Whole Home Lighting Control - Z-wave, Insteon, Other?

[ccmichaelson]

Anyone using z-wave or insteon for whole home lighting automation?  I'm building a 6,000 sq foot home (rambler with walkout basement) and plan to install brand new zwave or insteon switches throughout.  I'll also have an Elk M1 Gold alarm panel and most likely use the ISY994izw HA controller.
 
Appreciate any real-word experiences using zwave/insteon in a house of similar size.

 

[LindaWCCA]

I've been waiting in hope that someone would answer your question since I have the same exact question!  I have existing home with and Elk M1 Gold that I installed and now want to add Home Automation.  I was so overwhelmed by all the options I stopped working on it.  Now I want to move forward.  I too had come to the conclusion that I would interface an ISY unit and though the z-wave option was a good way to go. But now it seems that Z-Wave has a HA controller with Elk module that runs from Stick on your computer with less cost than the ISY. SO I am back to being confused again.  I know I want interface with Elk M1 since I want certain alarm events to trigger certain HA events.  Did you ever get some good advise or did you proceed ahead with original plan and if you did would you mind sharing with me?

 

[jskibo]

I've used Simply Automated UPB lighting on the last three houses I owned.
 
That's running Homeseer on a small Book-sixed PC
 
That being said, in this downsized house I'm a mix of UPB and Zwave (GE / Jasco) stuff.  Mostly because the stuff I want as just on -off switched is cheaper via Zwave ($35 a switch) than UPB ($53 a switch).  I prefer the UPB dimming and its always seemed to "just work" after install.
 
Of course if you're concerned about the matching look, mixing switch types is not the way to go.

 

[ccmichaelson]

I've been waiting in hope that someone would answer your question since I have the same exact question!  I have existing home with and Elk M1 Gold that I installed and now want to add Home Automation.  I was so overwhelmed by all the options I stopped working on it.  Now I want to move forward.  I too had come to the conclusion that I would interface an ISY unit and though the z-wave option was a good way to go. But now it seems that Z-Wave has a HA controller with Elk module that runs from Stick on your computer with less cost than the ISY. SO I am back to being confused again.  I know I want interface with Elk M1 since I want certain alarm events to trigger certain HA events.  Did you ever get some good advise or did you proceed ahead with original plan and if you did would you mind sharing with me?

 
I ended up purchasing an M1 Gold, the ISY994izw controller, and nearly 100 Insteon light switches.  I have bench tested the setup and it works flawlessly although I don't have all 100 connected yet.  My home is still under construction but every room in my house will have at least one wired motion sensor (Bosch BlueLine Gen 2).
 
The ISY will contain 95% of my automation plans such as
1)  Automatically waking up my kids for school (e.g. 6:45 AM ramp lights from 10% - 100% over 2 minutes, ensure motion in kids bathroom has detected movement by 6:50 and if not stream audio to their bedroom, etc.).  
2)  Lights/audio will follow my wife throughout the day depending on which room she is in.
 
They are painting my house so I'm planning to start installing all my equipment soon and will report back.  Happy to answer specific questions if possible now.  I can say that I'm impressed how fast my motion sensors trigger lights given that the motions are attached to my alarm panel and ISY "sees" the event and sends the insteon command to turn the light on/off and all happens within a second.

 

[Deane Johnson]

I'm curious.  I just installed an Insteon hub with two Insteon dimmers so I could talk to them with Amazon Echo.  A number of my other dimmers are Leviton Z-Wave.  I'm sensing that the Insteon is slower than the Z-Wave when triggered one after another.  I'm not sure what this means, just something I'm sensing in a new installation.  If so, that would certainly be a factor in my thinking about the two systems.  I'm wondering if it's because of the X-10 transmission that I understand Insteon includes?

 

[ano]

I myself would never use anything but a wired technology or UPB is such a large house. I've used UPB in two houses.  I've never used Z-Wave but many others say it doesn't handle the largest networks.  I use Zigbee which is great for giant networks, but not much selection for wall switches at this point in time, so can't recommend it for lighting.  If you go UPB just use a signal repeater in your breaker box, and use UPB switches that are repeater compatible. You can 250 switches no problem. 

 

[pete_c]

I agree with ano about UPB,
 
Today using UPB for all of my light switches. 
 
I do have Z-Wave and Zigbee devices configured and left an Insteon PIM in place but no longer using it.

 

[LarrylLix]

@Deane. Insteon and X10 are different protocols and frequencies and X10 is not transmitted with Insteon period. However the powerline frequencies are close enough some phase couplers will work for both.
 
ISY 994i with a PLM can transmit and understand Insteon and X10 but unless yo transmit an X10 command none will exist.
 
Insteon is a dual band self synchronising mesh network. All newer powerline modules transmit and receive via RF and powerline. Battery devices only use RF to the nearest device and get converted to both.
 
Signals are echoed by all devices in a synchronised transmission from powerline crossings so that more devices strengthen the signals.
 
Hops are controlled by the protocol settings in devices and some report reliable control over 500 feet away in barns.
 
Retries are also set in protocol settings of each device.
 
Transmissions are acknowledged for reliable communications.
 
Device status changes are reported immediately.
 
The Insteon Hub is the bottom end of the HA definition. ISY994i is the top of the line for automation.
 
After reading reports from other technologies I have realised that I am very glad I went with the ISY994i and Insteon.
 
Analogue inputs, door locks, and noise makers are scarce in Insteon but Zwave can fill these gaps with the optional plug in Zwave hardware for the ISY 994i.
 
With it's REST interface ISY994i can accepts controls and variable values from any other PC, RPi or other controller.
 
With it's optional Network Resource module ISY994i can easily control Hue bulbs and Nest thermostats.
 
The ISY994i draws about 2-3 watts and is the size of a cigarette package.
 
With it's currently being developed PolyGlot node interface a RPi can act as a distributed intelligence box to ISY so that users can write code to interface with any device hardware the RPi can talk to with it's options. Hue bulbs  now have a drop in node module that is included so far. Many others are coming to an available library soon.
 
This new firmware will also allow two ISYs to act as one so that your cottage ISY could act like it was part of your local ISY at home.
 
With the proper scene setup using a MS and Lamp control with Insteon no delay can be detected.  After the scene is implanted in devices, ISY could be turned off and controls can still function without it. Of course you would lose monitoring, notifications, and logic without ISY.
 
With Insteon scenes, 200 devices could all be turned on simultaneously. ISY994 then would follow up to see if every device operated OK.