[ANSWERED]Which is best in this scenario, Z-Wave or Insteon.

Older 4 Story Building dense urban setting in Brooklyn NY.
Main Components to be housed on second floor.
Communication desired between 1, 2 and 4th floors, skipping 3rd.

Older wiring that is all over the place makes me nervous about Insteon over the wire, but the dense radio noise from a couple dozen wifi bases picked up and the two cab companies nearby are the other end.

Finishing up the audio/video stuff, which is all IR and IP. Moving on to the lighting.
Suggestions from experience appreciated...

I'm in the UK so z-wave is a different frequency here and can't comment on Insteon. I have an exceptionally high level of wifi locally, some of which are exceptionally strong signals and right across all channels. So much so that at Christmas I put a fully cabled network in to avoid the dropouts I was having. No issue with Z-wave though.

No taxi radio's nearby, so can't comment on that either.

HTH a little.

Mat

Thanks for the reply Mat.

I think I am going with the Z Wave.
What was throwing me off with it is I have a couple Modlet Set ups I got via the CoolNYC program. They use zwave i believe.
These were intended to use on AC units to participate in their energy program. A total waste of time. The premise is you leave the AC switched on and use the modlet to power it on and off. Trouble is, a my Acs are electronic control and don't turn on when power is applied. The other thing was they always loose the connection to the base. You also have to use thier web app to control
them.

I am spanning across four floors. The Second floor (Ground Level) is about 80' front to back, with the indigo host located near the front.
I am thinking I will need the zwave transceiver at the indigo host, a repeater at the rear of the first floor.
Should I put another Zwave transceiver on the fourth on a host or will a repeater suffice?

one important constraint to keep in mind: if you move the devices it is SOME effort with zwave.
The network is static and if you add or remove or move a device the network needs to be redesigned (by the z-wave controller I believe).
With insteon, you just move them to a new place, they "find their way home" on their own.

this is my understanding -- I have both

Karl

I'm in a three storey town house with indigo on the ground floor and will works on the top floor without fault.

I know NY Redbricks well and in comparison my internal walls are lightweight, so no issue with signal here. Not sure how the structure would affect signal with nice thick walls, but the z-wave creates its own network. I would guess if you have a good number of devices all should be ok, but thats a guess.

Almost all of my units (about 40) show up as neighbours to the others over all three floors so my signal range appears to be good.

Karl is correct about moving units - although I've not had to move anything YET.

Regards


mat

Thanks for the replies.
Went with the Z-Wave and have a few devices set up on the first floor. Haven't moved on to the upper floors yet, but so far so good.