Newbie after advice!

[skpsirwin]

Hi all,

After watching this forum for a while as I was buying my new home I am now ready to get into my Home Automation Project (without the Mrs's approval naturally)

Basically I've played around a bit with x-10 and bought a few starter kits containing a few appliance and lamp modules, PIR sensor, few wireless controllers etc etc (nothing special)

I've been watching Z-Wave and been largely prohibited by the lack of UK modules available on the market.

As an electrician (with an easily rewireable house) I'm not all together put off by C-Bus but more put off by the price.

So anyway heres what I'm basically after your advice with.

I'm after a way to control various things in the home i.e on/off and dimming with status reporting where possible. I'd like the lighting in my bedroom and landing and kitchen to turn themselves on and off in the morning and perhaps gently ramp up as a gentle wake up call. I'm after remantic remote controlled mood lighting in the lounge. I'm after integration with my burglar alarm (which does have an x-10 interface). I'm after control of my central heating system which I'm aware will involve a wiring project of some sort. I'm after software which will do this and I'm after integration with my iPhone (either simply by web based software or an iPhone app). Also control from outside the house by the internet/phone/text would be great, though how to get around my ISP's non-static IP address would pose a typical problem.

Eventually I would like to embed some type of touch screen interface by the front door, maybe also the kitchen and in the future some integration with my home entertainment systems would be a bonus (as I've already ripped my entire DVD library onto a 1TB external hard disk that moves around the house to the PS3 in the living room, the LCD in the bedroom and playback on various laptops.

I have my head in the clouds at the moment, bursting with excitement, stupid as a child, and am looking for your opinions on the best, easiest most elegant way to do this.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Steve

P.S Being an electrician I'm reluctant to have adaptors plugged in left right and centre and would rather go for an integrated asthetic look for my controlled appliances. I have plenty of cavity space in floors and walls for discreet modules.

[Otto-Mate]

Welcome Steve!

I'd say C-Bus is the way to go. It is pricey, but mainly because you have to buy a dimmer/relay pack to do multiple circuits. If you divide the cost of a 6 channel dimmer for example you'll find it's not much more per circuit than an X-10 DIN Rail module. The nice switches (DLTs) are expensive, but you don't need many of those.

We're about to start the change over from X-10 to C-Bus in our own home.

M.

[toscal]

have you had a look at the Idratek system there is a forum on here dedicated to it as well. It also has an X10 gateway, so you could still use your X10 stuff as well.

[TimH]

Hi all,

After watching this forum for a while as I was buying my new home I am now ready to get into my Home Automation Project (without the Mrs's approval naturally)

<snip>

I think CBus would be a good fit and can be linked with the Comfort alarm system and can integrate with touchscreens, etc. Idratek is also very competent and has some clever "back-room" functionality for quite sophisticated control.

I have X10 and while it does work pretty reliably for me, when/if I have the oppportunity I would look to change it out for something "smarter".

Also control from outside the house by the internet/phone/text would be great, though how to get around my ISP's non-static IP address would pose a typical problem.

Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DynDNS and http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/. The dyndns service takes the hassle out of non-static IP addresses so you always access through the same URL. There are free and paid-for versions.

HTH,

Tim.