Re: Why cling to old X10?

["Jeff Volp" <JeffVolp@xxxxxxx>]

"Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Cr2dnWmnNNGFJHrbnZ2dnUVZ_hWdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxx
> "bruceR" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:46e77b2a$0$16523
>
> <stuff snipped>
>
>> And, since you're too modest to say it yourself, probably the singlemost
>> improvement in X10 reliability to come along since 1982 has been your XTB
>> and XTB II  product line.
>
> Yes, indeed.  Three cheers for Jeff and his creations, the XTB's!  What
> Jeff's done in many cases is to buy people enough time so that they can
> keep
> X-10 going in their current home until they move to a new one.  Changing
> over HA equipment is usually a lot easier to accomplish via moving to a
> new
> home rather than retrofitting an old one.  Moving time is when lots of
> people appear to be willing to leave X-10 behind for something more
> reliable.  The longer I can put off switching, the better.  It means I
> won't
> be locked into early production runs of newly designed equipment that
> might
> have serious flaws compared to later models.

Thanks for the compliments fellows.

When we moved here 4 years ago, I chose to stay with X10, but wanted to do
it right.  So we updated from all the old X10 push-on / push-off switches to
the Leviton "red line" (since replaced by the "green line").  We put all X10
devices on one phase (so the XTB-II isn't really necessary here).  I
installed a whole-house block, and wired Leviton 6287 filters in series with
all CFL ceiling cans.  Perhaps most important, I had the electrician run a
single circuit throughout the house for known problem loads.  That runs
through one of those big XPF filters.  No other plug-in filters were used.
After that things worked nearly 100% without even a repeater.  One CFL light
in the living room missed its "off" once in a blue moon, but everything else
worked day in and day out.  With hundreds of X10 commands sent daily, that
is pretty high reliability.  A simple filter probably would have corrected
the CFL problem, but it wasn't significant enough to even bother with.