What system to go with?

Hi everyone,

I am new to home automation and was hoping to get some advice. Please excuse me if I use the wrong terms.

I have recently moved into a new house which I’ve been told (and looks like) it has all the c-bus wiring installed. The house was built about 5 years ago. But the original owner never actually set up a system to control it.

I have gotten a few quotes and their advice and prices seem to vary quite a bit. We have a quote for an elan, control 4, and wiser 2.

I am completely at a loss as to what system I should go with? They all seem to claim to do what I want, but the elan and control installers say wiser 2 is not good? Any truth to this?

What I want to do is:
- Control lights / themes
- Control heating / cooling (Fujitsu)
- control curtains
- integrate security system (inner range integriti)
- integrate video surveillance (hik-vision)
- control garage doors (4d doors)
- control driveway gate (faac)
- control pedestrian front gate (rosslare)

im not too fussed if my video surveillance can’t be integrated as the hik app seems ok.

With the Wiser 2, the person who gave me a quote said he could do most of that except the aircon. He was saying that there is no way to integrate the aircon?

Elan and control 4 installers both said they would need to change the inner range integriti system to something else? Can the integriti really not work with these systems? Can it work with wiser 2?

additionally the wiser 2 installer said he would be able to do things like turn on lights if the hik cameras picked up a sound at a certain level for a certain amount of time, which I thought would be quite useful.

Thanks in advance,

Jeremy

 

I think this thread sums it up quite well in the beginning and the final post ( ignore the bickering in the middle ).

https://www.c4forums.com/forums/topic/26747-new-construction-advice-cbus-vs-c4/page/2/

Having been a certified control4 technician and also a c-bus installer, The C-bus automation controller is capable of doing all these things, however it takes a lot of custom scripting, time and effort to get to the end result, the GUI can be customised to look any way you like and there are no ongoing subscription fees once complete. Not sure if its the Automation controller of the Wiser2 controller your contractor was talking about.

There is a control4 driver for the inner range inception controller, so maybe that can be added to the existing integriti or it can be upgraded to include.

Systems like control 4 and savant utilised pre written drivers that make the integration process a lot more straight forward, the interface is not overy customisable, but it is slick and user friendly. Not sure about savant but Control 4 typically has ongoing subscription fees, it use to be just for 4sight which allows accessing the system when away from the home however i think changes were made to the model and the subscriptions may apply to certain controllers now at varying anual costs.