What to buy

Post by **francisb** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 9:05 pm

Hi Members,

I have be reading up on the forum, bit i cannot figure out what to buy.
Should i go for the CM11 for Xanura or rfxcom?
First i want to be able to monitor the power, gas and water consumption, my power meter as turning dics and a Enermet power led.

In the future i want to controll lightning and other stuff.

What should i buy for starters?

bedankt.

Post by **Snelvuur** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 10:12 pm

power gas & water => Rfxcom
future controlling lights => xanura (a cm11 can be used though, although xanura should be more reliable)

I would just start with something, and then expand, buying piece by piece, once satisfied about something you can do it for the rest of the house.

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Post by **DMB** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 11:10 pm

Francis,

For power and gas I advise a rfxcom receiver and a RFXmeter with RFXpulse modules.
For the moment I don't know a solution to collect data from a normal watermeter (Vitens), but maybe others have find some.

When you have to start of the beginning I advise a rfxcom ethernet interface with 2 ports, so you are able to expand your system with e.g. a Visonic receiver and a X10 transmitter.

I use the Xanura CTX35 (Ti203) X10 interface for 2 years now with very good results, but the CM11 is cheaper and a good alternative.

DMB

Post by **Digit** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:19 am

Hi Francis,

For water usage i would suggest a(n extra) watermeter with pulse output. You can connect those watermeters to either a RFXPulse module or a 1-Wire DS2423, whatever you like most. Just put these meters in serie with the existing watermeter. More information on how i monitor water usage can be found here.

I've never done anything with a CM11, all i can say is that a CTX35 (or a TI213 in my case) is very easy to work with.

Succes,
Robert.

Post by **francisb** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 2:15 pm

Ok, so i really need rfxcom to measure PWG (power, water and Gas) there are no devices who connect over the power grid to the X10 reciever?

Hmm i don not know if i like to use rf, its again a signal going through my house besides, cell phones and WAN.

Post by **rickk** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 11:21 am

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by francisb
 Ok, so i really need rfxcom to measure PWG (power, water and Gas) there are no devices who connect over the power grid to the X10 reciever?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Not that I'm aware of.

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
Hmm i don not know if i like to use rf, its again a signal going through my house besides, cell phones and WAN.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

To be honest, RF with an RFXCom appears to be far more reliable than X10, even in the presence of Wifi, cordless phones, etc. Reception of 433mhz is excellent with the external antenna, I'm receiving X10 RF and weather sensors from several houses away, while my TM13 (RF->X10 module) struggles to receive my whole house.

Also, remember that with X10 you can send about 1 message / second over the powerline, which blocks all other X10 communications at that time.

Sending lots of sensor output over the powerline might very well incur severe delays for X10 commands to your lights and things.

In any case, I'd definately go for an rfxcom for your monitoring needs. It can do everything you want right now and a lot more if you want to expand your system. Also, it's easy to obtain support over here or from the manufacturer and all in all it's a nice and clever product. Probably the best investment in my HA system so far.

- Rick