[Hai-users] Smarthome Insteon vs. HAI UPB

[Justin Matlock]

Okay... So there seem to be a lot of new technologies out there these days
that are replacing X10.

HAI just started shipping their UPB dimmers, and SmartHome just started
shipping their Insteon SwitchLinc dimmers.

Other than the obvious ³HAI supports their own switches in firmware² issue
(I suspect they¹ll be adding Insteon support), does anyone have any opinions
on either switch type?  I¹ve got such a mix right now ‹ ACT, Compose,
SwitchLinc ‹ and I need to start consolidating to a single brand/type
because of the weird mismatches between brands (as far as scenes/etc goes).

I¹ve played with Insteon ‹ I just ordered (but have yet to install) two
dimmer switches.  I¹ve been playing with the actual lamp modules for quite
some time now, and have been very impressed with the reliability (they turn
on *every* time I hit the button) and the scenes.  Also, the X10
compatibility makes them work with my existing HAI OP2 without adding any
extra modules.  In fact, they act just like regular SwitchLinc 2-way
switches when you program an X10 address into them.

What would be the benefit to going with HAI-UPB products?  It¹s not price,
since UPB is more expensive than Insteon switches (even via Worthington);
they¹re about equals on that.  Insteon has better looking switches (IMHO),
and the ability to change the LED color pipes is a really nifty (but
useless) feature that I like.

Rather than use straightforward scenes, it looks like HAI has adopted the
weird Compose Œrooms¹ concept, which I still haven¹t found terribly useful.
It seems much easier to just assign individual addresses to each scene like
SwitchLinc and Insteon do...  On the flipside, perhaps I¹m not understanding
exactly how to implement the HAI-UPB scene/room/master functions...

Of course, I have no idea how Insteon will integrate with the OP2 (or if it
will) since it doesn¹t have visible addressing (there¹s no ³a1², ³a2², etc).
But SmartHome says the home controller will be able to ³download² the scene
information from the existing switches in the house once an interface is
installed (no idea how they plan on doing that one)...

Comments?  Thoughts?

Justin
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