireless repeater is the same. You can hard wire RA auxillary repaters back to the main (daisy chain) if the distance exceeds Lutrons recommended distance between repeaters (60'). Off the top of my head you can use up to 1000' of wire between the main and remote repeater.