Re: UK light switches available

["Harrison, Mark (Alliance)" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Nigel,

You're not alone in being uncomfortable about X-10 in this mailing list.

We had a thread a few months back about "alternative" ways of
controlling lighting in particular, including a proposal (from me) about
using NJD midi-controller boxes, which we were considering using for the
complete refitting of a cottage with HA.

The good news is we've now got the required kit to play with (Linux Box
running Apache with Midi Card, NJD box, lights!). The bad news is I've
still not got around to writing the Perl scripts to control it ;-(

(The worse news is that the place still hasn't got a working floor,
which goes a long way to explaining why the fancier stuff has been
delayed!)

The other change is that we're now flood-wiring with CAT5 anyway...

Regards,

Mark Harrison
European IT Manager, BP/Bovis Alliance
Tel: +44 181 869 1439
Fax: +44 181 423 7711
SMTP: Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx



-----Original Message-----
From: Nigel Orr [mailto:nigel.orr@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 07 January 1999 15:11
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Re: UK light switches available


At 14:05 06/01/99 -0000, you wrote:
>During the 70's when the price of copper went through the roof there
>was a breif spell when lighting circuits were wired differently.

It is recommended that houses are rewired every 20-25 years, so anyone
with
70's wiring should probably be thinking of a rewire...

>With that system each switch had 3 Live & Earth cables
In,Switched,Out
>Each ceiling rose only had Neutral, Switched Live and Earth.

But it is interesting to know about it- I've not come across any such
installations (fortunately...)

>Also if they had produced a module that replaced the ceiling rose, what

>would happen with light fixtures such as spotlamp fittings and
chandeliers
>that require the ceiling rose to be removed?

OK, fair point- just doesn't apply to any of my lights so it hadn't come
to
mind.

>Of course you could always put a DIN module above the ceiling and
replace
>your wallswitch with a pressbutton :-))

I'm still a bit anti-X10, it just doesn't strike me as a good long term
solution, with everything else moving to try to filter signals off the
mains... I don't know if the IEE's recent protests about the
unsuitability
of mains wiring for data transfer would apply to X-10 (the principles
are
the same), but I feel more comfortable with a simpler Cat-5/IR/RF
network-
maybe if I played with it for a while, I'd be hooked... though running
fresh cables under floors doesn't really bother me personally...

Nigel

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