What new technology do I want to use?

[BrettS]

I've been doing the home automation thing for a while now and as of right now I have only 2-way X-10 compatible devices (and HomeSeer 2). I'm moving to a new house and bringing my X-10 stuff with me, but the new house is much bigger than my current house and I know I'm going to have to get some new devices.

It's been a while since I needed to do a major upgrade and I know there's a lot of new technology out there, but I don't know a lot about it. I'm thinking it makes sense to start moving to something other than X-10, but I'm not sure whether Insteon or Z-Wave or something else entirely makes sense for me.

My local CompUSA had their Intermatic Z-Wave stuff on clearance for 80% off, so I cleaned them out and picked up about $800 worth of Z-Wave stuff for like $170. I figure I'll play around with it over the weekend and see how I like it, but from what I've seen it looks like Z-Wave is more scene oriented rather than device oriented and that may take a bit of time for me to get used to. I'm not sure if Insteon works that way or not.

I love the 2-Way feature of the X-10 stuff I have and I really want whatever I get to have 2-Way capability, but I could probably deal with automatic polling if I need to. I also have several multi-button controllers that I use to trigger events on homeseer, and from what I've read, it looks like that's not possible (or at least not easy) to do with Z-Wave. I'm not sure if it would work better with Insteon, or if it makes more sense to just keep doing that sort of thing with X-10.

The last thing I'm looking for is a thermostat. I don't have any type of automated thermostat now, and the new house has two heat pumps, so I'll need to get two thermostats. I'm looking for something reasonably inexpensive since I need to get two, but I also want the ability to see the current temp on homeseer and also use homeseer to change the temp to whatever I want. I'd prefer something that can automatically switch from cool to heat, but if that's too expensive I can probably deal with a manual switch.

So... any suggestions you can give me would be much appriciated.

Thanks much,
Brett

[nightwalker]

Here I've used UPB with great results, it's my personal favorite. I've also used Zwave at work and that does well too. You'd probably do well with either of those, they will both report their status. I personally like the HAI thermostats.

[Rupp]

+1 on what Night Walker stated. If you can run a serial cable then HAI's are a very good stat. The newer Z-Wave stats from RCS are also a very good stat.

[jackpod]

I just finished a large retrofit from X10 to Zwave. I still have some X10 but almost everything in the house is now Zwave. You will get a very wide opinion here on the board, not only on which technology, but what brands in each of the technologies. My X10 was very reliable and the only reason I decided to move to something newer was that my installation was based on the Smarthome Keypadlinc, which I had 27 units. Well Smarthome no longer has any Keypadlincs left. I had tried Insteon 2 years ago when I added a large addition to my house and pulled it all out 2 months later. At that point I installed 15 Zwave dimmers which I had zero issues with the 2 years they were in place.

Now, the following is strictly my experience and my opinion. I now have 79 ACT Zwave devices of varying models and I am very happy with them. There are a lot of posts here on the board that disagree with the ACT line, but I have had extremely good results. Last month one of the original 15 failed and I had to replace it. Out of the 64 modules I purchased within a months time, two devices were faulty (one DOA and one died after about 2 weeks). In todays standards two out of 64 isn't that bad (compared to what I was used to with Smarthome's X10).

ZWave works well (I have no experience with UPB yet) Yes, you do have to "think" a little different in designing what you want to do. I still have 8 x10 keypadlincs and about 30 X10 modules controlling outside lights, garage and sheds but I was able to not lose any functionality. The one thing I don't like about ZWave in general is the inability to have multiple associations to HS and I do have 7 modules being used as virtual devices.

I do like the instant status that the ACT line offers (others do also) because I have touchscreens and to have to use polling would not be acceptable

I hope eventually someone comes out with an 8 button Zwave keypad that HS can actually associate to all 8 buttons in both an on and off fashion like the old x10 keypadlinc, otherwise I will look into what UPB has to offer in keypads

[BrettS]

Thanks for the answers, guys. I've looked around a bit more and the UPB stuff seems nice, but it's also more expensive, so I think I'm leaning away from that technology.

I'm trying to move to dimmable CF lighting and I'm also afraid that the less expensive two wire Z-Wave switches may be a problem with that. It looks like there are some 3 wire Z-Wave switches available for not too much more.

I really like the way the Insteon stuff looks and what it can do, but it seems like a lot of people have had problems with it too, so that makes me a bit wary.

Right now, I think I'm leaning toward Z-Wave, primarily because I have a bit of a head start on it right now, but I'm still looking into the Insteon stuff too.

The RCS thermostats definitely look good, and I think that's the way I'll go for the thermostats.

Thanks again,
Brett