X10 not working out..... discount Z-wave products?

[kevin1]

X10 is not working very well in my house, seems like I can only get power line control on a few outlets near my CM11.  I couldn't find any rooms in my house where a second lamp switch would work. 

I couldn't even get a WS4777 wall switch to work reliably on the other side of the room from my CM11.  The first few times I tried it, it worked okay, was able to toggle and dim from switch and RF remote.  Then it degraded, and now will not even dim from the wall switch itself.  The wall switch will toggle on/off every time, but HG or RF remote will only rarely toggle the light.   I don't have a phase coupler, repeater or amp; I don't want to invest any more in X10 at this point (unless really cheap maybe).

So... I may start looking at z-wave, are there any discount z-wave gear suppliers?  On amazon, it seems like each z-wave device is at least $40.  looks like the Aeon z-stick is the most popular USB. 

Thanks!

[bkenobi]

X10 is prone to difficulties for new users.  The issues are usually due to 2-3 common problems.

• Phase coupling (US only?)
• Noise/signal suckers
• RF range

If you connect to one outlet in a room and get 100% reliability but get 0% from another room/outlet, you most likely have the transmitter on one phase and device on the other.  Options are to move to the same phase for both or add a phase coupler.

If you have a phone charger/computer/surge protector/TV/UPS/etc near the thransmitter or module, then the problem could be noise/signal suckers.  Diagnose by unplugging those devices to check improved reliability.  If that works, fix by adding noise filters.

If you are using RF, understand that X10 devices have generally terrible range.  There are mods for some of them, but they are all pretty bad in my opinion.

For more help, check:
http://forums.x10.com/
http://jvde.us/forum/
http://tuicemen.com/forum/

[kevin1]

Monoprice has the lowest price z-wave door sensor I have come across, $25:
http://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=122&cp_id=12212&cs_id=1221201

[kevin1]

Door sensor $23
http://www.discounthomeautomation.com/s.nl/sc.17/.f?search=sensor&sort1=Item_ONLINECUSTOMERPRICE&sort1desc=F&range=97%2C120%2C646