RF Switches / Smart Switches

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Buck Parrish

Buck Parrish

Senior Member
Location
NC & IN
I am roughing in a large home where the owner would like to use Rf / Smart Home controlls.

Their is an area where I want to controll a long hallway from 6 different locations. Would this be suitable for that? Have any of you planned to use RF / Smart Home technologies from the rough in stage?

I am pulling all my switch legs to one location where I will have about 20 switches. The other locations where I would want to turn the lights on will have just one 14-2 hot and neutral at each switch location.

Some areas will have battery controlled motion detectors, too.

I could use some suggestions if any one has any. The home owner seems to think they are great. I can't imagine it performing flawlessly, can you?

The bedrooms and stairs will be wired normal.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Buck Parrish said:
I am roughing in a large home where the owner would like to use Rf / Smart Home controlls.

Their is an area where I want to controll a long hallway from 6 different locations. Would this be suitable for that? Have any of you planned to use RF / Smart Home technologies from the rough in stage?

I am pulling all my switch legs to one location where I will have about 20 switches. The other locations where I would want to turn the lights on will have just one 14-2 hot and neutral at each switch location.

Some areas will have battery controlled motion detectors, too.

I could use some suggestions if any one has any. The home owner seems to think they are great. I can't imagine it performing flawlessly, can you?

The bedrooms and stairs will be wired normal.
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I would run wiring for switches to usual locations. Someday when he is no longer amused with it he will want to put in regular switches, or at least occupancy sensors or something else. Occupancy sensors are not the best choice when they are not in the area where the controlled light is.
 
Buck Parrish

Buck Parrish

Senior Member
Location
NC & IN
kwired said:
I would run wiring for switches to usual locations. Someday when he is no longer amused with it he will want to put in regular switches, or at least occupancy sensors or something else. Occupancy sensors are not the best choice when they are not in the area where the controlled light is.
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That's what I wanted to do. But he doesn't want that many switches in the normal locations. A master smart switch can controll six lights from one single gang box.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
If you think there is good chance you will be the one to put in switches later, do yourself a favor and pull some kind of fish lines in now.
 
cadpoint

cadpoint

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Buck Parrish said:
Thanks , but it's a flat roof. It's several different floors. But no attic.
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Run fish lines to attic spaces. Especially in places that may be difficult to fish later. Attic is where they will end up anyway.
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If the framing is going in the right direction I'd go with PVC and 90'd down to the main switch drop or as earilier said drop the correct extra wire in.
 
G

Gudenkauf Electric

Member
Location
Sparta, NJ
Gudenkauf Electic

Gudenkauf Electic

I hav installed the RF switches, in fact I have them in my house as a after thought. But in the nw wirig of a house you can eleminate 3-way and 4-waay switches and save on the box size and the wire. They work great. I'm not sure what the thought process is in putting the 20 switches in the one location is. As long as you have power at each switch box and a switch leg from one of the locations it works great and you can use the 5 position switch as a switch or a scence control. I us the Aspire switches.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Buck Parrish said:
I take it you guys don't have much faith in RF technology.
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Gudenkauf Electric said:
...I'm not sure what the thought process is in putting the 20 switches in the one location is. As long as you have power at each switch box and a switch leg from one of the locations it works great and you can use the 5 position switch as a switch or a scence control. I us the Aspire switches.
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That was a little of my thinking. Why wouldn't I want a switch in the room where the light is? If you want master switch location someplace that is where the technology is nice, but I certainly don't want to have to go down three flights of stairs just to turn the bedroom light off before going to bed. People have forgotten about the simple things in more recent years.

A few years ago we got a grandfather clock - real one powered by the pendulum. My son who was maybe 13 at the time asked where the cord was.
 
ELA

ELA

Senior Member
Occupation
Electrical Test Engineer
Buck Parrish said:
I take it you guys don't have much faith in RF technology.
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Please clarify what it is you intend to install. Are they RF only or power line carrier as well?
Home automation can be great to have but some systems are still in the hobbyist realm.

Will the owner blame you if it is not reliable? For resale value I would agree with the others that have said to plan ahead in case they want standard switches at some point in the future.
 
G

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
111109-1325 EST

I would absolutely avoid PLC (Power Line Communication). An example is X10. RF is less iffy if really high quality, and if the actual power switches are electromechanical switches in gang boxes.

Many here do not like GE RR series relays for some reason. I don't know why. Maybe because they do not understand the system. My entire house has all switched circuits controlled by RR relays in gang boxes. These are 45 years old and have had few problems. Hard-wiring from the low voltage switches (about 30 V) to the relays provides the ability to do any sort of desire logical control with high long term reliability. I would do it no other way. For all switches on is up and down is off.

I have evolved the concept, but not developed the circuit, where the on-off switch could also be the dimmer control with no additional wires.

One improvement on the basic system would be to use coded switches, but still hardwired, to allow just 3 wires to many switches to provide the communication. I prefer 3 wires to just 2, even though 2 can be made to work. In the 3 wire approach 2 wires are power, and the third referenced to the other is the signal. This system can also include indicator lights.

One point about electromechanical relays is that power dissipation is near zero vs an on-state solid-state relay. Note: The GE RR relay is a mechanically bistable switch, and thus it only requires a small amount of energy to change state. Also its on voltage drop is very small.

.
 
D

DTLight

Member
Location
Mesa AZ
Cow said:
I've heard Crestron won't even sell you parts unless you go through their installers certification process?
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You can certainly buy the all the parts from a dealer, but the programming of the system must be done by the dealer or an authorized independent Crestron programmer. The switches will work for locally controlled on/off without programming, but will need a programmed processor to to be used as part of a system.
 
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