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Best home automation systems


MHaynes772
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So Im about to start 2 Custom New Construction homes for a friend and Im also about to start a couple spec homes. I am wanting opinions on the best option for home automation/smart home systems. I'd prefer a company that can do anything from a simple entertainment system for the living room to a full home automation for lights, pool, speakers, etc. Also, looking for a couple things as I mention below.

 

Here's the things that I am looking for in a system: (This is for new construction homes)

 

-Easy to learn and use. Very user friendly

-Budget friendly

-A system that allows a customer to pre-wire for future. If they can only afford a certain amount of automation/entertainment, but knows what they'd like to do in the future, then all the pre-wire is there for them to upgrade in the future.

-Consistency and reliability. I know some systems require a ton of maintenance and Im looking to avoid as much of that as possible.

-Security and safety. I have clients that want security cameras around the property, and just would like the peace of mind knowing that whoever installs the product wouldn't have access to those cameras. (Is this even possible?)

 

Right now in my home, I have ELAN home systems and Im fairly happy with it. My only complaint is the damn ELAN remotes constantly loose internet connection and sometimes have to be restarted.

 

Looking for any and all opinions! Thank you!

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Just moved into new home 6 months ago and wanted to set up home automation, which I did through Magnolia....have a home theater and a game room that can now be controlled through my iPhone using the “Control 4” app. I also had them set up lighting control through our whole house so all lights can be controlled via the Ctl4 app. They basically switch out all the light switches and install Lutrons that are then programmed to interface with the app. Next phase I need to do is thermostats.

Happy with it thus far.

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Just moved into new home 6 months ago and wanted to set up home automation, which I did through Magnolia....have a home theater and a game room that can now be controlled through my iPhone using the “Control 4” app. I also had them set up lighting control through our whole house so all lights can be controlled via the Ctl4 app. They basically switch out all the light switches and install Lutrons that are then programmed to interface with the app. Next phase I need to do is thermostats.

Happy with it thus far.

 

HVAC wise We have the Carrier Infinity system. Has its own proprietary app and WiFi set up, which I’ve been happy with.

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Control 4 and Savant are both worth pricing. To do everything (video distribution, hvac, lights, cameras, door locks, security panel tie in, sprinkler and pool tie in, speakers in ceiling and in-wall) is easily into $70k-$100k plus, inclusive of the costs of the TVs, wall mounts, cable runs, speakers etc.

 

But once they fully spec everything out you can prewire for it all and can pick and choose what you actually do.

 

Basics could be: a central rack that everything is prewired to (instead of the usual method of running all the crap to your kids closet with a tiny ass panel); a main controller in the rack (the brain that runs everything), lights, couple of cameras. Prewire for video distribution but don’t pull trigger (pulling trigger for c4 means a video matrix, an audio matrix, an IO extender, putting all the cable boxes into the rack etc). I would do Ecobee thermostats (which also have wireless thermostats so you can program them to run off actual in-room temperature and not a hallway sensor) which can be tied into c4 with a driver. Get LG smart TVs that have their own Ethernet connection (and allow you to run Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube right from the Tv instead of going through a roku or an appletv or a DVD player with the app on it). Prewire for several outdoor security cameras but skip it (pulling trigger requires an NVR plus the cost of the cameras. Different prices for analog vs IP).

 

If I could do my smart home stuff over again I’d have done it differently. But I do like it. Just costs a bundle.

 

Check out www dot c4forums dot com for good info. Lots of dealers on there too.

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I did choose an open source solution, because :

 

- The main software is free, some add-on are not but they are cheap. I'm using a Raspberry 3, so the hardware cost is pretty low too

- It's always up to date

- It works with almost every single protocols and you can mix them

- You do whatever you want using the devices you want, the only limitation is yourself

- It's easily upgradeable

 

I'm using Jeedom, but there are many solutions available (Eedomus, OpenHab, Domoticz, etc...) The "bad thing" (which is a good thing to me) is that you have to do it yourself and it can be intimidating

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First of all don't use Magnolia!!!!!

