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Insteon a good mix of cost/quality?

15 years ago

I am in the beginning stages of planning the lighting for my new house, and am considering putting in a rather basic control system. I'm not looking for anything crazy, no motorized blinds or anything like that. I just want dimmers throughout the house, and maybe a few keypads that allow for a few scenes. PC interface is important as well. I know I can accomplish this with x10, but I'm looking for something a little bit nicer. It doesn't have to be insanely reliable. If I get a glitch here or there no biggie. I just don't want to be spending $50 a switch. Does Insteon fit the bill here?

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Comments (4)

DavidR
15 years ago
One of the guys over in the Wiring forum, Solarpowered, seems to like Insteon. He might make an appearance here.

Do a search for Insteon to see what he's written about them.
sniffdog
15 years ago
beckkl

Do a search on Dim4fun - he is the expert in this area. I had a similar need and he was the one who recommended I look at Insteon. I took his advise and am putting Insteon dimmers and contollers throughout my house.

The bootom line is that for the price, it is probably the best value for basic automated lighting control. The controllers are about $50 and the dimmers are about $40. Look into www.smarthome.com - they carry the complete line.

The key to the Insteon system is to make sure that you set up the dual network properly. Each Insteon device is a transmitter and receiver, but if you have devices that are on different phases of the electrical system - that is when you can have intermitant communication issues. Insteon solved this problem by using a pair of plug in modules that must be installed on opposite phases. These modules take signals that tey receiver over the line and passes them to the other module on the opposite phase. That module will in turn broadcast the signal to any devices on the other phase. A pair of these modules is around $40.

I think Insteon is a great system. I have used it before with X10 devices and it works well. I was looking at other higher end solutions, but could not justify the cost. These higher end solutions offer more programmability and interface options - but for what I needed - these were overkill. Insteon also offers a software program that allows you to establish dimming controls on your computer and download them to teach device. It's a nice system - a lot better than X10 - which is only an over line system (but Insteon is compatible with X10 devices too)
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soonermagic
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I don't know anything about Insteon, but we went with the Control 4 system in the house we're building. It will control lighting scenes in a number of our rooms as well as distribute A/V throughout the house. It was the most affordable solution we were quoted. Much more so than Crestron or AMX. Nobody quoted Insteon to us and we didn't look into any DIY solutions. Good luck.
sniffdog
15 years ago
I also heard that Control 4 was a good product. The problem I had was that it was only available through dealers.

The Insteon products are more for the DIYer - which I am. I was able to design a really nice automated lighting system myself, and then buy all the parts online. I had the electricians add single gang boxes in areas where I wanted the contollers and then I will have them wire up the Insteon dimmers and contollers, which I will supply, instead of normal switches.

You can save a boat load of money with Insteon if all you want is basic automated light and scene control. There is some configuration required, all of which can be done with the software that is available for about 60 dollars. Insteon is not as flexible as a full blown automated home control such as Lutron, Control 4, or several others - which are all good - but expensive for both parts, installation, and maintenance.

I wanted an affordable system that I could easily maintain. Insteon fit that need perfectly.

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