Home Automation
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Hi
Will start building a small new 1200 sq ft home in Napa in June 07. Interested in home automation (HA) but am truly clueless (x10, z-wave, zigbee,etc. . . ). I am acting as the GC, The Electrician iand Carpenter are willing but also are not well-versed in the HA tech. Frankly, the budget is tight, so I can't afford to go full out source to HA specialist but am interested in making the most of fact that walls will be open and am putting in new wires, etc. associated with new construction. The building site area is relatively remote (hills above Oakville) so ATT cooper phone wire will likely be our main Internet access (or potentially satellite but not certain) - we don't even have good cingular (ATT) cell reception. I would like to use HA tech to potentially control motorized window shades, lights, alarm, heat, AV systems. Any guidance/experience would be gratefully accepeted. . . . . thanks.
William - I have investigated this in the past and I found that the affordable HA market is very fragmented and of poor quality. Nothing that I would want to put in my house for the long haul. Lutron makes a lighting and shade control units that would be where I would start. I think the alarm, AC, and AV integration is not work the cost - personally. The system I liked was $65,000.
I am using a Lutron GraphikEye lighting controller on my new house for lighting control and prewiring for wireless internet access points and IP based security cameras, but I am not buying anything right now.
Jason - Curious to know if you contracted a specialist to pre-wire your network stuff or could any electrician handle it? Also - are your IP based security cams hooked into a home LAN? I've always liked the idea of having a server that could control most of the home electronics.
william w - Though I haven't looked very hard, I've yet to see any elegant X10 gadgets for residential use - they always seem to be a variant of the funny looking timers that you plug between your outlet and lamp cord (don't know what they are called) or hacked up light switches. Curious to know what systems and products that you go with. Please update us with any new info!
Dan - I am doing all the low voltage wiring myself. It is very easy to do and not worth paying a "professional" to do it.
Everything will be wired into the home LAN. All wires home run to a central Leviton box in the laundry room
Previously Dan Vargas wrote:
Jason - Curious to know if you contracted a specialist to pre-wire your network stuff or could any electrician handle it? Also - are your IP based security cams hooked into a home LAN? I've always liked the idea of having a server that could control most of the home electronics.
william w - Though I haven't looked very hard, I've yet to see any elegant X10 gadgets for residential use - they always seem to be a variant of the funny looking timers that you plug between your outlet and lamp cord (don't know what they are called) or hacked up light switches. Curious to know what systems and products that you go with. Please update us with any new info!
Previously william w wrote:
Hi
Will start building a small new 1200 sq ft home in Napa in June 07. Interested in home automation (HA) but am truly clueless (x10, z-wave, zigbee,etc. . . ). I am acting as the GC, The Electrician iand Carpenter are willing but also are not well-versed in the HA tech. Frankly, the budget is tight, so I can't afford to go full out source to HA specialist but am interested in making the most of fact that walls will be open and am putting in new wires, etc. associated with new construction. The building site area is relatively remote (hills above Oakville) so ATT cooper phone wire will likely be our main Internet access (or potentially satellite but not certain) - we don't even have good cingular (ATT) cell reception. I would like to use HA tech to potentially control motorized window shades, lights, alarm, heat, AV systems. Any guidance/experience would be gratefully accepeted. . . . . thanks.
We just built a smaller home, and decided that alot of those "needed" automation things were really not needed for a great custom home feel. I soul searched, and couldn't figure out why I would need to be able to control my HVAC any more than what my programable thermastat does. We wired for a computer network, but ended up doing a wireless modem, and it serves the printer, laptop, and entertainment pc. Lighting control is a must in my opinion, but in a small house is it really necesary to spend thousands on an whole-house control system?
Lutron / graphic eye - lighting/shade control/low voltage interface
Colorado v-net - lighting/shade control/digital music distribution
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