Home automation and Data Distribution

[JHU News Groups]

I'm quite new to this realm, however quite intrigued with all the
capabilities of X10 and other products. I currently having a house built
and I want to hear the opinions of what I should do or have done. I don't
want to spend a load of cash, however I do want a nice setup. Last month I
purchased about $200 worth of X10 products ranging from lamp modules,
appliance modules... to motion sensors.. I having a blast playing with it
however a 2/3 Zone heating system seems kind of out of my league for
installing. The builder already is including Home Director HNCC 2000 which
is the home data distribution system and they do install the Home Director
Network Console, however this product is ridiculously priced ($14k). Should
I continue working with X10 products or should I branch out with an OCELOT?

Any feedback out greatly be appreciated!

-David

[Mark Gilmore]

David,
The OCELOT is a great product (I use it myself),
but you would still be limited to X10, as the OCELOT
is an X10 (and IR) transceiver.
Feel free to call if you have any questions.
--
Mark Gilmore
Omnipotence (ECS home automation software)
http://www.usit.com/omnip
423-745-0026
Hours: Mon-Sat, 9AM-8PM/EST

[Rick Marron]

Since you are building new, consider the installation of separate subsystems
by function (security, lighting, X10, HVAC, audio) and tie them together
with another controller so that if one system goes down everything is lost.

Consider OmniPro http://www.homeauto.com/ for a combined controller and home
security or Applied Digital Adicon (Ocelot, Leopard, etc)
http://www.appdig.com/adicon.html family and Napco Gemini
http://www.napcosecurity.com/product-fr.html for a DIY distributed system.

http://www.keware.com/ Consider HomeSeer as PC based system controllers. It
has outstanding capability, interfaces well with other systems and is
extremely well supported.

http://cutlerhammer.eaton.com/buildersprogram/advanced.html Since you are
wiring from scratch, consider the CH Advanced Power Center as a way to
control high amp loads (HVAC, pool, hot water) that are difficult to do with
other systems. It will also give you power monitoring and control functions
you can't get anywhere else today.

As far as X10 products are concerned, return them. Over time you will wish
you had purchased more reliable units, particularly the wall switches.
Since you are building new, consider using Power Control System
http://www.smartswitch.net/ or Leviton Products
http://www.leviton.com/sections/prodinfo/library.htm Leviton Products have
a good reliability record, but for new home construction, the PCS LM4 panels
provide excellent features. One nice thing is that they are centrally
located near the power center (breaker box) and therefore have receive
better quality X10 signals with less noise.

Here are a couple of interesting links that we give you more links
http://www.us-epanorama.net/automation.html
http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~dhoehnen/ha/list.html

Have a good time

Rick

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