Hi, I am building a 4K sqft home and have done all the automation in my last house (by myself). During that time I worked for a company that owned a division that sold home and industrial automation and I could get anything for 50% below cost. Having said that we just broke ground on our second home and I am doing all the design install and automation for this home and here is what I am putting in from what I have learned in the past. #1 - Lighting System. It was my favorite thing in the last house (a Leviton system). This time I am using Insteon for many reasons but it can be programed by a small box you instruct - plug into an outlet and let it do it's thing. Custom printed buttons, complex scenes - timers whatever. It is the most flexible system out there and goes from standard configuration to super complex and everything in between. It is also cost effective. #2. You can get Insteon Thermostats that do a lot of goofy stuff - but I am going with 2 Nest units for each zone. Easy Simple. #3. A Cat6 Camera system from Samsung (16 cameras - only putting in 8 to start). I really like the fact that I can see the house and the sump pump etc. when I am out of state. #4. An ELK alarm system. This is the "brain" of the house and it talks to the lighting system and Insteon thermostats. You can hit the "Vacation" button and it will set the HVAC and even turn on and off random lights at night if you want. #5. I am wiring for Somfy drapes and shades. Simply putting in the 16/2 DC wires in locations for now. The bedroom will be all blackout shades. Roll over and hit a switch and you are in a 1000 a night hotel. I am not putting in any music systems. Never used them. I had a fancy Russsound AV distribution system as well and won't be doing that either. Simply doing Cat 6 everywhere, DirecTv, and will use wireless Apple products for music at patries. You will NEVER use a computer to control these devices. You will never get up and use a wall touch screen. That being said this is a hobby and should be treated as such. You won't get your money out of it. Your friends won't understand it. Friends at parties won't understand it. But if it is something you like then go for it. It takes 10,000 times more effort, time, frustration, and money to do these things with an automation system than it is to get up and hit the light switch or pull the drape cord. But to me it is something I can't seem to live without. Wife hates it - can't seem to understand how it all works - or the need for any of it. Even with custom labeled buttons that say "party" or "clean up" on the lights she still uses the switch instead of the scene button. It is nice to turn off every light in the house from your bedside - and then to have the alarm to arm automatically at 11:00 at night with no need to do anything. To have the lights come on and light the house when it detects motion etc. That being said it is a very slippery slope. Don't listen to the salesmen - they want to sell you what they want to sell. Best advice is to do as much as you can and bring in a pro for the things you don't understand (alarm for me)... Good luck!

Thanks for your replies! These aren't things "I" have to have... most of these came from a thread from about 3 years ago and I wanted to eliminate things that are unnecessary or overkill which I know is quite a few. Allison, I apologize for the length. I, many times, have opened loooong posts and quickly returned to the main page. Thanks for coming back. ;) David - I should have removed Cat 7 from the list. Electrician already told me he uses Cat 5. You're right they were copied, that's why they don't make sense. As far as expense, if I pre-wire for many of these will that cut down a lot on the price initially? I should have added that in my first post. This is a whole house remodel and addition, and unfortunately we won't have a garage anymore, just a storage area, so the outlet for the extra refrigerator will be in the laundry room. I'm deleting extras now. I thought the 4 light switches were a bit much myself. Thanks for your help.

Posted on May 16, 2022. I have a 10 year old craftsman 1/2 HP garage door opener. Recently, It had a problem: It can open/close with one click of the wall button. And I could open the garage with remote when driving back to the drive way. But, I couldn't close the garage with remote when I leaved home (because the light of the opener is on now triggered by passing the door sensors). Searched and found here, now I know that when the light is on, remote will not work. Posts here are right, It was because the capacitor near the transformer on the circuit board was bad, and I ordered a 330 uF, 35V capacitor (1.2 dollars for the similar one), replaced the bad one on board. Everything works fine now. In my case, it was not because of LED bulb, or spider net on the door sensors ( I had such problem once long time ago). One thing to share here is that the bad capacitor didn't show any thing bad on its casing, no fluid out, no burning. It just become bad inside. When you change the capacitor, be careful that you need identify the positive and negative pole of the capacitor. Many thanks to all of you who share the knowledge here.

Finally tried to really figure out this problem of the ghosting lights which we've had since we installed the fans w/lights and the remote controls over ten years ago. I've read about it on multiple websites over the years. I even brought in an electrician to figure it out. He couldn't either. The fan w/light is on a line with a can light so I actually have to receivers in each room: one for the fan/light and one for the can. Prior to this I had bought another remote as a back up which we needed to use as the can receiver was bad. Turns out, however, that is the solution. The original Hunter universal remote receivers work on 350 MHz. We live in a neighborhood of 2.5 to 5 acre homes so we should not be getting stray signals at all and certainly not in the wee hours of the morning when these lights magically go on. There must be a signal coming from somewhere although we don't know where or from what. The newer remote receiver is set at 400 MHz. I'm testing it in two rooms so that is four receivers. After three weeks there has been no magic lights coming on at any time during the day. I'm going to replace the receivers in the other rooms now. Hope this helps others with a similar situation.