Re: Comfort - X10 vs relays

["paul_watkin" <paul_watkin@xxxxxxx>]

As a newbie who is about to purchase comfort I am intrigued as to why=20
it would not make an appropriate choice for ONOFF control of outdoor=20
lighting /pond bits.

My plan had been to put between 6 and 8 relays in an enclosure next=20
to the current one and run the relavent low voltage switching via=20
comfort which will be housed in node 0 roughly half way between the=20
lights etc and the consumer unit.

I had expected Comfort to be as robust if not more so than a PC based=20
X10 solution and probably on a par with Homeseer and X10.

As well as manual switching of the lights, I would like them to=20
activate in response to an alarm event and this seems the easiest=20
(read cheapest) way to do this. Also using this method would give me=20
status information, would it not? (I am assuming you can poll comfort=20
using ACE or something and see which outputs are doing what)

For internal lighting I intend to use Clipsal CBUS.

As installing any of this is going to require pretty major work it=20
will be going with the house when we sell it, so I am not worried=20
about backwards compatability.

Any thoughts/advice welcomed

Cheers

Paul

--- In ukha_d@y..., "Dr John Tankard" <john@s...> wrote:
>=20
>=20=20
> > I've mentioned before that we are building a house that should
go=20
up=20
> > this year. I've been putting together a list of all the=20
electrical=20
> > fittings I want. Amongst these are 15 lights that I would like
to=20
> > control. With X10 DIN units at =A335 each I was wondering if it
was=20
> > worth saving a few quid here. I've seen on the Comfort site
some=20
> > relays that are about half the cost. Is is worth using these
for=20
> > things like the outside lights?=20
>=20
> No. don't use comfort for your lights. I would home run all the=20
lighting
> and all the power to the switches this way you have the most
> flexability, you can do X10 or a hardwired control system or switch=20
it
> back to a traditional set up later if you move. T&E is dirt cheap.
I
> would also run cat5 to the switches again home run, there is a regs
> issue when the two come together, you must not use the cat5 unless=20
you
> are not using the mains, its not a problem if you go to low voltage
> control just ground all the conductors of the T&E in the wall
box.=20
Oh
> and one last thing use full depth boxes for everything, by wich I=20
mean
> 47mm.
>=20
> John