jgolliher Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 Hi guys, my family is going to be building a new house specifically to accommodate my sister who is disabled. Our house plans are already roughly designed and the house will be around 3,500 square feet. In our current house, we have Lutron Caséta light switches which really helps her as she is able to turn off the lights with her phone. (She wants to be as independent as possible, so the ability for her to control her own lighting without having to ask one of us to help her really has made a huge difference for her.) My dad was a huge fan of it and in our new build wants to take it a step further. One of our family friend's did a huge remodel and add-on of their house and installed Control4 for their media centers and a few light switches. I am contacting our local dealer to kind of get an idea of what we are looking for, but I was hoping to ask the forums as well and see if you all have any recommendations and perhaps general price estimates, I am aware that nothing is concrete. I will outline what we are looking for and any help is appreciated. I want to help my family make their lives so much simpler as it currently is hectic and very difficult for them to live in our current house with a disabled child and stairs everywhere. To give a little bit more insight into the build, a rough estimate of total light switches that need to be able to be controlled is about 30. I have looked at Centralized Light Panels, but I believe we are open to anything. I do know that I will need to contact our local dealer but I thought you all might have some insight or ideas to help out in the planning process. Thank you for your time. (I will be using the Control4 Home Automation Project Planner for simplicity) What do you want to achieve with your automation project? Improve the function of our home Incorporate energy efficiency Provide added security We would want a camera at the front door and there will be a gate. Access and control from anywhere Home Theater/Entertainment We would like to control all devices with a single remote We would like the remote to also control other functions in the home (lights, temp, shades, security) Dad has a Nest, not sure what the Control4 option is like. We would like to be able to access media from the cloud to stream movies or TV shows Currently use Plex for this. Whole Home Audio We would like to be able to listen to music from anywhere in my home or business There will be multiple people listening to varying music in different rooms at the same time We would like to be able to control my music from a touch screen interface We would like to be able to stream music directly from my phone throughout my Control4 system Lighting We would like to have all lights turn off with one button press We would like to have shades or blind controlled with our same lighting controls We would like to be able to control lights from smartphone/tablet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowitall Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 I would recommend interviewing multiple dealers for a project that size. prewire to finish on something like what you've laid out I'm gonna say $70k +/- $10 for the low voltage and equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgolliher Posted July 2, 2017 Author Share Posted July 2, 2017 Okay, I appreciate the quote and details. I am working to meet with some dealers in the area. Is there a reference somewhere online where I can see the price of Control4's equipment? I'm sure it changes based on area and dealer, but just a base to look at would be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowitall Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 Control4 sets a MSRP and every dealer I know charges that. Looking at a list of prices isn't going to do you much until you decide what you're buying. A panelized lighting system will cost you more. An EA5 is $2k. Budget $200-500 per lighting load depending if you want a keypad if it's a 3,4 way switch etc. i don't know if there is a retail price list out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddy.trochez Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 What is the location? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 I have moved in to my new home and love my Control4. I can only comment on lighting and doorbell, plus streaming internet music, all I did, but the functionality is superb. As for lighting, IMHO there is no need for a panelized system. My dealer hid all the load switches in various closets around the house, avoiding wall acne and building a great ZigBee mesh. Then we followed the suggestion of @knowitall and others, putting ZigBee on Channel 25, so I have no WiFi interference problems at all. There is one elegant keypad in each room, looks terrific. I configured mine all identically button-wise: one large top button and 4 single buttons. Engraving is the key, think thru your scenes and their names. The scene names will appear on your handheld device, so get that right. I love controlling all the lights, inside and out, plus the streaming music, from my tablet (I am usually talking on my Android phone, so I use the separate tablet while talking!). When the doorbell rings I see immediately who is at the front door, on the tablet if I am at home, or on my phone if I am away. Again following @knowitall and others here, I added Amazon Echo Dot (three of them, one on each floor) and carefully laid out the mapping of Alexa Names to Control4 Names via the web interface. I also bought a cheap analog mixer from Amazon and mixed the audio output from Alexa on the first floor with the main stereo stream from Control4, got the volume ratio right, so Alexa now answers me via the sound system instead of her cheap speaker. Alexa can often work even better than handheld-device or wall-switch light control -- you now have all three methods available, and the use-cases are different. As I stumble to the bathroom in the middle of the night I hit a big button and get the perfect lighting path at a nice dim level (including turning on the bathroom fan, programmed to stay on a few minutes after I turn off the lights on the way back), too bleary-eyed to use my phone or tablet, and I don't talk to Lady A since that would wake up my wife (even though her name is not Alexa, she always wakes up if I speak). I smile every night as I do this! Not everyone here agrees with me on the next point, but I think I am right: insist on genuine Control4 switch plates, not generic. Control4 switch plates have no visible screws and do not get hot. Plus the quality control is perfect, unlike the generics, some of which pinched my keypad switches and made the operation far less-than-smooth. Good luck with your installation. Picking a dealer you "groove" with is key. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgolliher Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 19 hours ago, eddy.trochez said: What is the location? Knoxville, TN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddy.trochez Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 4 hours ago, jgolliher said: Knoxville, TN I'm in NYC, let me know if I can be of any assistance. Eddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowitall Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 I'm in The south, let me know if I can be of assistance ? Fwiw, you can use the 120v wires KP's with panelized lighting to help with zigbee and avoid having to deal with that wire that i can't think of the name right now for the comm loop. It's expensive and annoying to terminate. Panelized lighting is cool but need to be plannednwell. What I hate is ending up wth all these keypads just trying to make up operations / scenes to fill up buttons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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