Leaving behind my Insteon, new home

[Guest]

I haven’t seen this question before, only vaguely similar questions. 
 

I am in the process of selling my home that has a ton of Insteon switches and keypads. I run an ISY994, which is now sadly end of life.

My new home is MUCH smaller, and I’m using a Hubitat device there, with a combination of Z-Wave and Zigbee devices and it seems to work well.

Here’s the question, and I realize it’s very basic. If I pull the ISY out of the old house (due to the probability that the new owners will NOT be tech savvy), will the existing switches continue to work as they do (i.e. - they maintain their link tables and scene information)?

I’d feel more comfortable if this is indeed the case, and if any switch or dimmer fails in the future, the new owners can simply replace with a normal ‘not’ smart switch or dimmer.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[kzboray]

The basic answer is yes, switches will continue to operate as they are currently configured without the ISY994, however if the new owner were to replace a switch for any reason, and that switch is the load controller for a 3-way system, the entire scene would now fail. Or if they replaced even a non-load control switch in a 3-Way the wiring wouldn't support it and all switches would again need to be replaced at the same time.

Any replacement of a switch that is part of a 3-way system would necessitate the replacement of all switches in that system and changes to the wiring.

And if you have a scene controlled by an 8-button or 6-button keypad and they replace that to add a switch to control the load it is attached to, then all kinds of mischief will ensue. Every scene on all 8 buttons would be affected. It just snow balls over time and the new owner will get upset.

I've had client homes sell and sold homes myself with automation intact. I will never do that again. The headaches that followed were very time consuming. It would have been easier to just replace all the hardware myself and walk away.

Edited May 25, 2023 by kzboray

[Guest]

Thank you for your reply. It’s what I suspected, and I’m inclined to agree with simply pulling everything out and replacing as original.

Sadly, I don’t thing I have the runway to do all of that work myself, as my move was work related, and rather sudden.

 

[Andy P]

I was in exactly your situation and decided to take the ISY and leave all the switches installed. My logic was that they worked fine and just as good as a 'dumb' switch or dimmer. The new owner can choose to use them as smart devices or replace them. It has been three years now and no complaints from the new owner. I did not have any scene controllers installed, so that made the decision easier.

Andy

[dakall]

Same here; I removed the ISY and all the switches worked as switches. I did have a couple of 8-buttons that were used to trigger programs/scenes which obviously wouldn't work without the ISY. So I installed a couple of dimmers in their place and paired them with other switches that seemed to be a logical 3-way set up.

[brians]

Why not just leave the isy so they have option at least. it is possible they could figure it out or know someone that could. What good is it anyways now you have hubitat? 
 

[Guest]

Thank you all who have commented. Sorry my reply comes late, work and work travel got in the way.

@brians, I certainly have no issues with leaving the ISY behind. It's not like I am looking to take it to my new home. I have 2 major concerns related to this:

1. I do NOT want to be forever beholden to the new owners of my house and have to provide never ending technical support. (You KNOW that's going to happen!)

2. My wife, who is a top Realtor as well as the co-owner of my house is a perfectionist. She always complains that if something were to happen to me, she wouldn't know how to 'operate' the house. I know that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but she's very old school in this way... if SHE can't understand it, she doesn't want to assume that anybody else can understand it either.

So... hence my question about pulling the controller out, and leaving the swtiches to die a slow death over time when it's no longer my problem.

On the other hand, now that I'm thinking about it, I could always upgrade the entire lot with EISY, keeping everything intact as is, but with full support not going end-of-life, and roll both Insteon and Z-Wave into the mix. If I do that, I'll have to consider it part of my cost of selling the house, but my wife won't be very happy with that idea...

 

Lots to consider here.

 

Thanks again!

[kzboray]

Just a quick follow up to leaving the ISY994 in place or some other device that supports remote access. Not everyone is tech savvy, bu those that are will want guaranties that you no longer have remote access. So you need to not only leave the ISY994 / eisy in place but you need to transfer accounts to their name. That includes any node servers / modules you might have purchased.

The last person I did this for sued me for support after the fact. The home was sold as is and even included a stipulation in the contract that any future home automation support would be charged at a rate of $125 an hour (I didn't want the job).

Instead they simply sued me and demanded on going support for free while also suing me for damages because I hadn't transferred the Elk module to a Node server on a newer device.

All of this was explained to them in writing and in person and they still got pissed off a couple of months later when they couldn't access the alarm to make changes. Not my problem at that point, but I did end up spending money and time dealing with the suite.

I recognize this is a worst case, but because I lived through it I am now a strong advocate for simply yanking the HA equipment and never looking back.

[PatPend]

I appreciate everyone's insights as I've been pondering this situation myself recently.  When I move I won't look forward to replacing dozens of switches and outlets, but I'll be glad I saved all the originals in a box.

[upstatemike]

14 hours ago, PatPend said:

I appreciate everyone's insights as I've been pondering this situation myself recently.  When I move I won't look forward to replacing dozens of switches and outlets, but I'll be glad I saved all the originals in a box.

Dozens is no big deal but some folks have hundreds of devices intalled over the course of many years. I guess they better allow at least a full year to remove and remediate everything to work with no automation if they are thinking of selling their home.