Insteon signalling is just weird

[apostolakisl]

I put up all my Christmas lights last week.  My house was working perfectish prior to that, but after plugging in my Christmas lamp lincs my system got pretty bad.  Seems like adding devices should improve com, not drop it, right?  So I swapped 2 of the lamplincs moving an older single band one where I had a new dual band and vice versa.  Now everything works great.   ????

[Teken]

I believe this is the *loading* ELA speaks about in other related threads. I personally have never seen worse COM's with more Insteon devices on the line.

 

I do however see more power being consumed in my home. Hence why I decided to rotate the devices for only time of use and wait to replace the larger power hogs with lower energy models which I just bought during this 4 pack special. 

[toflaherty]

Any tips on which are considered the worst power hogs vs which new versions are more efficient?

[stusviews]

Which LampLinc was the tree plugged into when you had communication problems? What type of load is the tree lighting, incandescent, LED, other?

[Xathros]

_{I too have experienced worsened comms after adding devices in the past.  This was back before dual band devices started to show up.  My solution then was to add an access point to the affected circuit and that always seemed to fix it for me.  Haven't had any recent issues that I can think of.  I have 5 AP's (2 at panel for bridging - 3 scattered for RF coverage) and about 65% of my line connected devices are now dual band.}

 

-Xathros

[Teken]

Any tips on which are considered the worst power hogs vs which new versions are more efficient?

 

All of the older Applianc Linc / Lamp Linc range from 1 - 1.45 watts. The newer equivalent are <0.75 watts. The older 2473S single band relay outlet linc consumed 1 - 1.22 watts, where as the newer dual band dual outlet model is indicated as <0.40 watts in the Advert.

 

The dual band relay dual outlet I have consumes 0.50 to 0.60 watts.

 

All of the older single band KPL / Switch Linc in my environment consume approx 1 - 1.25 watts. The newer KPL / Switch Lincs consume depending upon model <1.00 - 1.14 watts.

 

Surprisingly some of the (older) Filter Lincs consume anywhere from <0.7 - 1 watt?

[paulbates]

After I adding a signalinc to the electrical panel, I needed to remove an access point from a historically noisy circuit that always needed one. It took me a long time to debug because the last thing I thought I would need do is remove an access point to improve insteon communications.

 

What I noticed after removing the signal linc was less signal activity from the leds on the nearby switches once the access point was removed. Plugging it back in yielded 5 or 6 seconds of flickering.

[apostolakisl]

Which LampLinc was the tree plugged into when you had communication problems? What type of load is the tree lighting, incandescent, LED, other?

 

I had an older lamplinc (3 prong style) on the xmas tree.  It is led.  I had a new dual band lamplinc on a strand of garland (incandescent).  Then I swapped those 2. Before the swap my comm sucked.  After, it is now pretty good again.  I have 3 more older lamplincs on 3 other strands of garland.