Am I the only one to be getting very frustrated by the HA manufacturers?
They seem to expel a tremendous amount of hot air about how good their products are and what they can do, but don't actually have anything available (or planned!) for the UK market.
I suspect that most people who retro-fit don't want to have the hassle and cost of re-decorating, so mains-connected or wireless systems are the only option.
Clipsal allegedly have a wireless system, but their UK site has no information and the only people selling the stuff want £150 for a single light switch. When I started playing with X10, I costed that I could do the whole house for the price of four Clipsal switches!
Z-Wave is a lot better on price, but what about wall switches, wired lamp modules, component-level switches to take inputs from other devices (such as PIR sensors) etc. etc. Lots of noise and websites with "concept" type information, but nothing you can buy.
If the HA market is to really get going in the UK, manufacturers need to be bringing out products that are more than just modules to automate the odd lamp - i.e. stuff that can be easily retro-fitted to average house.
Yours very frustrated
Jim
They seem to expel a tremendous amount of hot air about how good their products are and what they can do, but don't actually have anything available (or planned!) for the UK market.
I suspect that most people who retro-fit don't want to have the hassle and cost of re-decorating, so mains-connected or wireless systems are the only option.
Clipsal allegedly have a wireless system, but their UK site has no information and the only people selling the stuff want £150 for a single light switch. When I started playing with X10, I costed that I could do the whole house for the price of four Clipsal switches!
Z-Wave is a lot better on price, but what about wall switches, wired lamp modules, component-level switches to take inputs from other devices (such as PIR sensors) etc. etc. Lots of noise and websites with "concept" type information, but nothing you can buy.
If the HA market is to really get going in the UK, manufacturers need to be bringing out products that are more than just modules to automate the odd lamp - i.e. stuff that can be easily retro-fitted to average house.
Yours very frustrated
Jim
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