Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Houston
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 06-27-2016, 05:24 PM
 
14 posts, read 15,959 times
Reputation: 15

Advertisements

Hi all,

I was curious if anyone knows of a reputable place to retrofit my house for full automation. I can probably do it by myself with some research but was curious if there is a business here that specializes in this field.

House:
3 stories
4100 sqft

I'm planning on the following:

Amazon Echos (I'm assuming I'll have to have a few)
Smartthings Hub
Philips or GE wifi bulbs (would like motion sensors)
NEST
Possibly integrated into a some surveillance/security system
Anything else that is unknown to me....

Thanks!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 06-27-2016, 06:53 PM
 
Location: Sugar Land
2,465 posts, read 5,795,438 times
Reputation: 2733
That's not full home automation mate :-)

Look at Insteon and Z-Wave. My house is fully automated to the point where I can control almost everything, water, gas, sprinkler, drapes, doors, alarm, thermostats, media, pool, lights, leak sensors, cctv, satellite & tv, voip pbx, file shares, music and movie library, crap I lost track of all the things I can do. Is all DIY and integrated on top of Unix custom platform (all in perl and C++). All I had to do is make sure there was structured wire bundle in every room, by every door, by every window, by ever corner of my house, inside out. I think I have about 2500 FT of structured wires in my house and I still have 2 spools left There are open source and private products to help you with the integration part. My job was quoted from $45K to $60 by few companies. I've done it on 10K with the DIY approach.

One thing to remember is that a BEAST like this requires a lot of maintenance like hardware, software and even mechanical stuff. That adds serious $$$ to the overall cost. I also do the maintenance part by myself.

And lastly there is the security aspect to it. If you don't know what you're doing you can be in a world of pain if someone breaks into your automation system :-)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-27-2016, 07:51 PM
 
14 posts, read 15,959 times
Reputation: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by ethanw View Post
That's not full home automation mate :-)

Look at Insteon and Z-Wave. My house is fully automated to the point where I can control almost everything, water, gas, sprinkler, drapes, doors, alarm, thermostats, media, pool, lights, leak sensors, cctv, satellite & tv, voip pbx, file shares, music and movie library, crap I lost track of all the things I can do. Is all DIY and integrated on top of Unix custom platform (all in perl and C++). All I had to do is make sure there was structured wire bundle in every room, by every door, by every window, by ever corner of my house, inside out. I think I have about 2500 FT of structured wires in my house and I still have 2 spools left There are open source and private products to help you with the integration part. My job was quoted from $45K to $60 by few companies. I've done it on 10K with the DIY approach.

One thing to remember is that a BEAST like this requires a lot of maintenance like hardware, software and even mechanical stuff. That adds serious $$$ to the overall cost. I also do the maintenance part by myself.

And lastly there is the security aspect to it. If you don't know what you're doing you can be in a world of pain if someone breaks into your automation system :-)
Sounds great! What companies did you inquire?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-27-2016, 08:03 PM
 
Location: Tricity, PL
61,745 posts, read 87,217,162 times
Reputation: 131746
Automating everything in life may sound extremely appealing, but sometimes a good old-fashioned flip of the switch is a lot easier than reaching for your smart phone to turn lights on and off. Before you decide which system is right for you, think about how far you really want to take home automation in your household. No matter how strong the digital security measures taken, controlling your home over the Internet is always a risk because of hacking. That may not matter for controlling your lights or blinds, but you'll care a lot more if someone hacks into your video monitoring system, and can see what's happening inside your house.
Also be aware that not all smart devices use the same technology, and therefore they don't all work with the same platforms.

So, do some research to ensure that all your devices can talk to each other. Take obsolescence in consideration, and the fact that (like with your other electronic gadgets) you will be forced to upgrade your system quite often.
Also remember that home automation operates on power. Have ready Plan B in case of power outage, or severe weather threats, and make sure your Internet is always fast and reliable in any weather. It's Houston with floods, winds and other weather extremes...

Some automation is surely convenient, but I would rather invest my money in something else.
https://trustedpros.com/articles/ele...omation-system

Last edited by elnina; 06-27-2016 at 08:12 PM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-27-2016, 08:42 PM
 
693 posts, read 1,108,610 times
Reputation: 1764
Be wary of automation. Only bad things can result from giving the machines too much input about our habits.

Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-27-2016, 11:15 PM
 
115 posts, read 147,222 times
Reputation: 84
This technology is changing quickly. There will be more and more new and improved products on the market. I don't know if I would want to invest $60k in something I'll want to upgrade in 6 months.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-28-2016, 06:49 AM
 
504 posts, read 1,151,068 times
Reputation: 467
Quote:
Originally Posted by 979Texan View Post
Be wary of automation. Only bad things can result from giving the machines too much input about our habits.
Truth.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-28-2016, 07:00 AM
 
Location: New Caney, TX
672 posts, read 848,012 times
Reputation: 737
I kept things pretty simple at our house as far as automation goes. We have the 3 Amazon Echo's, Schlage door locks, Nest thermostats, Rachio sprinkler controller, Zwave garage door controller, Zwave lights, ceiling fans and leak sensors around the house. As well as the use of presence sensors and geo-location on my and the wife's phone so that things can turn on/off depending on whether or not we're home. Right now, it's all controlled by Nexia and slowly migrating over to SmartThings.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-28-2016, 07:38 AM
 
Location: Houston
581 posts, read 615,554 times
Reputation: 507
I setup my own Z Wave system in the new house, but only wanted a few bits of functionality. My thermostat and alarm are already accessible via smartphone apps so I left them as they were. The two things I really wanted access to were a handful of lights to be able to turn on and off while we are out of town (to give the appearance of someone being home), and a few deadbolts and a garage door opener. The Z Wave stuff is pretty simple to setup and there are hundreds of video tutorials on youtube. All said, I've probably spent about $1500 total on all the gadgets needed. I used a Veralite z wave hub and it's been very easy to use.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-28-2016, 08:47 AM
 
833 posts, read 1,887,587 times
Reputation: 845
Our house came with a Honeywell alarm. Connected a bunch of ZWave switches and also did our doors and our Honeywell Tstat to a Honeywell VAM and Honeywell Redlink Gateway. Everything is under one app and makes things super easy. Used alarmgrid for a low monthly service with alarm monitoring for only $25 a month. You can even add cameras to the system if you want. The only downside is no Alexa support yet except for the tstats.

Yes turning off one light switch vs a smart phone is easier. But when you setup multiple lights at the same time or for a light to automatically come on a certain time is much easier. Also I can even have all lights turn off and doors lock when I go to bed or when I set my alarm system as I am pulling out of the driveway. Turn off the alarm system when I get home and certain lights are turned back on.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Houston
View detailed profiles of:

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 02:06 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top