 

Plastique sounds like you got lucky. I had them do my house and it turned into a 2 year nightmare that I had to get attorneys involved in. And turnover was horrible, they had a new manager every 2 months. And it still only runs at about 20%. I was supposed to have video/audio throughout the house, security, A/C, lighting, etc.... I can now only control video audio. They started with control4 and after having to comeback every week for nearly a year they said they messed up and choose the wrong system. Then they went to Savant. It was alot better than C4 but still had problems.

 

After another 6 months I finally had another company come in and they pulled the savant stuff out and put in Crestron. I was so burned out by this time I just told those guys to get all my TVs up and running and I would have them come back later to do the rest.

 

I have around $175K invested in all this to control TV and sound!! So I wont ever do it again. And besides technology is getting so good right now you do not have to. Seems like everyone is coming out with a system that can be controlled by your phone. I just installed a SONOS system in my gameroom and shop by myself. It is amazing and all controlled by my phone.

 

 

By the way, if anyone wants some Savant stuff let me know. I will make you a hell of a deal!

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Automation is a complete waste of time and money, I will never do it again, I wouldn’t have it for free.

so when building a new house, what do you recommend? individual apps, sonos, liftmaster, nest, ring etc

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so when building a new house, what do you recommend? individual apps, sonos, liftmaster, nest, ring etc

 

I had some sonos installed but other than that I keep it all simple and old school, automation systems are all buggy, if you want to live with a full time contractor on site by all means LOL

 

Ultimately I can switch my own lights on and off so I have no use for automation.

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I had some sonos installed but other than that I keep it all simple and old school, automation systems are all buggy, if you want to live with a full time contractor on site by all means LOL

 

Ultimately I can switch my own lights on and off so I have no use for automation.

Respectfully, you are out of your mind! At the very least, a decent size house needs lighting design/control and distributed audio/video.

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I had some sonos installed but other than that I keep it all simple and old school, automation systems are all buggy, if you want to live with a full time contractor on site by all means LOL

 

Ultimately I can switch my own lights on and off so I have no use for automation.

 

I agree with you Fortis. I own my own electrical company, and the house we are building they wanted all of that installed. Once they saw it in action they were unimpressed by it. Having 3 cable boxes for 10 TVs, needing special remotes and HDMI switches and volume control in every room for the speakers in the ceiling and controlling it from your phone, It's stupid. The only thing I can see having is the automatic shades If you have tall ceilings, a smart door bell, locks and smoke detectors. Other than that, lighting control is a waste to me. Way to much money for it. Put your TV on the wall, cable box behind it, sonos sound bar and sub and be done. They now make special wall mounted brackets for the play 1 that are nice if you want surround. But now you have whole home audio in every room with sonos. Ceiling speakers don't compare to the sonos, especially for ease of use with the sonos app. Some contractors also lock you in with their own license so you have to call them back to maintain it. If you want to get bent over and railed, go for the custom automation.

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Respectfully, you are out of your mind! At the very least, a decent size house needs lighting design/control and distributed audio/video.

 

My friend!!! I am like the soup nazi of selling houses :icon_mrgreen:

 

Respectfully a decent size house needs what I decide it needs in order to service my needs and make me money and so far considering that developing and building houses is more of a hobby for me than my core business I’ve been doing very well actually come to think of it much better than very well. My stuff sells before it hits the market because the core principle of making money out of real estate isn’t automation!

 

To answer your concerns, of course it needs those systems but why would they need to be automated?

 

Distributed audio/video (do it all the time but actually useless because even in my current house I do not use the system as designed everything is wireless) doesn’t need automation and for lighting you can employ very basic zone targeted light switching without having to automate it also for lighting there are plenty apps and smart lights out there wich would do exactly the same thing as full blow automation.

