Intercom and security integration and other questions

[draudio2u]

Hello,

I am designing a whole house system but have poor customer service in my area, so I am working it alone while renovating. I have wired up all the speaker zones, and ran CAT6 to any possible control area. Coax cable is still there from previous owner and I ran a few more to new TV zones. I have two questions before I enclose the walls:

1. Intercom. Is Control4 coming with a solution for intercom to front door? If so, will it require another control panel for microphone? I don't want to waste money on a sub system only to find C4 releasing an intercom system 6 months later. If C4 is not going this route, has anyone found a solution to integrate into the C4?

2. Security. Who is using wireless glass breakage and door entry with the C4? What is the solution and can you recommend manufacture? Also, is it necessary to have third party security monitoring company or can I preprogram the C4 to dial in case of emergency?

Other concerns are thermostat and lighting. I have seven different heat zones as part of the house is baseboard and others is electric radiant. Each electric radiant requires by code to have its own thermostat. I would like to get them integrated into the C4 system. Is this possible to do without purchasing a C4 unit for each zone (trying to save money on this one).

For lighting I am going with traditional dimmers (Litron), but like the options C4 provides. Is this a direct swap of the dimmers if I decide to go with the C4 dimmers? How about if I drop a 3 switch in place of three individual dimmers? Wiring concerns?

Thanks for all the help. :cool:

[thecodeman]

1) No one knows. No product announcement has been made in regards to intercom.

2) Control4 reads sensor states from your alarm panel. The sensors you use are going to depend on what panel you use. A lot of users use either the DCT series, GE Concord4, or Vista 20p alarm panels. If you want the emergency response teams to arrive in the event of trouble, you will want monitoring. Control4 cannot replace a monitoring solution and is not designed to do so - rather it is designed to allow you to program events in your automation off of triggers that are available through the panel's automation module. You can also see the state of contacts, motion triggers, etc through the on screen display.

If you are able to use the thermostats with your radiant heating, it will require a control4 thermostat to replace each normally used thermostat.

As far as wiring goes, it should be a simple swap. Not sure what you mean about a three switch - control4's three button keypad does not control a load so you would need three traditional switches at that place.

[akg4y]

I use the GE Concord 4 system and it seems pretty good. The only annoying thing is if you have status beeps on then when you arm the alarm to 'stay' (ie, you are still in the house but want the exterior sensors on) it beeps like every second for 45 seconds while the countdown is active. You can make it silent by pressing 5 first so its not a big deal just a little annoyance.

Also, wire the interior siren as an exterior siren otherwise it will give a little squeak with every status beep, also really annoying.

I would recommend the GE wireless longlife window sensors unless the size is a problem (make sure you know how big they are and your window profiles). The wireless glassbreaks and motion sensors are probably also a good idea, although I got mine wired (just depends on how much they are charging you to run the wire, if you can run it yourself I would do everthing but the windows wired). I would go with wired door contacts and make sure they dont drill the hole too close to where the weather stripping is or the weather stripping can keep the sensor from triggering when the door is opened. Finally, with glass break sensors you need to factor in where they are being located relative to the windows and based on the flooring etc, with tile floors the noise will reflect and trigger the sensor accurately, but gets dampened with carpet. Also in your living areas wire it so the glassbreaks are above the level of any couches that might block or muffle the sound.