I am building a very large, high-end house (approx 14,000 ft.²). I use Insteon in my present house. My contractor and electrical engineer are encouraging me to use Lutron HomeWorks because it is hardwired and "bulletproof". It also seems to be the standard for similar high-end houses in our area. Neither has any experience with Insteon at all. The problem is: Lutron is about three-four times the cost of a similar Insteon-based system.

 

In either scenario, we would eliminate banks of wall switches in any room, locating them elsewhere (probably in various equipment rooms around the house).

 

I have been generally happy with Insteon, although I have had occasional communication issues and occasional switch failures (that required particular switches to be replaced). I do have a top notch Insteon expert to help me if we go that route.

 

So, should I listen to my contractor (who is very good) or should I try to save six figures and go with Insteon?

Woods,

 

I have personally done some very large homes and projects with INSTEON. One of the biggest home projects I did was a home in aspen with 800 switches and 4 ISY's. This said you have to have experience with systems like this to make them bulletproof or as close as you can to bulletproof. If the contractor is going to be responsible for it then you are stuck with letting him put in what he knows. Homeworks is very good but not bulletproof.

 

I would be happy to speak with you if you have additional questions.

I'm am electrical contractor and have worked on proprietary systems(LiteTouch, Lutron) and yes they are expensive and sometimes you have to hire their people to troubleshoot problems or program new hardware. You also have to buy the products from authorized resellers who know there's no competition and sell everything at list price. If you're comfortable with Insteon I'd say go for it. Even the expensive systems aren't bullet proof, I've spent days at a famous rappers house trying to fix problems, it got so bad his daughter didn't want to stay there because she thought it was haunted. Another drawback of proprietary system is you can't just override, or install a standard switch to make do till parts arrive.