 

 

 

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I agree with you Fortis. I own my own electrical company, and the house we are building they wanted all of that installed. Once they saw it in action they were unimpressed by it. Having 3 cable boxes for 10 TVs, needing special remotes and HDMI switches and volume control in every room for the speakers in the ceiling and controlling it from your phone, It's stupid. The only thing I can see having is the automatic shades If you have tall ceilings, a smart door bell, locks and smoke detectors. Other than that, lighting control is a waste to me. Way to much money for it. Put your TV on the wall, cable box behind it, sonos sound bar and sub and be done. They now make special wall mounted brackets for the play 1 that are nice if you want surround. But now you have whole home audio in every room with sonos. Ceiling speakers don't compare to the sonos, especially for ease of use with the sonos app. Some contractors also lock you in with their own license so you have to call them back to maintain it. If you want to get bent over and railed, go for the custom automation.

 

Completely agree, you can centralize it all within each room and it works a hell of a lot better, much simpler and easier to control, I always employ the KISS principle.

 

People get sold on, ohhh but you can open your house from your mobile phone while you are overseas on holiday, first of all why would I want to do that?

Service staff have their own specifically assigned codes to enter they just need to type them in and second of all I can’t think of anyone I’d want in my house while I am gone when I didn’t trust them in the 1st place with their own specific assigned code LOL

 

Got to run, no jokes, in 20 min I actually have to meet the contractor at one of my new house projects to tell him what I want in terms of electrical design, lighting, security, audio/video/data, etc :lol2:

 

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Flame suit on first... Aside from the novelty and bragging rights; and perhaps (just perhaps as it might actually work against you) for resale value, home automation by majority is pointless. I will admit that I belong to the esoteric minority for audio and video excellence but home automation does throw a curve ball onto the overall quality on a quality AV system. There is no "universal language" that applies to all systems; everyone has their own "proprietary software". They are far from perfect. Consider a simple home theatre analogy. Get an universal player that plays every available silver disc on the market (CD, SACD, DVD, BD, 4k HDBD etc...); connect that to the latest AV receiver which does everything (3D, 4k, Dolby Atmos, DTS HD etc...) using the latest HDMI v.2.1 cable. If both machines sync up properly and play each disc without any glitch in sound or picture every time, I'll eat those discs. And that's suppose to be universal and mutually agreed by a consortium of manufacturers. Now apply that to home automation which have less agreement and lacks an universal coding and you know where this is going.

 

I get the part for home theatres where it can dim the lights, lower the curtains, the projector and the screen part. Although from an esoteric perspective a fixed screen and a fixed projector mount will always offer a more precise alignment thus yielding a better picture. Having a centre hub that controls all the lighting, HVAC, pool, locks etc... seems excessive. Have we gotten so complacent or outright lazy that we can't even walk a few steps to flip a switch or turn a dial? Subject to the climate as well as craftsmanship, wiring will oxidize and corrode over time. Good luck isolating and replacing the bad ones. Upgrades or swapping to something different will also be limited; do not believe in the plug-and-play BS. Given the immature tech and rapid development, there is no such thing as "wired for the future". Data transmission rate would only get higher and faster and consumer-grade cabling or even wireless routers have their limits; they simply can't keep up. E.g.: HDTV broadcast (1920 X 1080P) is almost in everyone's home, but some Blu-ray discs and online streaming are already in 4k (3840 X 2160P). Coming this fall, Japan will launch a trial 8k (7680 X 4320P) broadcast. So do we replace all the cables with higher bandwidth ones or buy a better router? Even wireless transmission will have a wire somewhere within the chain and chances are it will not support the new bandwidth. Ok, we don't need the esoteric wiring for lighting, HVAC and locks etc... Again, is getting up to move a few switches/dials so difficult? It's a very slight convenience at best and it's a novelty which will wear off. Given the potential headache and weighing in the pros and cons, I for one am not a fan of home automation. :turboalex:

 

 

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First of all don't use Magnolia!!!!!

 

Plastique sounds like you got lucky. I had them do my house and it turned into a 2 year nightmare that I had to get attorneys involved in. And turnover was horrible, they had a new manager every 2 months. And it still only runs at about 20%. I was supposed to have video/audio throughout the house, security, A/C, lighting, etc.... I can now only control video audio. They started with control4 and after having to comeback every week for nearly a year they said they messed up and choose the wrong system. Then they went to Savant. It was alot better than C4 but still had problems.

