Just got my first few z-wave 200+ dimmers installed with my Homeseer system and perhaps need to reconsider my lighting strategy. We're a family of 5 with elementary age kids.
I'd wanted to have pathways in our house dimly lit up late at night (hallways, stairways etc). I have low voltage LED's mounted low (step lights, under cabinet lights) around most of those places and at least was going to have Homeseer sensors in place to control lights when say someone gets up to use the bathroom late at night or just needs to get somewhere without getting blasted by full on lighting.
It works briskly at times but in a few rooms, there's a notable delay in the lights coming on after you enter. In a few others, the z-wave interface isn't able to reach the dimmers. I know once I get more devices around the house that'll improve but it made me think I need a mixed use of lutron maestro switches with built in dimmers controlling the pathways and bathroom under cabinet lights to provide quicker switch-on times. Disadvantage is it's a one trick pony. I can't have the light do one thing at 8PM and another at midnight (which I really like on the Homeseer stuff). Nor any of the home-wide scene controls etc.
But if I need to wait a second for the light to switch on, it seems worthwhile to have the minimum necessary light (the one under the cabinet that gives sufficient light to not walk into a wall) on a more rapid response maestro switch.
3rd alternative I can think of is just leaving those critical lights on at 5% all night. No issues with response time. Then use the homeseer dimmers to control less time-critical switching.
I'm still dialing in everything but I have 60+ switches to go through and would prefer not do redo anything later.
Curious what others have done or advice ?
I'd wanted to have pathways in our house dimly lit up late at night (hallways, stairways etc). I have low voltage LED's mounted low (step lights, under cabinet lights) around most of those places and at least was going to have Homeseer sensors in place to control lights when say someone gets up to use the bathroom late at night or just needs to get somewhere without getting blasted by full on lighting.
It works briskly at times but in a few rooms, there's a notable delay in the lights coming on after you enter. In a few others, the z-wave interface isn't able to reach the dimmers. I know once I get more devices around the house that'll improve but it made me think I need a mixed use of lutron maestro switches with built in dimmers controlling the pathways and bathroom under cabinet lights to provide quicker switch-on times. Disadvantage is it's a one trick pony. I can't have the light do one thing at 8PM and another at midnight (which I really like on the Homeseer stuff). Nor any of the home-wide scene controls etc.
But if I need to wait a second for the light to switch on, it seems worthwhile to have the minimum necessary light (the one under the cabinet that gives sufficient light to not walk into a wall) on a more rapid response maestro switch.
3rd alternative I can think of is just leaving those critical lights on at 5% all night. No issues with response time. Then use the homeseer dimmers to control less time-critical switching.
I'm still dialing in everything but I have 60+ switches to go through and would prefer not do redo anything later.
Curious what others have done or advice ?
Esp for a new hopuse, where all the walls are open, I would always always do hardwired instead of RF where I could.
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