jim.duketow
New Member
Hello,
My wife and I recently moved into an apartment in an old house - 145 years old to be exact. After moving in we realized that it was darker than we liked, and being an old home with electrical wiring retrofitted into it, most of the light switches for rooms are in unusual places, like in the middle of a room instead of near the entrance to the room. With these issues in mind, I turned to home automation for a resolution.
As we are renting, we are limited in how we can resolve these issues. Relocating existing switches to more convenient locations is out of the question, as our landlord does not want us (or a professional) fiddling with the wiring. So whatever we do, can't be permanent.
On top of that, it's an old house, where most of the wiring is only two wire, which I've read causes issues with most home automation systems that communicate through the power lines.
I'm basically looking for a solution where I can have a (non-permanent) light switch near the entrance to a room that can turn on additional lighting (floor/table lamps, etc) in the room.
Obviously, I'd prefer to pay as little as possible. I turned to eBay and noticed the X10 products. The X10 SS13A Stick-A-Switch would be perfect for switching on the lights, and X10 RR501 Transceiver could pick up the RF signal. This way, I wouldn't have to rely on communications through the power lines. A number of questions come up however:
1. Can I use many of these in the same system? For example, if I set 5 of them to unitcode 1, will they all work in unison, or will this cause issues?
2. I have no idea how noisy the power lines are; what are the chances that these will randomly pick up signal noise and turn on/off?
3. This is obviously an old, but very cheap solution. Does anyone have any other suggestions/solutions?
Thanks!
Jim
My wife and I recently moved into an apartment in an old house - 145 years old to be exact. After moving in we realized that it was darker than we liked, and being an old home with electrical wiring retrofitted into it, most of the light switches for rooms are in unusual places, like in the middle of a room instead of near the entrance to the room. With these issues in mind, I turned to home automation for a resolution.
As we are renting, we are limited in how we can resolve these issues. Relocating existing switches to more convenient locations is out of the question, as our landlord does not want us (or a professional) fiddling with the wiring. So whatever we do, can't be permanent.
On top of that, it's an old house, where most of the wiring is only two wire, which I've read causes issues with most home automation systems that communicate through the power lines.
I'm basically looking for a solution where I can have a (non-permanent) light switch near the entrance to a room that can turn on additional lighting (floor/table lamps, etc) in the room.
Obviously, I'd prefer to pay as little as possible. I turned to eBay and noticed the X10 products. The X10 SS13A Stick-A-Switch would be perfect for switching on the lights, and X10 RR501 Transceiver could pick up the RF signal. This way, I wouldn't have to rely on communications through the power lines. A number of questions come up however:
1. Can I use many of these in the same system? For example, if I set 5 of them to unitcode 1, will they all work in unison, or will this cause issues?
2. I have no idea how noisy the power lines are; what are the chances that these will randomly pick up signal noise and turn on/off?
3. This is obviously an old, but very cheap solution. Does anyone have any other suggestions/solutions?
Thanks!
Jim
