Which Protocol for Futureproofness and Lots of Devices?

Q

Quantum

New Member
I realize that these may be mutually-exclusive, but most important is powerful, meaning bandwidth and usefulness.
 
I've poured through the 13 standards and have narrowed it down to IOTivity, CEBus, EnOcean, Insteon, and ZWave.  X10 is too long-in-the-tooth.  Wireless is desirable, as is powerline networking.
 
How do I narrow these down without making a mistake with each one of them by trying them until I identify the best?
 
 
 
As a n00b, uses I can think of ATM are triac dimming, door locks, and measuring amps of all circuits in the breaker box.  I also have cameras but don't see how HA could benefit there.  My property is gated, so maybe intercom and gate control?
 
Welcome to the Cocoontech forum Quantum and a Happy New Year to you and yours.
 
How do I narrow these down without making a mistake with each one of them by trying them until I identify the best?
 
You don't. 
 
Here have been automating since the late 70's.  There are folks out there still using X10 and it works fine for them today.
 
Currently utilizing UPB for my light switches and have X10, Insteon (off), Zigbee and Z-Wave around. 
 
 
I am trying to keep my automation in the home and not wireless with little or no automation dependencies on the Internet; that is me.
 
Relating to environmental sensors here wire them.  I have played and used wireless sensors and they are last choice for me.  (Zigbee and Z-Wave). 
 
 
There are automation things I would like to see in the future but we are far from that today.
 
A personal house owned AI entity would suit me fine.
 
 
 
So in a quickie recap; just automate; don't wait; try everything and enjoy your travels through automation while you can enjoy.
 
BTW relating to the Home Automation Wiki there are too many chiefs there spoiling the brew as I tried for a while to update it and it kept getting changed and you can tell today when seeing it.  Actually when I went to modifying it I was chatting with a gastroenterologist from Spain who was trying to update it at the time.
 
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Thanks Pete, I was afraid of that.  I guess I'll investigate each of my candidates and decide which are promising.
 
Oh yes, Wikipedia is impossible.  There are gadflies there who masquerade as 'editors', always picking on others but never actually contributing actual content.  I can't even complete my father's page.
 
At this point it seems clear that IOTivity is immature.  Virtually no products.  CEBus I can't find any products.  SmartThings is owned by Samsung, which I hate.
 
EnOcean is fascinating and has lots of products, but is all about local control, not remote.  It's very easy to install, but I have sheetrock off so have lots of flexibility.
 
You infer that ZWave is not reliable, so that about leaves Insteon.
 
You infer that ZWave is not reliable, so that about leaves Insteon.
 
It is reliable, and today Zigbee, X10 and Insteon are also reliable for me. 
 
Personally do not like wireless (or battery operated wireless) or cloud dependencies for my automation; that is me.  
 
I do though play with it (wireless and cloud based automation).  Similarly I use Microsoft SAPI for text to speech on a variety of voice fonts (a collection because I am addicted to it).  I have MS SAPI today that talks to the Amazon Alexa plus playing around with the Amazon Echo.  Will probably be tinkering with Cortana and Google Voice soon. 
 
The above noted you can automate with Zigbee, Z-Wave, X-10, Insteon, UPB all at once and check out what your preferences are relating to ease of use and management of said mentioned protocols.  I have done this relating to my light switches starting with X10, then Insteon and now UPB.
 
Include Radio RA in your tinkering.  Best automation will be what fits for you when you test with software and firmware or both.
 
Here have Z-Wave, Zigbee, UPB and X10 controllers connected to my Leviton Omni Pro 2 panel.  Software is doing similar (x10, Z-Wave, UPB and Zigbee will be included shortly) and compliments the Leviton OmniPro panel plus it does more automation stuff.
 
With the sheetrock off build a base infrastructure that will work for you.  Electric is electric.  Make the electric automation friendly.  The automated (no matter what protocol it is using) light switch controls an LV load.  Today's switches are LED friendly.  High voltage topology is not wireless yet.  Here had conduit and just about every in wall box had a load, neutral, switch or traveler wires.  I added more electrical / breakers to get a bit more granular with the electric. 
 
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