Discussion
Hi All,
We're in the process of moving house at the moment (should be in our new place by early Dec).
The house we've brought is in need of a bit of work and over time we'll be doing every room in the house (and outbuilding/garage).
As part of the decorating process all the rooms will need replastering and i'm going to make sure we have enough CAT5, telephone and power points in all the relevant parts of the house (including a new fusebox).
As a keen "gadget" man it makes sense to me to look at a system that will allow me to control lighting etc while we're not in the house for security purposes and to provide different modes for different times of the day...
CBUS seems to fit that bill as it will give me the ability to add additional circuits when I can afford them...
Has any one had any experience of using these systems? How do they integrate with a standard computer network?
Cheers,
Phill
We're in the process of moving house at the moment (should be in our new place by early Dec).
The house we've brought is in need of a bit of work and over time we'll be doing every room in the house (and outbuilding/garage).
As part of the decorating process all the rooms will need replastering and i'm going to make sure we have enough CAT5, telephone and power points in all the relevant parts of the house (including a new fusebox).
As a keen "gadget" man it makes sense to me to look at a system that will allow me to control lighting etc while we're not in the house for security purposes and to provide different modes for different times of the day...
CBUS seems to fit that bill as it will give me the ability to add additional circuits when I can afford them...
Has any one had any experience of using these systems? How do they integrate with a standard computer network?
Cheers,
Phill
Hi PC.
CBus is good, but very expensive.
A better way to look at it is to take a big step back and list out everything you want to achieve and then looking for a solutions.
Other options are Rako, Mode, Lutron (if you have deep pockets), you could also look at Niko - Rex is having it installed into his house at the moment.
V.
CBus is good, but very expensive.
A better way to look at it is to take a big step back and list out everything you want to achieve and then looking for a solutions.
Other options are Rako, Mode, Lutron (if you have deep pockets), you could also look at Niko - Rex is having it installed into his house at the moment.
V.
As above, C-Bus may not be the product for you ... it's more of a 'whole house' solution and I don't think it'll be cost effective in the way you're intending to have it. We're installing C-Bus into a house at present with 150 circuits ... its a large refurbishment so the product is ideal.
Personally I'd go for Rako ... simple to install and modular so you can have hardwired or wireless rooms working under the same system. Nice app for the iPhone/ipad too. The dimmers are available individually and you can add 'pill dimmers' to rooms where you have wall lights as these fit behind existing switches.
Personally I'd go for Rako ... simple to install and modular so you can have hardwired or wireless rooms working under the same system. Nice app for the iPhone/ipad too. The dimmers are available individually and you can add 'pill dimmers' to rooms where you have wall lights as these fit behind existing switches.
Hi All,
This is the layout of the downstairs of the house we're buying:
We're going to live in it for at least 6 months before we do anything but the current plan is:
Kitchen:
Upstairs bathroom:
I also want to run external lighting to the front and rear of the propery and also to the outbuilding at the bottom of the garden (once it's complete)
Ideally i'd like the PIR to detect time of day so that at night the lighting doesn't come on at 100% when our 2 year gets up for a pee in the night. The ability to schedule lighting to come on at certain times (when we're away) and possibly open/shut curtains would also be fantastic.
I can't afford to do this all at once so i'm looking for a product that can evolve and change as we get more money/do up the house.
Are there any products that can be tied in with Andriod?
Cheers,
Phill
This is the layout of the downstairs of the house we're buying:
We're going to live in it for at least 6 months before we do anything but the current plan is:
- Take out the red wall
- Block up the old back door linking the kitchen to the hallway in the extension
- If possible remove as much as possible of the wall marked in blue
- Create a kitchen/breakfast room big enough for a table to fit on the right hand side (currently this in the extension
- False wall on the short wall of the shower room to host 32" TV
- Longer term, knock down the existing porch and extend across the width of the house in the process giving us a bigger "Adult" sitting room and a seperate hallway
- In the short term it's likely that we'll put up a stud wall to create a hall way from the front porch featuring space for storage cupboards
- Sitting room will feature our current AV bits and bobs - 50" plasma, Onkyo amp, LG Blu-Ray but will upgrade from the current Jamo A102 to ceiling/wall mounted speakers.
