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[dhouston]

@kenrad,

I haven't looked at Z-Wave details since it was first introduced. At that time, it had a maximum number of hops that when combined with the short range led me to believe you might run out of hops before running out of real estate for large installations. There was also an issue where a failed node was not easily removed from the routing map. Given the support by Leviton, Act and others who I respect, I'm assuming those early flaws have been addressed. Is that the case?

[kenrad]

@kenrad,

I haven't looked at Z-Wave details since it was first introduced. At that time, it had a maximum number of hops that when combined with the short range led me to believe you might run out of hops before running out of real estate for large installations. There was also an issue where a failed node was not easily removed from the routing map. Given the support by Leviton, Act and others who I respect, I'm assuming those early flaws have been addressed. Is that the case?

@ dhouston

I have looked at many different devices and have build a pretty extensive zwave setup.  I don't find the range to be an issue at all at first I did when I only had a few devices but as the system grew the reliability became very solid.  But even when it was a little flaky it wasn't any worse than plugging you phone charger in new the CM15a and getting unwanted noise.  I run this setup on a 6000 sqft old victorian home and a detached garage.  the nice thing about Ihouse and the zskick 2 (AEOTEC) setup is everytime the HA PC is booted the system reconfigures the neighbors for hte devices so it is always determining the best route to send the signal.  From what I understand of it you only get so many hops as well but every device that picks up the info will send it to another.  so for instance if the Pc sends a signal and it is received by 4 switches that is one hop and the each of those switches repeats the signal and that is another hop and then 4 devices receive the signal from each of the switches.  I hope you get my idea that the signal keeps expanding until it reaches the designated device.

I also think that Levitron is a great manufacturer for my zwave stuff I am running levitron, intramatic and Aeotec and they are all very good in reliability.  I have had the hybrid system running for about a year now and I have never had a misse zwave signal other then in the very beginning, but that was due to my learning curve.   


   Ken

[dhouston]

@kenrad,

Thanks for the feedback. I'll feel a bit more confident when recommending Z-Wave. My health is too far gone for me to buy Z-Wave for testing - I just can no longer handle even minimal physical activity.

What kind of cost differential is there between equivalent X10 & Z-Wave devices?

[dave w]

The only negative I have read about Z-Wave is: once you get more than 30 or 40 modules, the network begins to slow. I am assuming physical proximity must also have some effect(?). Regardless I can't imagine it being any slower than the time it takes for an X10 RF command to finally turn on a lamp module.

Kenrad, how many units do you have in the large home?

[kenrad]

Hi guys,

I currently have 54 devices that are zwave including thermostats, sensors, and switches I do notice that when you get higher devices it does get a little slower, but it is faster than x10 transmissions.  when you are running small amounts of devices it is very fast, x10 can't hold a candle to them.  if oyu blink you will miss the status change so when it slows it is still far fasted than x10.  As for looking at the prices they are a little pricier than x10 stuff, but very comparable with the levitrion, and insteon x10 stuff.  Approx $40 a switch.  I found that it was very much worth it, far more reliability and the two way communications were the seller for me.  I like the fact that I can use my Ha system to conserve energy.

Cheers Ken

[dave w]

Thanks man! Ain't nothin better than (user) word of mouth recommendations.