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Updated January 5, 2009 0600am EST

I have a house full of X10 modules. I just bought some Intermatic Z-Wave controllers and modules. What is the most economical way to control both with one controller?

The most economical way to do this will be to wait until someone releases a specialty X10 to Z-Wave bridge controller. Wayne Dalton has had one listed as “coming soon” for some time now. Your other option is to adopt a home control system such as HomeSeer, mControl from Embedded Automation, or HAI that support both the X10 and Z-Wave protocols. Also see the recent series called Bridge the Gap Between X10 and Z-Wave.

I have a few HA01 receptacles. When I went to try to install them I noticed that my duplex receptacles have four wires. Each outlet has a black-and-white wire while the HA01 only has two wires. I guess I could just not use one of the pair from my original receptacles. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Usually the outlets in your house are wired in what we call a daisy chain, that is one wire pair, black and white are the Power and Neutral into the outlet and the other pair are Power and Neutral out to the next outlet down the line. The last outlet in the circuit will only have one black and one white. To install the HA01 you should connect all of the black wires (3) together using a wire nut (twist connector) of the proper size and then connect all of the white wires (3) together using a wire nut (twist connector) of the proper size. Do not forget to connect the green or bare copper Ground wires together as well. If you are not sure how to do this I recommend getting an electrician to help you.

I’m trying to control opening and closing my garage door using Z-Wave. Is there a Z-Wave controlled transmitter that I could teach my garage code and trigger from a program like HomeSeer? I’m not interested in turning on lights when I arrive home, rather, I want to open and close the garage door remotely while I’m away.

The easiest way to control your garage door using Z-Wave is to use a Z-Wave enabled dry contact relay in parallel with the manual push-button door control (the button in the garage that is connected by wire to the garage door opener). Unfortunately, I’m not aware of anyone that is shipping an inexpensive single channel dry contact that is Z-Wave enabled. However, I do know that a few of these are in the product plans of a few Z-Wave OEM manufacturers. The next best thing is to make your own by using a Z-Wave plug-in appliance module to control the relay coil of a 120VAC dry contact relay.

Do you know if there are any Z-Wave switches that don’t have a small leak current? Or, do you know of any regular CFL bulbs that are not sensitive to the small leak current that some Z-Wave wireless or programmable switches have? I find that every CFL bulb I’ve purchased so far seems to flicker when the power is off. I’m using an Intermatic Home Settings HA18 three-way in-wall switch in a single pole application.

It sounds like you are using a “two-wire” dimmer and not a switch. The “two-wire” dimmers — dimmers that do not require a neutral connection — do trickle a small amount of current through the load to keep the electronics and LEDs alive. Z-Wave switches use relays to control the current, require a neutral connection to keep the electronics alive and do not trickle current when off. The HA18 uses a relay and should not be sending any current through the load when off. You should check to make sure you are not using a two-wire dimmer.

I’m looking for a macro based LCD touchscreen remote to control theater components as well as Z-Wave lights. For example, I press DVD and the DVD powers on and begins to play, the projector and AVR power on and the lights dim. Any ideas?

The best solution for this are NEVO S70 and NEVO Q50 from Universal Electronics.

Are there any single gang Z-Wave products that control both a fan speed and light? I know that Lutron Maestro has some but they are RF controlled, not Z-Wave.

Sorry, I don’t know of any single gang Z-Wave product that will control both a fan and a light. This is great idea for a Z-Wave product, though. I hope one of the many Z-Wave manufacturers makes one soon.

 

Mark Walters, our resident Z-Wave expert, is a home automation consultant and the former vice president of the Z-Wave Alliance. Mark is well versed in numerous home automation technologies including CE Bus, Insteon, X10, Z-Wave, ZigBee, and KNX.