I’m sure this question has been asked before, but tech changes and so do opinions, so I will ask again.
We are selling our house with all our current automation gear included, and we will be building a new house soon. 3 floors, roughly 5000sq ft. Basically starting over from scratch, bringing nothing automation wise from the old house.
I plan to have every switch and dimmer in the home to be controllable. These will be installed by the electrician during the construction process.
Door contacts on all Exterior doors and some inside. Motions in every room. I will install these.
So… What switch/dimmers to go with? I’d like to go with the best ones for the job, since I’m including these in the cost of the house I am not worried too about the cost.
EDIT
I guess I should point out that I have a combo of Zooz, Inovelli and GE now. and I do use quite a few of them to Triger other stuff. i.e., Double tap up in the kitchen sets the can lights to 50%, under cabinets to 40%, pendants to 7%.
Double tap off by garage door turns off all the lights in the house,
In short using the switches as buttons is a strong need.
I guess I should point out that I have a combo of Zooz, Inovelli and GE now. and I do use quite a few of them to Triger other stuff. i.e., Double tap up in the kitchen sets the can lights to 50%, under cabinets to 40%, pendants to 7%.
Double tap off by garage door turns off all the lights in the house,
In short using the switches as buttons is a strong need.
Definitely Lutron for controllable switches and dimmers.
I have been extremely happy with Nyce Zigbee door/window sensors - very compact and good battery life. Also happy with Nyce Zigbee motion sensors as well as Centralite (also Zigbee) motion sensors. For outdoor motion, the Philips Hue (also Zigbee) outdoor motion sensors.
I have several water sensors but I am not thrilled with any of them. I have one old Schlage lock that works but is kind of cranky so I couldn't recommend that.
You already know about Inovelli and their switches. That would be my choice. Lutron is pricey and I don't like the switch layout(mostly my wife told me, "WE" don't like it) Anyway my Inovelli switches are totally reliable and I see no need to introduce another point of failure-another hub, that's not cheap.
If price is no concern and you can live with the switch layout, it seems many here love their Lutron.
Caveat Emptor- I've purchased devices that are on the HE supported list and others reported liking, but the performance is very poor in my environment. Bottom line each RF environment is unique, and before I'd blow 3 grand on switches, I myself would get 1 or 2 and make sure they work for you, at the intended location. Odds are everything is fine, but recall RF is totally magic.
The other day after spending hours getting my Iris V3 keypad to pair properly, it was about 3 days after(keypad worked perfect for 3 days), the keypad decided to issue the "3 beeps I just paired notice" and bam I'm screwed the keypad no longer works. No one was near it, no one was in my hub, nothing was being paired or manipulated at the time. Did I mention it was fine for 2 years prior? About 6 weeks ago it freaked out with a channel swap on 2 hubs.
So like I said-magic
Well, That settles that. Between the incredible popularity(product of the year) and the supply chain issues.
Also Inovelli is making a Zigbee version of the "best smart switch ever"
Jasco/GE also have zigbee versions of their switches/dimmers, but they cannot be used as button controllers. I wonder if the iNovelli versions will permit that.
Congratulations! This will be an exciting journey, starting from scratch. I recently moved into late 1950's house and dream of how I would have done things differently.
If the aesthetic and functionality work for you, then absolutely look into the RadioRa or Caseta product lines. I have a special affinity for Lutron in general, but never fell in love with these.
Not sure if Zooz gains you anything for 3/4/5 way switch controls. The wiring will all be new, but using standard wiring configurations may facilitate future changes.
If you're starting from scratch wire cable to each door contact and window contact. Why would you plan to have loads of battery devices!
Konnected is what you want for this it's local and can be Poe.
I would also wire cable to each motion sensor location. There are now 12 v ZigBee microwave and PIR detectors out there, which is a game changer.
Power all this with a security panels back up supply and you have a really decent setup, creating a network backbone without having to change battery's.
beat me to it - but I did know that would be the answer
Lutron RadioRA2 would be my suggestion as well for a house this large. 100% reliable and very high performance.
