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Shaun GormanFlag for Australia

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Best Home Automation technology brand to go with

Hi there,
I have had a go automating at home with x10 with reasonable success. I have my watering system controlled with solenoid valves, and some of my lights and power points controlled with it.
However the x10 technology is old and clunky and doesn't seem to be supported much any more.

Anybody had luck with more recent technology?
It is really fun to have but costs a fair bit to get into, so it would be cool to start off with something somebody else has had luck with.

I am interested in Clipsal Cbus which is pretty dear but seems good. I have never seen it working though. cbus does watering systems, lights, power points, you can run your music through it, and control it all from your phone or wireless switches programmed that fit on the wall.

Any thoughts?
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Hi TunerML,
Thanks for your thoughts.
So with Powerline transmitted vs wireless, have you had experience with reliability? With x10, when I would switch something on or off with x10 with fluoro lights they flicker, and with other things like power points they sometimes don't respond. That was also a problem with the watering system. The commands didn't seem to transmit with x10 sometimes. Have you had a better experience with wireless?
The other thing that strikes me is replacing the light switches with wireless ones.
We always had the problem with lights where if someone turned them off at the normal switch then x10 didn't work any more. You had to then convert to only turning them off with your phone or computer which wasn't all that practical.  With cbus at least I know you can get wireless switches that stick on the wall that become the manual way of controlling things like lights.
Does Z-wave or Insteon have that or a different way of looking at light switches?
Another thought might be even if anybody has seen reviews or sites that make comparisons of the different home automation products. Thanks Shaun
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