Is it a practical solution in the US ?

I live in the New York area. I am currently planning a complete gutting and remodeling of my apartment. I am looking for a wired light control system and a CE-bus based system seems a good solution. All the necessary components seem available from Square D; however I don?t know of anyone using the system. Is it a practical solution in the US? Are the components really available? Is it easy to find an installer or perhaps can a regular electrician/cabler do it? If you have done it, please share the lessons learnt and your recommendations. Thanks.

 

Please note that C-Bus and CE-Bus are two different systems. The SquareD products use the C-Bus protocol and this forum is dedicated to products using the C-Bus protocol only.

Hopefully one of the guys in the USA will respond to answer your questions.

 

Thanks for the correction, I did mean C-Bus

Thanks for the correction, I did mean C-Bus

 

Hi!

I'm based on LI, and am in the final stages of planning a new home that will include a substantial amount of C-BUS. All of the components are available from any Square-D distributor, and can be purchased and installed by any electrician. The programming software is available for free from Square-D's web site. They also offer free training courses; there is one on LI in July. If you're more than moderately computer-literate, you should be able to at least do basic programming yourself.

I would highly recommend contacting the Design Center, which is in Orlando. They will take your electrical plan and work with you to chose which components you leave and give you a rough estimate and cut-sheet that you can take to the distributor to purchase the components. They're super helpful people. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask me here or PM me.

 

Great

This great.
I did contact the design center and my architect and I are meeting the regional sales person next week. Are you positive that ANY electrician can do the job by opposition to a Clipsal trained one.

(I will give you my contact info privately)

 

This is a little like saying anyone can drive a car if they have a car licence
As with anything if the electrician has used C-Bus before and done a Clipsal C-Bus training course then they will be equiped with more skills then one who hasn't seen or heard anything about it. In saying that any GOOD electrician will be able to wirer and install C-Bus, they might just need to do a little reading up on the install notes before starting.

 

Myself residing In Houston TX and a long time user of Sq-D equipment for our office, I leaned towards Clipsal for automation.
On a new construction I have looked deep into Lutron, Crestron, HMI, and AMX.
However since I am using a NF3000 controller within the electric panel it was a great choice (so far) to integrate with Clipsal.
Also with Clipsal you do not need a dedicated CPU running to control everything.
I had to practically re-do all the electrical drawings and discus deeply with the contractor / Master electrician but was possible with a bit of explaining.
One major difference in field wiring is each output being a dimmer or relay module is a single run to the load.
Meaning if the bathroom has one light fixture only there is a dedicated wire from the light fixture to the Clipsal output module.
Then the wall switch will have a Cat5 wire (C-Bus) to it.
Clipsal is all very simple once you get over the old school way of typical electrical wiring where everything is tied to a HOT wire and switched with a HOT leg to the load.

My project is using multiple dimmers & relay units, keypads, bus-couplers and a NF3000C controller.
Even though it is not live and still in the construction phase I have proved with a test bench mock-up it works.
The part I like the most is the C-Bus toolkit is free and user friendly and a far cry from Lutron.

In about 3~4 months the truth will be told on if it all functions as planned.

Alan Dobbs

 

Similarity with Lutron ?

This is very useful information. With regard to wiring, is it correct to say that the wiring is very similar to a Lutron system and thus that an electrician that is familiar with Lutron would be in familiar territory.

 

My research showed that Lutron uses its own special wire (multi conductor / Multi-gauge) for working the dimmer switches back to the HomeWorks unit.
Google ?Lutron Wire? and you will see a long list of wire suppliers whom distribute the specialized wire and costly.
This was a big turn-off for me for Lutron and why I prefer Clipsal as it just uses 2 pairs on the Cat5 wire.
The wiring concept is the same at the Lutron as Clipsal is wired low voltage with Cat5.
Any electrician who has experience with both high & low voltage and home automation concepts should be fine.

You should take the on-line slide show training course as it explains the ABC?s of Clipsal as I did and very useful.
In the USA it is on the Square D Lighting website (You must create a account & log-in.
http://www.squaredlightingcontrol.com/coursedetails.cfm?crs_id=1

I saw the same tutorial on the main Clipsal site but cannot presently find.

BTW each time I call Sq-D in the US for Clipsal support everyone there has been excellent in answering my questions, even with a lack of know-how on my part.

Take care
Alan Dobbs
Houston, TX