Omnibus Lighting Control from Leviton (HAI)

[JeremLewis]

We are going to begin building our house soon and I am weighing my options for lighting control. I will be installing Leviton Security and automation, and I am trying to decide on lighting control. I am trying to decide between UPB switches from Leviton and the Omnibus DIN rail system. I would choose Omnibus for better reliability and flexibility, but I have not seen much use of this system in the United States. Is the system primarily designed for Euro installs? Does anyone have any insight to the pros and cons of the Omnibus system?

 

[picta]

Omnibus for US markets was not released until very recently (2014 I believe), but it was installed in Europe for a few years. It uses hybrid (aka star) wiring approach by connecting high voltage nodes via home-runs. You can place a few din-rail modules in rooms, and connect them to a breaker panel. UPB switches can be installed with "traditional" wiring. The omnibus offers both wired and wireless switches, which can provide the utmost flexibility in installations and allows to add more switches at a later time. If you are not planning to install omnibus yourself, I would guess that the cost of it would be much higher than the cost of the UPB system.

 

[JeremLewis]

I am planning on installing the system myself. So all of the parts are available for 120VAC 60Hz Markets? Also, what are people typically using to house the DIN rail modules? Are there any DIN rail enclosures/panels on the market with ground bus bars designed for use with DIN application? I really don't want to leave everything open on a backboard. I want this to be as clean as possible.

 

[picta]

We have Centralite Elegance for lighting control, but I was interested in omnibus as a comparative hard-wired system. Worthington catalog had parts listed for it 2 years ago, but you may want to call to confirm.
 
I use HAI expansion enclosures to mount Somfy control modules on a din-rail, and I think any structured panel would suffice. You may consider common breaker boxes with the ground bars as well.