Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Way to Turn your Home into a Smart Home, July 23, 2009
I've installed nearly 60 Insteon devices into our home, including many of these On/Off switches, similar dimmer switches, motion detectors, garage door sensors than can open / close the door, keypads, and thermostats for controlling the heating and air conditioning.
The house went from dumb to smart for a fraction of the cost of the high end systems because these Insteon devices communicate with each other (and your Mac or PC) via existing electrical wiring in most homes. They wire a little differently than typical switches in that where most switches are just connected to a ground, load, and line; these are connected to the ground, load, line, and neutral wires in the box. (Get an electrician to install them for you, it won't add much to the cost and will be the safest way to avoid inherent electrical dangers).
Our porch and exterior lights now turn on at sunset and off at sunrise (or earlier if we want) because our computer knows what time to send the on/off signal each day. When the kids leave the basement playroom, all 8 ceiling lights turn off after no motion is sensed for a few minutes. Same thing in the kitchen, and I'll be adding motion sensors to the stairway lights so that a nice, low light will automatically come on when we check on the kids in the middle of the night to avoid stumbles and falls (in the evening, the same motion sensor could turn it on but with full power).
My wife really likes the smart switches, which can be customized with engravings like "Exhaust Fan On" or "Movie Scene." Movie scene allows us to press one button that turns on four sets of lights around our family room, turns on the TV, sets the stereo and other components to their proper settings, then slowly dims to darkness as we settle into the couch.
You could even program this switch (or a keypad) to control heating or cooling. For example, instal one of these so that pressing up or down will raise or lower the temperature setting in that zone of your house one degree per press. It could be a permanent adjustment or could revert back to the "normal" or "energy efficient" settings after some period of time or until a motion sensor detects that you've left that room.
We love this system.
BTW, we run it using Indigo software on a Mac, which is great. PC software can integrate with it, too.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Smarthome Insteon Switchlinc V2 Relay, May 27, 2009
The product is sensitive to CFL noise. I used it to turn on and off 5 CFLs in parallel, sometimes it could not get the command to turn them off. Reducing number of CFLs to 3, it then worked fine.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent product, December 27, 2008
At the time of this writing I have 22 Insteon devices, including several SwitchLinc V2 Relays. I have had many of them for 2-3 years. Every one of them has worked flawlessly. I have a number of them located in an out-building several hundred feet from the main house. I can control the house lights from the out-building and visa versa.
I just installed 3 today and will install another 3 this afternoon, bringing my total up to 25 Insteon devices in my house. As time goes on, I plan to replace all my light switches with Insteon devices.
I highly recommend this product to anyone that needs a reliable and relatively inexpensive way to automate their home.
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