 

After another 6 months I finally had another company come in and they pulled the savant stuff out and put in Crestron. I was so burned out by this time I just told those guys to get all my TVs up and running and I would have them come back later to do the rest.

 

I have around $175K invested in all this to control TV and sound!! So I wont ever do it again. And besides technology is getting so good right now you do not have to. Seems like everyone is coming out with a system that can be controlled by your phone. I just installed a SONOS system in my gameroom and shop by myself. It is amazing and all controlled by my phone.

 

 

By the way, if anyone wants some Savant stuff let me know. I will make you a hell of a deal!

 

I will add to this and say you are right that I did get lucky since all works well. But, Magnolia’s service does suck! It took a while for them to finish. But now I’m super happy.

 

Wow this thread took a spin. All I can say is that for the size of my house and controlling the home theater and game room, I could Not live without automation. I can control 50 light switches and set lighting scenes. It was a pain in the ass when my kids or someone left a light on downstairs and whatnot. It’s convenient when I drive home and switch on the master bedroom or foyer lights.

For those of you that say Sonos is better than ceiling speakers, you’re on crack lol! I’ve had Sonos at my old house and it was good. But my game room and theater room with ceiling speakers and surround reverberates the room.

Call me lazy but I Highly recommend Ctl4!

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I will add to this and say you are right that I did get lucky since all works well. But, Magnolia’s service does suck! It took a while for them to finish. But now I’m super happy.

 

Wow this thread took a spin. All I can say is that for the size of my house and controlling the home theater and game room, I could Not live without automation. I can control 50 light switches and set lighting scenes. It was a pain in the ass when my kids or someone left a light on downstairs and whatnot. It’s convenient when I drive home and switch on the master bedroom or foyer lights.

For those of you that say Sonos is better than ceiling speakers, you’re on crack lol! I’ve had Sonos at my old house and it was good. But my game room and theater room with ceiling speakers and surround reverberates the room.

Call me lazy but I Highly recommend Ctl4!

 

Your home automation works? That’s two things you don’t normally read in one sentence, go buy a lottery ticket :icon_mrgreen:

 

Jokes aside, 50 light switches, I have more than 100 and I manage them all with light sensors, I don’t need to touch a thing when I get inside the house and they will always switch off behind you so you never have to worry if you’ve left lights on.

 

I am a huge sucker for gadgets, not embarrassed to admit it so as you can imagine I have a bit of experience with home automation systems (I wish I didn’t) , another thing about me, I don’t things by halves LOL

 

Sooo long story short, I had a very advanced home automation system installed, it controlled the blinds to lower them up and down depending on the position of the sun, controlled the electric windows to open them in order to let out hot air and allow brezzes to flow (wired to temp sensors) everything was linked in, lights, pool, sprinkler system, alarm, cameras, front door, lots of other useless unnecessary features I’ve never used.

 

I am actually embarrassed to tell people how much I spent and so I won’t, I hated that house because of the automation system, it never worked properly, the tech was there so many times and for so long I was considering charging him rent.

 

I will never do it again, basic lighting automation I don’t mind but linking all the other unnecessary things in and spending 6 figures on a setup it’s plain stupidity in my book.

 

At the end of the day there is no right or wrong it all comes down to personal preference and what works for you, we are here just sharing experiences so we can hopefully learn something from each other :icon_thumleft:

 

https://au.trustpilot.com/review/control4.com?stars=1

 

Some like it most seem to have some sort of issues.

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I definantly can agree with Fortis on many levels. You can become a slave to all your automation. Resetting sensors. Having to call in multiple people to do simple repairs. For example when I had my Crestron system I needed to have a programmer reprogram it every time I wanted a new VCR ( ya it was that long ago) or add a component.

 

I had a nest thermostat at my place of business. We have the A/C and heaters serviced at least2-3 time a year. The service guy was playing around with the thing for 20 minutes to bypass and turn it on for testing and then to turn it off. They charge by the hour so if you add up all this playing around every time they do a service call it definantly offests whaterer energy costs you save. I said enough and went back to the old mercury thermostat. Too much bullshit.

