As most know, Smarthome has a 15% off sale on, I think, everything until midnight tonight. I will need at least 100 more switches for the house I'm working on and was planning to buy quite a number this week in any case; lucky me I didn't order on Monday ... unlucky me I'm not entirely sure how many of each type to order. Lucky me, I've had a little time to play with a small assortment of various switches ... unlucky me, I haven't put up many lights and no fans, etc. so I'm not really sure how many lights I need/want dimmable vs switched and I haven't really played much with the keypadlinc.
SH's list of insteon compatible switches
A quick run through the house, guessing what switches work best, gives at least:
34 Keypadlincs
24 Insteon Dimmers - do I really want this many dimmable lights?
48 switches - either icon or insteon, I'm not sure?
5 timers - one for each bathroom. I'm not sure about anything else
2 Insteon On/Off switches - I know I want at least two on/offs to have white leds
1 USB controller
A lot of these could be eliminated if there was something like the keypadlinc able to be the primary/master switch for more than one device. However, that's like saying I wouldn't need a cell phone if I had telepathy, I suppose.
Things which are hanging me up a bit:
I'm not used to living in a house with a lot of fancy lights with "ambiance" benefitting from dimmable lights. This house is a departure from that, with a lot of open beam ceiling work worthy of dimmable chandeliers and halogen floodlights. I was originally going to *mainly* use compact flourescents for most of the lighting via wall sconces (I'm a frugal guy in an absurdly big house) HOWEVER
(a) I got to thinking that maybe more ambiance would be nice (I've never played with scenes but imagine you need lots of dimming or they don't have the desired effect). How much ambiance is enough? Does anyone worry about being able to dim OUTSIDE lights?
(B) It seems a shame to buy the insteon on/on switches at $40/ea when I could get the insteon dimmers at the same price. And I have a hard time convincing myself to pay $40 for an on/off when I could get an icon switch that is almost as good for $20. Except that dammable green light on the icons. Do I want to pay $20 extra ONLY to switch from green to white?
© I really want to have lots of Keypadlincs because they provide wide control; but they are all dimmers on the primary light. On the other hand, they aren't as nice to stroke as the Insteon dimmers with the light bar and light touch.
So I guess questions are as follows:
(1) How often does SH have this sort of sale? If it is likely to repeat within 6 months or so then I won't worry as much about maximizing the purchase at this moment.
(2) Am I overdoing it with the dimmers? I'm really at a weak spot here, which some of you may not be able to relate to. I want the house to look nice but energy efficiency fits with the "theme" of the property, as it is an urban wilderness area w/well, wood stove heating, and lots of wild life (mountain lions, turkeys, deer, etc.).
(3) Am I overdoing it with the keypadlincs (I thought it would be super convenient to have one at each major doorway exiting the house or transitioning to another wing? Of course, if I knew I was going to buy touchscreens to disburse around the house, I could forego some keypadlincs. This is actually a big deal, as the keypadlincs with multiple buttons seem important, but the keypadlincs are DIMMERS for at least one primary light (as I understand them).
(4) Just how much is a white light worth vs. an alien/70-shag-carpet green light? Those SH folks are devilishly cunning, eh? For the items best left on switches, how tacky would icons be?
(5) Can I control a variable speed fan with a dimmer? (I think the answer is yes)
(6) Anything I'm missing - insteon or not - that I might want to nab in the next..5.5 hours?
Any suggestions are appreciated. These powerful mulitply linked light switches are really playing a bit of a trip with my mind how I think a house "should" be wired/lit.
SH's list of insteon compatible switches
A quick run through the house, guessing what switches work best, gives at least:
34 Keypadlincs
24 Insteon Dimmers - do I really want this many dimmable lights?
48 switches - either icon or insteon, I'm not sure?
5 timers - one for each bathroom. I'm not sure about anything else
2 Insteon On/Off switches - I know I want at least two on/offs to have white leds
1 USB controller
A lot of these could be eliminated if there was something like the keypadlinc able to be the primary/master switch for more than one device. However, that's like saying I wouldn't need a cell phone if I had telepathy, I suppose.
Things which are hanging me up a bit:
I'm not used to living in a house with a lot of fancy lights with "ambiance" benefitting from dimmable lights. This house is a departure from that, with a lot of open beam ceiling work worthy of dimmable chandeliers and halogen floodlights. I was originally going to *mainly* use compact flourescents for most of the lighting via wall sconces (I'm a frugal guy in an absurdly big house) HOWEVER
(a) I got to thinking that maybe more ambiance would be nice (I've never played with scenes but imagine you need lots of dimming or they don't have the desired effect). How much ambiance is enough? Does anyone worry about being able to dim OUTSIDE lights?
(B) It seems a shame to buy the insteon on/on switches at $40/ea when I could get the insteon dimmers at the same price. And I have a hard time convincing myself to pay $40 for an on/off when I could get an icon switch that is almost as good for $20. Except that dammable green light on the icons. Do I want to pay $20 extra ONLY to switch from green to white?
© I really want to have lots of Keypadlincs because they provide wide control; but they are all dimmers on the primary light. On the other hand, they aren't as nice to stroke as the Insteon dimmers with the light bar and light touch.
So I guess questions are as follows:
(1) How often does SH have this sort of sale? If it is likely to repeat within 6 months or so then I won't worry as much about maximizing the purchase at this moment.
(2) Am I overdoing it with the dimmers? I'm really at a weak spot here, which some of you may not be able to relate to. I want the house to look nice but energy efficiency fits with the "theme" of the property, as it is an urban wilderness area w/well, wood stove heating, and lots of wild life (mountain lions, turkeys, deer, etc.).
(3) Am I overdoing it with the keypadlincs (I thought it would be super convenient to have one at each major doorway exiting the house or transitioning to another wing? Of course, if I knew I was going to buy touchscreens to disburse around the house, I could forego some keypadlincs. This is actually a big deal, as the keypadlincs with multiple buttons seem important, but the keypadlincs are DIMMERS for at least one primary light (as I understand them).
(4) Just how much is a white light worth vs. an alien/70-shag-carpet green light? Those SH folks are devilishly cunning, eh? For the items best left on switches, how tacky would icons be?
(5) Can I control a variable speed fan with a dimmer? (I think the answer is yes)
(6) Anything I'm missing - insteon or not - that I might want to nab in the next..5.5 hours?
Any suggestions are appreciated. These powerful mulitply linked light switches are really playing a bit of a trip with my mind how I think a house "should" be wired/lit.