Lighting

[Serhito]

Stupid question, but if I am building a new house and plan to install the Omnipro II, as far as lighting control, shall I wire each light switch to the controller (is it actually possible?), or shall I use the UPB PIM alternative ?
 
 

 

[pete_c]

Have a read on the forum relating to lighting technologies past, present and future and what you can currently connect to your OPII panel today.
 
Personally here I started with X-10 control using the OPII panel many years ago. 
 
I have replaced all of the X10 ==> X10/Insteon in wall gang boxes switches now with UPB.  I have also added UPB appliance and light modules to the mix.
 
That said I do also have the X10 PIM and Z-Wave Leviton PIM plugged into the OPII panel. 
 
I am still in a learning mode so I do play a bit with one of two OPII panels that I have.

 

[ano]

I will say UPB is a great way to go, but here is advice if you are building a house.  Have the contractor isolate the lighting circuits from everything else.  With UPB and some of the others, it never hurts to put them on the same phase either.  So, instead of doing each room with lights and outlets, do several rooms with just lighting, and put the outlets on a separate circuit. It will help in the long-run.

 

[Serhito]

I will say UPB is a great way to go, but here is advice if you are building a house.  Have the contractor isolate the lighting circuits from everything else.  With UPB and some of the others, it never hurts to put them on the same phase either.  So, instead of doing each room with lights and outlets, do several rooms with just lighting, and put the outlets on a separate circuit. It will help in the long-run.

Pardon me but this is all new to me. What would be the advantages ? Better reliability ?

 

[ano]

UPB, and really any powerline technology has three obstacles it must overcome, 1) signal blocking, 2) noise, and 3) connectivity across phases.  If you can keep all the lighting separated from the noise producing, signal sucking outlets/appliances, and keep them on the same phase as the interface, you will be way ahead.  Not required, but if your building, I would shoot for that.

 

[ghanson]

The other thing to make sure is if you go UPB that your contractor pulls a neutral (white) wire to every switch box. The other suggestions are right on target for making UPB very reliable.

 

[UPB]

We switched a 600 W., UPB (HAI) lighting switch on and now, it will not turn the light fixture off.
 
We replaced the referended UPB switch with a standard single pole switch and it allows the light to be switched off and on; but doing this, transferred the same problem to another 600 W., UPB lighting switch? It will now, not turn off.
 
Any ideas what may cause these events to take place?

 

[JonW]

We switched a 600 W., UPB (HAI) lighting switch on and now, it will not turn the light fixture off.
 
We replaced the referended UPB switch with a standard single pole switch and it allows the light to be switched off and on; but doing this, transferred the same problem to another 600 W., UPB lighting switch? It will now, not turn off.
 
Any ideas what may cause these events to take place?

 
Most likely programming. What is the model # of the switch.  How about some screen shots of the config pages in UPStart for the switch in question?

 

[ano]

Also could be cause by interference.  If you can turn on a light but not off, the problem could be the bulb causing noise and preventing it from going off.  switch out the bulb for a plain old incandescent bulb. Still have the problem?  If not its a noise problem.  There are some filters that could solve it, or just use a different type or brand of bulb.