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I definantly can agree with Fortis on many levels. You can become a slave to all your automation. Resetting sensors. Having to call in multiple people to do simple repairs. For example when I had my Crestron system I needed to have a programmer reprogram it every time I wanted a new VCR ( ya it was that long ago) or add a component.

 

I had a nest thermostat at my place of business. We have the A/C and heaters serviced at least2-3 time a year. The service guy was playing around with the thing for 20 minutes to bypass and turn it on for testing and then to turn it off. They charge by the hour so if you add up all this playing around every time they do a service call it definantly offests whaterer energy costs you save. I said enough and went back to the old mercury thermostat. Too much bullshit.

 

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I agree all the stuff they sell you on you never use and it’s the most likely to break. But Crestron has been totally bulletproof over the last decade for me.

 

Not lightning proof though, which rendered my house one of the worlds best tents for two days. But that’s another matter, just don’t connect your pool to your crestron system!

 

This has been a good thread, it made me think about what I appreciate and what has been fluff. I still appreciate every day the lighting system. I’d have 100 switches at the front door and spend an hour a day turning things on, off and the most important, dimming.

 

I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking it so lights come on at x minutes before sunset, at a certain level. Then as it gets darker, more lights come on at different levels to compensate. And the right light at the right level at the right time makes something nice, something magical.

 

Then having any sound and video available anywhere is also important but not exactly “automation.”

 

I want to build again as soon as I find suitable dirt so this has been great. Not surprising, Fortis is generally right that a lot of it is unnecessary but some I could not live without. I’ve seen 10k sq ft, $10M houses without the good stuff and it just seems cheap. I see 50 stitches at the front door and I’m out. What else did they cut corners on?

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CHADW I feel the enthusiasm in your post and I am very glad that the the system works for you and gives you exactly what you need but once burnt you tend to be overly cautious.

 

I’d like to clarify something, I am definitely not against automation when it comes to lighting that’s not complicated and most electrical technicians can put a half decent system together, that’s the part of the automation system you use 90% of the time, the rest of the unecessary fluff I can’t stand because it spoils the rest.

 

I don’t automate my lighting systems because I design them in such way that it works for me in a similar fashion doing it the old school way utilizing sensors, light switches with incorporated dimmers, digitally labeled light switches or just labeled light switches. It just requires me to get my ass of the couch every so often that’s all :icon_mrgreen:

 

I like using the Clipsal Saturn and Saturn Zen light switches, they look very good and I’ve never had one fail on me.

 

https://www.clipsal.com/Home-Owner/Products...yles/Saturn-Zen

 

http://updates.clipsal.com/ClipsalOnline/F...es/A0000291.pdf

 

 

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I will add to this and say you are right that I did get lucky since all works well. But, Magnolia’s service does suck! It took a while for them to finish. But now I’m super happy.

 

Wow this thread took a spin. All I can say is that for the size of my house and controlling the home theater and game room, I could Not live without automation. I can control 50 light switches and set lighting scenes. It was a pain in the ass when my kids or someone left a light on downstairs and whatnot. It’s convenient when I drive home and switch on the master bedroom or foyer lights.

For those of you that say Sonos is better than ceiling speakers, you’re on crack lol! I’ve had Sonos at my old house and it was good. But my game room and theater room with ceiling speakers and surround reverberates the room.

Call me lazy but I Highly recommend Ctl4!

 

Sonos is nice if you have some dedicated rooms for sound with real systems, where it serves as a digital input thru a nice DAC.

 

I think people equate Sonos purely as standalone systems with their speakers and that's not all they can do.

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For all the outside lights, we normally do a timer by the panel with a photoeye outside for the lights. On at dusk, off at whenever you want with the timer. Very simple and very cheap and bullet proof. Some home automation makes sense, especially for theaters. I also like water sensors down by the water heaters and sump pumps. But one client just got a $120k quote for smart home stuff. Seems a tad silly lol

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