I've been looking at the various HA technologies available and have settled on Z-wave. Light switches seem to be a pain though. Putting controllers behind existing switches is fine I guess, but I'd rather have nicer switches with less faff.
I found the Vitrum switches that look nice. Then i found the RFXtrx controller which meant I'd be able to use LighwaveRF (nice switches and no neutral required - yay!) and control it from a ZWave controller.
The next step was choosing a controller. I was pretty convinced by the Fibaro HC2, most of what I've read rates it above the Vera box.
But then I discovered that the RFXtrx controller wouldn't work with HC2, only with Vera. And whilst researching it it became apparent that the a Fibaro team are not very involved with their own forum discussions which was off putting.
So now I'm swaying towards the Vera. It seems more configurable (I'm a programmer by trade, so not worried about getting my hands dirty). Cost isn't a huge concern, I'd rather pay more and get the right system.
The "Wife Acceptance Factor" matters too, and I suspected the HC2 would beat the Vera here. But not if it means crappy light switches! I will eventually want to add much more besides lights - alarm, heating, door entry, triggered scenes from PIRs,etc.
Has anyone recently gone through this process and looked at the latest (as of March 2014) offerings from each company? Which way did you go and why?
I found the Vitrum switches that look nice. Then i found the RFXtrx controller which meant I'd be able to use LighwaveRF (nice switches and no neutral required - yay!) and control it from a ZWave controller.
The next step was choosing a controller. I was pretty convinced by the Fibaro HC2, most of what I've read rates it above the Vera box.
But then I discovered that the RFXtrx controller wouldn't work with HC2, only with Vera. And whilst researching it it became apparent that the a Fibaro team are not very involved with their own forum discussions which was off putting.
So now I'm swaying towards the Vera. It seems more configurable (I'm a programmer by trade, so not worried about getting my hands dirty). Cost isn't a huge concern, I'd rather pay more and get the right system.
The "Wife Acceptance Factor" matters too, and I suspected the HC2 would beat the Vera here. But not if it means crappy light switches! I will eventually want to add much more besides lights - alarm, heating, door entry, triggered scenes from PIRs,etc.
Has anyone recently gone through this process and looked at the latest (as of March 2014) offerings from each company? Which way did you go and why?
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