Because it is 1000 miles away from our principal residence, we are not able to fly down to our Florida vacation condo for extended periods, maybe only for a long weekend in a typical month. Other family members will use it a few additional weeks a year, but we do not rent it out. The condo is vacant much of the time, so we like to be able to monitor conditions there, especially when maintenance and delivery people are allowed access.
The main automation system is a Vera (1) installed in a central closet. It, a router/wireless AP, and a cable modem are protected by a UPS, and the breaker box has a whole-house surge protector. The condo’s lighting and ceiling fans are controlled by 42 Insteon switches and modules. There are also a few Z-wave switches. Walk-in closet lights and vent fans are on wall-switch timers, and are not remotely controlled. I do not have lights programmed to activate while the condo is vacant because all windows are covered by closed storm shutters.
There are also two Trane Z-wave thermostats controlling the two zones of the condo.
The Vera also controls a Schlage latch and deadbolt on the front door. The Schlage locks are programmed to send an e-mail to my mobile phone when a (correct or incorrect) PIN is entered, or the deadbolt is locked or unlocked. I am not using UI4, so I can still schedule and change access codes from my mobile phone. Each family member or user has a different access code, so my mobile e-mail might read something like, “Event-PIN CODE ENTERED UserName=”Maintenance” Device-Front Door Deadbolt Room-Foyer Date-2010-12-01 15:21:14”. This status message is usually received within 30 seconds of the event’s occurrence, but is not 100% reliable.
I am using a Panasonic wi-fi PTZ camera homed in on the inside of the front door. It can be monitored from my mobile phone, so I can visually verify who is entering the door and follow their activity in a limited space after receiving the notification of a door event. A sensor at the front door turns on a light there when the door is opened, and the activation of remote camera monitoring turns on additional lights.
My mobile phone, iPad, and laptops all have control ability for the various switches, modules, thermostats and locks.
The Vera system has been very reliable for 15 months now. The system radiates well through metal-stud walls over a 100x35' area. On a single occasion, a power interruption caused the Vera's Insteon modem to lock up, so I lost all remote control of all those switches and modules until I was able to travel to the condo and physically reset it. I have now installed a Z-wave relay module controlling the Insteon modem so I can remotely do a hard reset.
The condo’s burglar alarm system is a GE product, but I plan to eventually change it out for an Elk system, which I have used in our other homes because of its reliability and flexibility to interface with Vera. Activation of the alarm calls my mobile phone.
I have also installed a Sensaphone 2800 wireless monitoring system as an independent backup to the other systems. It has two wireless temperature sensors, a wireless motion sensor, a wireless humidity sensor, and a wired humidity sensor. If any of the sensors go out of limits, the Sensaphone will seize a phone line and call a list of phone numbers until an acknowledgement code is entered. It is also possible to call the condo’s phone and enter a PIN to hear a report of sensor values or change limit settings. The 2800 also has a microphone for loud noise detection and has a battery backup to allow it to call if it detects a line power failure. Sensaphone now has a new model which uses the web for notification.
In the future, I want to find Z-wave switches capable of controlling eleven sets of electric storm shutters. The switch must fit in a wall box, and control 120 VAC via SPDT, preferably with the equivalent of center off – or power up, power down, and power off. The Somfy blind controller products are close, but not ideal.
I have also considered putting Z-wave actuated valves on the main water supplies (in our case, both cold and hot from a central boiler).