Z-wave for switches in a new house?

Hi,

I have an existing house where all the switches are Insteon, and they work great. No problems.

However, Z-Wave has cheaper switches, and in general, more interesting devices available. What experiences have people had with 20-30 Z-Wave switches/dimmers in a house? I vaguely remember someone saying they keep on Insteon for light switches, but use Z-Wave for other things.

Thoughts? Thanks!

I have over 30 Z-wave switches, a few outlets and some other Z-wave devices.

I assume no problems with your setup? Thanks.

Great, thanks! I'm thinking I will load up on these:

https://www.amazon.com/GoControl-WD500Z ... mer+switch

GoControl WD500Z-1 dimmers. Good reviews, and $30 a pop looks good.

[jay (support)]

I still use Insteon switches, but primarily where I want direct links to other Insteon devices (plunger door sensors on pantry/closet doors linked directly to a SwitchLinc so it goes on when the door opens and off when it shuts, and KeypadLincs directly linked to FanLincs). I'm slowly replacing the other Insteon switches in my house with Z-Wave.

Be wary of cheap Z-Wave switches, as some of them don't report status and you have to poll them. If you are only concerned with control that may not be a big deal, but if you want to trigger other things on state changes of the switch then that can become a problem.

The HomeSeer switches also support multiple taps (how many depends on which switch) so you can use them as scene controllers as well. Indigo 7.2 will support the newest HomeSeer switches (including support for setting the LED colors independently and all tap combinations). The are somewhat more expensive though.

Indigo 7.2 will support the newest HomeSeer switches (including support for setting the LED colors independently and all tap combinations).

Note to self: There are some circumstances where Jay will say what is going to happen in the next upcoming release.

Indigo 7.2 will support the newest HomeSeer switches (including support for setting the LED colors independently and all tap combinations).

There are some circumstances where Jay will say what is going to happen in the next upcoming release.

There's a first

[matt (support)]

Indigo 7.2 will support the newest HomeSeer switches (including support for setting the LED colors independently and all tap combinations).

Note to self: There are some circumstances where Jay will say what is going to happen in the next upcoming release.

<Matt quietly unplugs Jay's cable modem>

The HomeSeer switches also support multiple taps (how many depends on which switch) so you can use them as scene controllers as well. Indigo 7.2 will support the newest HomeSeer switches (including support for setting the LED colors independently and all tap combinations). The are somewhat more expensive though.

Do you mean the HomeSeer HS-WD200+ Z-Wave Plus dimmers? (https://www.amazon.com/HomeSeer-HS-WD20 ... -Wave+Plus)

Those are pretty fancy. But also $50 compared to $30 for the GoControl switches I referred to earlier in the thread. If I'm buying 20 of them, that adds up fast.

Make sure they are compatible first. I looked and under switches, I didn't see them listed.

http://www.indigodomo.com/devices/category/3

Ug. Good point.

I just ordered two of the non-dimmer Honeywell switches, I'll let you know how they work with Indigo. I had a need for two anyway...I just moved my timeline up.

Thanks!

[jay (support)]

Jasco-based switches are the ones that I've seen not doing status updates. But that was several years ago, they may be better now.

The W*100 HomeSeer switches do double-taps, the W*200 switches (supported in 7.2) support up to 5 taps. Both are available and the W*100 switches are a bit cheaper than the newer version.

Indigo 7.2 will support the newest HomeSeer switches (including support for setting the LED colors independently and all tap combinations).

Note to self: There are some circumstances where Jay will say what is going to happen in the next upcoming release.

<Matt quietly unplugs Jay's cable modem>

LOL. Now, now, we do sometimes mention features that are coming once the work for them has been done and we're reasonably sure that it'll go in. Notice I didn't say when 7.2 was coming out...

[jay (support)]

Make sure they are compatible first. I looked and under switches, I didn't see them listed.

http://www.indigodomo.com/devices/category/3

Ug. Good point.

On/Off/Dimmer switches almost universally work. Some of the more special features (scenes/multiple button presses, LED options, etc) may not work or may be used via raw Z-Wave commands rather than in built-in UI.

I would buy one and give it a spin. If it does what you want then buy bulk. (Notice the big blue note at the top of the above referenced page... )

Late to the party here, but I have a Dragon WD-100 in-wall dimmer that is roughly comparable to the HomeSeer WD-100 (same hardware, different firmware) and it works great. They will report local changes but do not respond to an Indigo status request. Indigo also natively supports multi-tap functions. For example, if I double-tap my front porch lights, it activates my "Go to Bed" action and shuts down the house for the night. My other switches are all Leviton which are rock solid, but don't do anything but on/off.

[jay (support)]

By status updates do you mean if you manually turn the light on that Indigo doesn't know that the light was turned on or off? If that is what you're talking about, they do indeed provide updates. I just went to a switch and turned the lights on and off and here is the log message:

Code: Select all

Jul 30, 2018 at 7:06:06 PM
   Z-Wave                          received "Kitchen - under cabinet lighting" status update is on
   Z-Wave                          received "Kitchen - under cabinet lighting" status update is off

Excellent, that's great news. And you don't have it set to either not poll at all or poll only when activity detected (in the device config dialog)?

[jay (support)]

Late to the party here, but I have a Dragon WD-100 in-wall dimmer that is roughly comparable to the HomeSeer WD-100 (same hardware, different firmware) and it works great. They will report local changes but do not respond to an Indigo status request. Indigo also natively supports multi-tap functions. For example, if I double-tap my front porch lights, it activates my "Go to Bed" action and shuts down the house for the night. My other switches are all Leviton which are rock solid, but don't do anything but on/off.

Interesting. HomeSeer's W*100 line does respond to status requests (which should be base Z-Wave functionality). What do you get when you try one (maybe with debugging on?)