- Plan to run Sonos in all rooms to either wall mounted/ceiling mounted speakers
- Network/TV points to all rooms
- Virgin Tivo for the lounge / Freeview HD for other rooms
Kitchen:
- Ceiling lights
- 3 lights above table
- Under unit lighting
- Rope light
- 2 x wall lights
- Ceiling light
- PIR
- Ceiling lights
- Wall lights
- Low level lighting
- PIR
- Standard light
Upstairs bathroom:
- PIR
I also want to run external lighting to the front and rear of the propery and also to the outbuilding at the bottom of the garden (once it's complete)
Ideally i'd like the PIR to detect time of day so that at night the lighting doesn't come on at 100% when our 2 year gets up for a pee in the night. The ability to schedule lighting to come on at certain times (when we're away) and possibly open/shut curtains would also be fantastic.
I can't afford to do this all at once so i'm looking for a product that can evolve and change as we get more money/do up the house.
Are there any products that can be tied in with Andriod?
Cheers,
Phill
pmanson said:
Hi All,
This is the layout of the downstairs of the house we're buying:
We're going to live in it for at least 6 months before we do anything but the current plan is:
Kitchen:
Upstairs bathroom:
I also want to run external lighting to the front and rear of the propery and also to the outbuilding at the bottom of the garden (once it's complete)
Ideally i'd like the PIR to detect time of day so that at night the lighting doesn't come on at 100% when our 2 year gets up for a pee in the night. The ability to schedule lighting to come on at certain times (when we're away) and possibly open/shut curtains would also be fantastic.
I can't afford to do this all at once so i'm looking for a product that can evolve and change as we get more money/do up the house.
Are there any products that can be tied in with Andriod?
Cheers,
Phill
Hi Phill, This is the layout of the downstairs of the house we're buying:
We're going to live in it for at least 6 months before we do anything but the current plan is:
- Take out the red wall
- Block up the old back door linking the kitchen to the hallway in the extension
- If possible remove as much as possible of the wall marked in blue
- Create a kitchen/breakfast room big enough for a table to fit on the right hand side (currently this in the extension
- False wall on the short wall of the shower room to host 32" TV
- Longer term, knock down the existing porch and extend across the width of the house in the process giving us a bigger "Adult" sitting room and a seperate hallway
- In the short term it's likely that we'll put up a stud wall to create a hall way from the front porch featuring space for storage cupboards
- Sitting room will feature our current AV bits and bobs - 50" plasma, Onkyo amp, LG Blu-Ray but will upgrade from the current Jamo A102 to ceiling/wall mounted speakers.
- Plan to run Sonos in all rooms to either wall mounted/ceiling mounted speakers
- Network/TV points to all rooms
- Virgin Tivo for the lounge / Freeview HD for other rooms
Kitchen:
- Ceiling lights
- 3 lights above table
- Under unit lighting
- Rope light
- 2 x wall lights
- Ceiling light
- PIR
- Ceiling lights
- Wall lights
- Low level lighting
- PIR
- Standard light
Upstairs bathroom:
- PIR
I also want to run external lighting to the front and rear of the propery and also to the outbuilding at the bottom of the garden (once it's complete)
Ideally i'd like the PIR to detect time of day so that at night the lighting doesn't come on at 100% when our 2 year gets up for a pee in the night. The ability to schedule lighting to come on at certain times (when we're away) and possibly open/shut curtains would also be fantastic.
I can't afford to do this all at once so i'm looking for a product that can evolve and change as we get more money/do up the house.
Are there any products that can be tied in with Andriod?
Cheers,
Phill
Sounds good ... you've got it all mapped out. Rako has an Android app as well as the iPhone/iPod/iPad apps ... and you can schedule activities for lighting and curtains if you use their controller. They have their own PIR too so that's not an issue.
As above, Rako would be suitable as it can be bought in modules/per circuit.
Ive just installed a RedEye/Lutron system for the first time, seems to be a nice bit of kit, full lighting control (and other stuff too), RedEye makes it fully customizable, with ipad/iphone/android control, you can even assign it a fixed ip and control it from anyware in the world you have tinterweb access. Just thought id throw the name out there for you to have a look at.
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