meoge Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 I've just had a control4 system installed in our home. We have an HC-800, Audio matrix switch and 2 12 channel Episode amps controlling 12 zones of audio. I have no lighting control at the moment, but would like to add something for our outside lights to get us started. I would love to just go with the C4 lighting dimmers and keypads, but the cost seems so high compared to things like Insteon or Lutron. The adaptive dimmer is $160+ per dimmer and I'm just curious if other people given a clean slate would think it's worth going that way vs some third party product? My dealer strongly suggest C4 and I'm sure that is the easiest thing to do, but I have to consider the cost difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ms2bmw Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 I have Lutron RadioRA2 for the entire house but not yet integrated with C4 and the cost of the 600W dimmer is way less than $160. Lutron uses a repeater to talk to the dimmers/switches which is an additional cost that you don't have to spend on a C4 system. PM me if you have any question on RR2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tokead Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 If you're just getting started, and you don't mind the old version, have a look on eBay. You can pick the dimmers up for $60 to $100 for a new one. Personally, I wouldn't spend more than $75. If I had to pay $160, it wouldn't happen in my house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 One thing to keep in mind when doing lighting other than C4 is that integration needs to happen twice - you need to set up the Lutron part, then get it all going within C4 as well.While this works well enough - final cost for ADDING an outside solution usually, in the end, is higher than going direct C4. On top of that, if you're not doing this yourself - or your dealer also deals in these - you'll be dealing with two separate dealers/installer, two points of failure etc. If you have a different lighting solution in place, integrating is great, if you really like the other solution for looks etc, all good. But if you're looking for 'cost reduction' - consider that it's not (always) just hardware vs hardware that gets you the end price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meoge Posted December 6, 2013 Author Share Posted December 6, 2013 One thing to keep in mind when doing lighting other than C4 is that integration needs to happen twice - you need to set up the Lutron part, then get it all going within C4 as well.While this works well enough - final cost for ADDING an outside solution usually, in the end, is higher than going direct C4. On top of that, if you're not doing this yourself - or your dealer also deals in these - you'll be dealing with two separate dealers/installer, two points of failure etc. If you have a different lighting solution in place, integrating is great, if you really like the other solution for looks etc, all good. But if you're looking for 'cost reduction' - consider that it's not (always) just hardware vs hardware that gets you the end price.That is essentially what my dealer said, but even they would admit they are a little biased since they will be selling me the C4 hardware. I just wanted a second opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanE Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 The other 'issue' with 3rd-party lighting solutions is that their scene functionality is not integrated directly into Control4's UI. Control4 has recently added Advanced Lighting scenes, which allow you to do a lot more with scenes, all native within Control4, and it works best (if not only) with Control4's lighting devices. I'm not aware of how 3rd-party devices could be integrated seamlessly. 3rd party scenes can certainly be *triggered* from Control4 vi Custom Buttons or Control4 keypads (or from the native 3rd-party keypads), but are not nicely integrated into Control4's UI. Whether that's as important to you as the savings in terms of cost of devices / install / etc., that's up to you. In many situations, that may not matter. The main reason I've heard that some people go with 3rd-party lighting as opposed to Control4 is a style issue, i.e. they like the look of the Lutron devices better than the Control4. With the 1st and 2nd generation units, color selection was quite limited with Control4, with 3rd gen, it's much better, although still not the selection of Lutron. RyanE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyknight Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 That is essentially what my dealer said, but even they would admit they are a little biased since they will be selling me the C4 hardware. I just wanted a second opinion.I'm not - I won't be making money off of you either way, and I've dealt with numerous lighting options over the years - and still do. Again, NOTHING against the other options, but if the reasoning is price - and it's all new install to begin with - you'll gain little to nothing (perhaps even end up paying more) while losing some small part of the functionality, as per Ryan's post above. If it's the "other's" style/look is you want - go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgbrown Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 Honestly, with the intro of the new lighting products from C4 there's no reason to look elsewhere. The fan controller and Dimmer keypad combo's are nice additions to the lineup as are the gloss and satin finishes. If you;re building (as opposed to retro'ing you look look at their panelized line-up as well. Two items II'd like to see added though - a canopy installed fan controller that allows control of the light and fan speed, and .... an in wall plug receptacle as the current outlet and dimmer modules are bulky and dated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homex Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Concur with RyanE. The other thing in addition to the scene integration that we have found is that in larger systems is that if the Lutron doesn't have enough repeater coverage (It relies on a main repeater and auxiliary repeaters which have to be strategically placed and work best daisy chained) it can be hit and miss with reliability in communicating with the controller. The C4 zigbee mesh eliminates this problem. With the latest generation, the finish and quality is as nice as the Lutron and color selection has improved significantly. They just don't have quite as many colors - if you're looking for Mocha Stone, Palladium, or Green Briar then it's going to be Lutron - for us it's usually some designer or decorator asking for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Miami Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Anyone having the Lutron ra2 integrated into Control4 with issues. The lutron system falls 'offline' and I need to go in a remotely put it back on. I believe C4 released an update which fixes this problem. Anyone else experiencing this and are there any ways to firm this up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitaltrader Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 As an end user I would 100% recommend the C4 lights as opposed to a third party for integration reasons alone. If price is a concern go with the older C4 lights from ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4sb Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Does anyone have experience with Insteon lighting? I've seen the driver on this forum that allows supposedly seamless integration, but I'd like to know if anyone would support that. Sent from my HTC6990LVW using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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