what can elk do for me?

[someguy]

Here is my situation in a nutshell:

 

-I've got about 50 insteon devices, which include Motion Sensors, and an ISY that I enjoy programming.

 

-I've got an alarm system that has motion sensors, door switches and fire sensors. It currently calls the cops for break-ins and calls the Fire dept if a fire were to start.

 

-I pay about $10 a month for the monitoring service.

 

If I were to switch my alarm system to an ELK system, what would I gain? I would guess that I could "monitor" the system myself by having the ISY send me info, but I'd rather not rely on that. I'd prefer to actually have a service monitor me.

 

I'm guessing that I could use the alarm system motion sensors to turn on and off lights. Is there anything else that I'd gain?

 

thanks,

 

someguy

[brad77]

Until the ELK module is released, you are limited to having the ELK communicate with your INSTEON devices via your ISY. You're still fairly limited to what you can do, though, as the ELK is severely memory constrained with regards to how many rules you can create (rules being the ELK's nomenclature for programs).

 

I have rules on my ELK to turn on entry lights when returning home or turning off lighting when the system is armed to away mode. I have quite a few ideas stewing for when the ELK module is available.

[apostolakisl]

The Elk can do all kinds of things and do them reliably. As brad77 mentions, the Elk module for the ISY is a highly anticipated addition that would make those two systems hard to beat.

 

The Elk programming language/interface is not the greatest, but the module will allow (I assume) you to program in ISY only (which I think is pretty good).

 

For mission critical stuff, the Elk is going to let you sleap easy as compared to Insteon communications.

 

Pretty much go to Elk's website and see all of the stuff it can do. Voice announcements, email alerts, control of relays, phone call alerts, and other stuff. As you mentioned, you could monitor your own system with the Elk as it will call you on a voice line and report various conditions that you program it to as well as send you emails or texts about those events. My Elk, for example, emails me with every arm/disarm as well as alarms. It calls me to tell me if an alarm has gone off. I still have a professional monitoring company however.