Re: CBus / X10 Opinions please

[Gerry Duprey <gerry@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy,

Okay -- I'm in the US and all, but I can at least weigh in on my X10
experience.

I have a moderately old house (1928), so refit is the key here.  As such,
I've been refitting the house with X10 stuff, specifically, the Leviton AGC
based switches.  These switches have a top and bottom press to them (for
separate on/off/bright/dim action) and feel pretty good to the touch.

At this point, just over 9 years into the project, I have about 50 X10
switches and I think 2 non-X10 switches (plain old manual wall switch). 
And
until about 6 weeks ago, I never saw any problem with X10.

However, about that time, something outside the house started generating a
*lot* of electrical noise all the time.  My X10 system just totally
shutdown.  I couldn't control anything.  I have the power company involved,
but they are not being too helpful (since my appliances and lights come
on).
I've installed a X10 noise blocker in the main panel and that helped enough
to get most of my X10 switches that are levitons working (the agc stuff is
the key -- if the X10 signal is strong enough, they can ferret it out of
the
noise pretty well).  Well, mostly.  Where as X10 had been rock solid
reliable for years, it's now about 90% reliable.  Very, very depressing.

The killer is that it's from a source outside the house -- something I have
no control over.

So, after years of smugly noting other peoples X10 problems and thinking
they must be doing something wrong, I'm now smarting.

If I were doing a new house, I wouldn't even think for a second -- I'd
absolutely run CAT-5 to each control box and probably start with something
like CBUS.  Seeing as I don't have that option, I'm going to start looking
into the new UPB stuff which is supposedly a much faster and more advanced
protocol than X10 and very much less sensitive to noise.

But changing out all the switches in the house to be UPB is expensive. 
I'll
be scraping nearly $3600 (USD) in X10 switches and at my best estimate,
spending nearly $4000 to replace them.

This tale of woe isn't so much for sympathy, but to seriously warn off
anyone contemplating a large scale X10 installation.  As they say in the
50's B schlock movies:  "It could happen to YOU".

Gerry
--
Gerry Duprey
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
http://www.cdp1802.org