How clean?

How clean does the powerline have to be for X10 commands to work? I am buying a new house, but its very old. 100+ years, and god knows how old the wiring is. I would love to get into X10, but before I buy the program and the equipment I would love to know if it workss.

I know there is a free trial with Indigo, but I dont have any X10 devicies or transmitters to use it with.

Thanks for the help.

[matt (support)]

The cleaner the better. Hard to say if the old house wiring will cause a problem or not. My previous house was almost 100 years old, and I was able to get pretty reliable X10 signals. Of course, the wiring itself wasn't 100 years old, but it definitely wasn't new.

I've also seen people have problems with X10 signals in new houses, so I'd say that the age of the house/wiring isn't a determining factor. Having a repeater/bridge does help significantly if you do have problems, and some of the Smarthome modules are now starting to come with built-in signal boosters which should help.

I'd suggest you get a PowreLinc USB and a LampLinc. Once you move in, you can then move the LampLinc around to different outlets in the house to see how well it works.

Regards,
Matt