Wired Smart Lighting

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
1

EDIT: read post 3. For context, one reason for posting this thread is because I am not happy with my Z-wave lighting setup.

Hey guys,

I have seen how Control4 does their lighting and really like the concept. It seems to make a lot of sense to run all high voltage romex to a central location and then run low voltage wires from there to your smart switches. that way the switches can be programmed to do anything rather than being tied to a specific light.

This type of setup obviously has to be done during the construction of the house but seems like a more professional way to do smart lighting than relying on a Z-wave wireless controller.

I am not a fan of Control4 in that it doesn’t allow for DIY an often looks down upon it (hence why I have an OpenHAB setup). Do any of you know alternatives to the Control4 lighting system that integrate with OpenHAB and operate on the same concept of centralized high voltage romex?

Thanks in advance.
JM

2

Available solutions may depend on where you are in the world,

I just replace some of my normal high voltage switches with Z-Wave ones, here in the US.

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3

Ya I’m in the US too and did the same thing. I have about 35 GE Z-wave switches around my house and am not thrilled with it so I posted this just to see what is out there either for this home or for the next.

Often what happens is I trigger a light, the the smart switch indicates that it received the command but the light itself doesn’t change. only way to fix it is to physically turn the switch off and back on.

Sometimes switches / lights never respond to commands and other times they take 15-30 seconds to do so.

I have tried everything I can think of. I have replaced my wave controller (Z-stick Gen5) and replaced half a dozen switches to no avail. I have a relatively small house and a lot of switches so I know the signal getting to the switches isn’t a problem.

I am open to suggestions but in the future I will probably go all hardwired.

4

What smart switches do you use?

5

I have started using Zooz mainly because they have helped us with openHAB support and have great customer service. You can also only need one of their switches in a 3-way circuit. The others can be your normal switches.

They have their own Z-Wave store at thesmartesthouse.com. The like having sales too, if you are patient.

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6

I am guessing you have lighting scenes configured. How quickly do your scenes activate? Is there any way you can take a short video of a scene activating?

7

Actually, I have not worked with scenes.

I know @5iver uses some of their products too and is working on his home configuration.
I do this mainly as a hobby and am getting involved more in helping a developer with some back end processing.

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8

Obviously I have to put Velbus forward as a great hardwired solution that works really well with openHAB2.

But…

As yet there aren’t any distributors in the US.

It’s a bit chicken and egg with any territory.
If people don’t ask about it, the retailers aren’t interested when we call to ask if they’d like to stock it.

Likewise, if the retailers don’t stock it, the buyers don’t see it.

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9

I have a clipsal c-bus system that works great, as someone stated above each saturn wall switch is connected to a data cable and fed back to the main control panel so a button or switch can be programmed to turn on lights or scenes. All works with Openhab and Alexa flawlessly. I also have Cytech Comfort Security system that is integrated and works with c-bus and Openhab.