Newbie confusion - wiring guide and product selection

["rclhome" <rcldave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,
Aplogies if this is too common a  question, but I've searched the
archives and can't really find what I'm looking for.

I've recently purchased a house that needs a lot of renovation and
would like to add some automation. I'd originally planned on using
X10, as I'd read quite a bit about it and that was all I was aware of.
I armed myself with "Smarthomes for Dummies" and the
"Automated Home"
wiring guide and was ready to add all the wiring I need.

However, on further investigation I'm now confused what to do. I hear
X10 can be unreliable and have come across things like Idratek, xPL,
xAp etc. I don't want to make a mistake at this stage and end up with
something in the walls that may not be too much use later! It now
seems there are hundred different ways of achieving what I want and I
don't know how to select the best options for me.

My rough requirements are: I'd like to end up with a system that will
allow me to have a data LAN, control the lights, connect phones (was
originally planning on using Asterisk), connect into the security
system and have a (simple) audio/video distribution. I don't mind
paying/using something proprietry, but would like to be able to
manipulate things myself later and would be quite happy to write
code/scripts to do so if required.

I'm hoping someone has a few pointers to help me to move forward with
this, such as are there any suggested "best practices"? Do I have
to
select the products first then wire to suit? Is "Smarthomes for
dummies" out of date now? Should I move to proprietry products?

Thanks for any help. Dave




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