Zwave - Harmony 890 Pro

I have used the Leviton, ACT and just tried a Intermatic switch.

Intermatic and ACT are less expensive, around $40-50 each.

I had two ACT switches fail on me, both when they were installed in my garage. I put the intermatic in the garage, and so far it is fine. But, the intermatic was only there a few days when I left for vacation, so I will need a little more time before I decide it is OK, and I won't be back home until later in July.

The ACT and intermatic two ways do not require neutral, the ACT 3 way needs a neutral. The leviton 3 way does not require neutral.

The intermatic only is good for up to 300 watts, so four 75 watt lights would be at it's limit. Four 60 watt flood lights would be fine with it.

The Leviton seems to be nice, and does not require neutral. Also, it comes with different color buttons, so you can choose either white, ivory or another color (Biscuit?). It does not work like a normal switch, you push the bottom to toggle the light on and off, pushing the top does not do anything.

I bought a couple of Intermatic appliance modules, but have not used them yet.

Intermatic also makes an upscale line, "intouch" whose pricing is similiar to the Leviton stuff. Not sure if the act like a normal switch or not, and what their wiring requirements are.

If this was me, and 300 watts was enough, I would probably try the intermatics.

The only reason I bought the act's was they had some cool features I wanted. You can push the act twice, to control a different zone, it is the only switch I found that does this. So, it can be used as a switch and a wall mounted controller. But, you can't set it up this feature with a 890.

And then, I bought the leviton was because it did not require a neutral, for the 3 way switch.

What kind of lights are in the kitchen? If they are flourescents, then you can't use a dimmer. If you have halogen lights, then you need a special switch, and that will only work with a magnetic transformer, not an electric transformer.

Randy

Just a side question to this setup...in a Z wave lighting setup....how do you control more than 1 light?

Lets say you have 2 lights in your sitting area...and you wanted 1 shut off and the other one dimmed? How does the 890 pro do that?

Infact I think It would be a question more on the Zwave side whether it can handle such a request?

Zwave in general, and the 890 support a feature called "scenes". You can create a scene, and in the scene, setup any or all of the zwave components to any setting. So, you can have a movie scene, with one switch at 10%, and everything else off, etc.

Randy

But that's what isnt working properly correct?

The ability to have a "Scene" enabled Z wave device operate correctly through the 890Pro?

No, scenes will work fine.
My problem was getting a Vizia/Leviton 4 scene wall controller to work with the 890. If I didn't buy one of these, the 890 could probably handle my other zwave requirements, although it is nice to have a timer for when you are away, which the 890 does not (to my knowledge).

randy

I have 4 Z wave devices (2 switches and 2 plugins) and when I press the buttons on my 890 they dont always respond. After a few repeated clicks they do. This causes embarassment if I want to demo my theater. Any ideas on what is going wrong?