New house-X10 or switch to Insteon?

[GaBoYnFla]

I'm buying a new house. I have X10 in my current house with HomeSeer and it works fine. Should I switch over to insteon or can I stay with my x10? Why switch? Can I use both technologies?

[Rupp]

You can use both but why Insteon? There are much better technologies available as in Z-Wave and UPB. In addition Insteon has some serious quality control issues. See this latest thread on continuing Insteon issues.
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=12274
Just a heads up.

[GaBoYnFla]

You can use both but why Insteon? There are much better technologies available as in Z-Wave and UPB. In addition Insteon has some serious quality control issues. See this latest thread on continuing Insteon issues.
http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=12274
Just a heads up.

Oh....that isn't the best thing to do? Ok What would you do and why? Zwave or UPB is better-how? I'm new to them. I know X10 for a long time now.....how about when I wire in a security system-any suggestions there too?

Thanks
Todd

[Rupp]

Z-Wave is strongly integrated with HomeSeer and works well as does UPBl. It really boils down to the hardware you need and if the protocol has that hardware. I would recommend using your X10 and supplementing Z-Wave or UPB where the X10 doesn't work well. As far as security systems goes, there are several that have plugins to use with HomeSeer. The ELK is the hottest system going but is more expensive that the Caddx, DSC, and others.

[drozwood90]

The only issue (which most Z-Wave guys tend to forget...as they have a lot of units) is you can't just put a Z-Wave unit far away from anything. They need each other to repeat the signals around the house.

Now if the farthest unit can be seen by the main PC interface, then you have no issues. But, you MIGHT have to add a single unit 1/2way between...just to act as a repeater. Not really an issue, but something that you will need to keep in mind, as the Z-Wave is based on Zig-bee-ish technology...meaning it is a mesh network.

UPB is great, as there are none of those limitations, but it is more susceptible to line noise (although, if you can get X10 to work, UPB will work even better).

You have to weigh out the cost of each...as each has their strong points.

UPB REQUIRES a neutral in each switch box. My understanding is, if you are using regular bulbs, you can get away with using a Z-wave switch that does NOT need a neutral. I do not use Z-wave, so I don't know.

However, since I did a new build, I had the electritians pull a neutral to each of my switch boxes. Made my retro-fit REALLY easy. Even in my last house, I just pulled a neutral. It wasn't that hard.

My understanding was (again, I don't have Z-Wave), for any "relay" type of Z-Wave, you need to have a neutral as well.

I went UPB, as I don't like wireless stuff. But, that's my opinion.

--Dan

[tenholde]

I've been converting from X10 to UPB and am very satisfied.

tenholde

[TeleFragger]

Oh....that isn't the best thing to do? Ok What would you do and why? Zwave or UPB is better-how? I'm new to them. I know X10 for a long time now.....how about when I wire in a security system-any suggestions there too?

Thanks
Todd

I was and im in your situation...

I have x10 all throughout and works great... truely great..
however there is still these pita areas that kill me... work for most part then occasionally dont..

latest was I noticed my front porch light wasnt coming on via absolute time event.... well I finally tracked it down...
I had a isobar power strip on my kitchen computer that killed my back deck light 8 months ago..
well I had another one of them on my basement computer (which didnt bother the x10) till now.... removed it and also my garage computer was the other culprit... thus a filter on that pc actually fixed my issue and I no longer needed a powerstrip on the kitchen computer anyway...

my recommendations on what I did and AM SO GLAD I DID!!!!
is z-wave....
I bought a z-troller and ca8900 z-wave thermostat.... all has been great....
but with the recent problems of my front porch light not working I was trying to get my fish tank heater working... well a x10 appliance module wouldnt work... .put a z-wave appliance module in and viola works like a charm...

so I still have 2 lamp modules, 1 appliance module and 2 outlets all z-wave that I am going to install....

and as stated by drozwood90
yes maybe you need alot of units for z-wave to be stronger... but my z-troller is in the basement and my thermostat is on the floor above it about a 15' diagonal line and it is good.... while my appliance module on the fish tank heater is 15' straight behind it so I have a mini triangle on my z-wave now.... the other units im going to install are going to be replacing x10 modules on the other side of the house and on 1st and second floor to try to extend my z-wave network....


I feel going to z-wave is nice... will I ever get rid of my x10.... HELL NO...
I personally love my light switches and will never go 100% z-wave until they make a nice z-wave togglelinc style switch (ha20c is togglelinc but not a relay style to control cf bulbs... but I am going to try one when I get a job)....

currently I use (approximate numbers)

8 x 23890w togglelinc 2 way switches
4 x 23892w togglelinc companion switches (for 3 way circuits)
3 x ws467 push button light switches (where motion controls lights)
20 x LM466 x10 lamp modules
20 x AM466 x10 appliance modules

for me to replace all that to z-wave... the waf factor would be 0% tollerable as this is my hobby.... but she tollerates it for now as I do stuff slowly and non bothering to her.....

hope that helps ya.... as I am a x-10 and z-wave user and truely like the cheapness of x-10 and the reliability of z-wave


oh and on that note... I had to reinstall HS... and getting to read the z-troller in for the devices (what all of 2) was nice as I see if I had 50 devices all z-wave.... reinstalling hs would be less of a headache.....
~Jeff

[outbackrob]

"Why Switch?" That's a good question.

If you are building new, wire your house for the future. It is SO cheap to run audio/video/network/electrical while the sheetrock is not up!

As far as HA, there is no reason to switch now. If it works, stick with it. Unless you are selling your house as an Automated house, pull the old stuff and take it with you.

I have been using X10 since 1986. I still have a couple of Radio Shack lamp and appliance modules from then that still work. In 23 years I have run into a few bumps in the road, but all were fixed with either a filter or a bridge.

We have just about everything on inexpensive X10 remotes. Can't really do that with the other protocols.

Rob