Experiences of using X10

[mrmiles]

Hi,

I'm interested in trying out home automation, and was thinking of using X10 - it seems pretty straightforward, and it's pretty cheap to try stuff out with. Basically I want to control a few lights around the house.

However, I'm a bit concerned that people seem to experience "random" signals that make devices do stuff! To the point where it makes me think I might as well not bother with X10 at all!

Does anyone have an X10 installation that doesn't have this problem? Are the whole house filters any good?

I am having some work done on the consumer unit and was considering installing a filter at the same time:

http://www.uk-automation.co.uk/whole-house-filtercoupler-p-1003.html

However, if there are still random signals even with this installed, then I'd rather not even start down this route. Is X10 worth bothering with?

Thanks for your thoughts!

M

[toscal]

My X10 install is very reliable.
I have a whole house filter and surge protector. My TV and hi-fi are supplied from a power strip that is plugged into large ish power conditioner which also has surge protection. All computers are plugged in to surge protected strips.
X10 can be made to be very reliable, but it will need money spent on it to do this. The biggest chunk of the money is normally spent on the whole house filter. But that's quite a good price for the one you have got.

I do recommend doing the install bit by bit that way it can be easier to fault find rather than trying to do the whole house in one go. Renting a basic X10 power meter is very worth while if you do have problems. The one I have displays the commands sent and received as well as noise and x10 levels. And I can use it program modules.