Well folks,
After a decade+, in the home I built and wired out the wazoo, we have moved into a much larger home with an incredible waterfront view. Now the fun and games begin as the house is 26 years old and in some serious need of automating.
First up is our original mortise Baldwin door lock. After only a few days in the house, the wife managed to lock herself out while the kids innocently watched her though the kitchen window. Mortise means it's not deadbolt... It's thumb lever, latch, lock, all-in-one rectangular piece that sits within the door itself. Much more typical in commercial applications than residential. And herein lies my first question.
1- Does anyone know of a nice looking, good quality, electronic keyless mortise handle set? The ones I have seen are very expensive, very unstylish or both. And forget about z-wave integration. I have a very ominous feeling that I'll end up doing a comercial entry system with seperate keypad and electric mortise lock mechanism. This will need to be driven by it's own controller or my IO relay board and OpenHAB. Not to mention the joy of fishing & hiding wires to the lock mechanism.
Next up will be a simplification of kitchen lights. Since I built & wired my house with a fair amount of thought, switch locations were intuitive (to me at least). Not so in the house we just bought... I have to walk to 3 different locations in the kitchen to turn on or off all 4 sets of kitchen lights. And herein lies my second question...
2- I never used zwave wall controllers before. I just used plain ol' zwave dimmers or switches. What is the current favourite for wall controllers? Stick-a-switch battery type vs wired?
Tim
After a decade+, in the home I built and wired out the wazoo, we have moved into a much larger home with an incredible waterfront view. Now the fun and games begin as the house is 26 years old and in some serious need of automating.
First up is our original mortise Baldwin door lock. After only a few days in the house, the wife managed to lock herself out while the kids innocently watched her though the kitchen window. Mortise means it's not deadbolt... It's thumb lever, latch, lock, all-in-one rectangular piece that sits within the door itself. Much more typical in commercial applications than residential. And herein lies my first question.
1- Does anyone know of a nice looking, good quality, electronic keyless mortise handle set? The ones I have seen are very expensive, very unstylish or both. And forget about z-wave integration. I have a very ominous feeling that I'll end up doing a comercial entry system with seperate keypad and electric mortise lock mechanism. This will need to be driven by it's own controller or my IO relay board and OpenHAB. Not to mention the joy of fishing & hiding wires to the lock mechanism.
Next up will be a simplification of kitchen lights. Since I built & wired my house with a fair amount of thought, switch locations were intuitive (to me at least). Not so in the house we just bought... I have to walk to 3 different locations in the kitchen to turn on or off all 4 sets of kitchen lights.
And herein lies my second question...2- I never used zwave wall controllers before. I just used plain ol' zwave dimmers or switches. What is the current favourite for wall controllers? Stick-a-switch battery type vs wired?
Tim
