I'm a newbie here and have to admit I'm overwhelmed by the number of remote systems and protocols out there so I thought I'd try asking a question. I have a house with a detached two car garage. I also have a playhouse (actual A-frame construction, not plastic) that is wired with electricity. The garage has two wall-mounted lights (standard porch-style fixtures) mounted outside the garage. The playhouse has a porch light and interior light. I want to control all three light sets to work on an on-off remote from the house. I don't need anything fancy, just something that allows me to turn the lights on-off from the house. The back of my house is 50 feet from the garage and 200 feet from the playhouse.

One extra note. Both the garage and the playhouse have unfinished interiors so adding to the existing electrical run is not a problem.

My biggest concern is range. Like I noted, the playhouse is about 200 feet away from the house.

Thanks for any advice!

Eric (Joe Squid)

There are lots of solutions to this problem. Where is the light switch for your playhouse lights? Where is the light switch to the garage lights?

The lightswitch for the playhouse is in the playhouse. There are two lightswitches, one for the porch light, and one for the interior lights. It's set up just like a normal house. The lightswitch for the garage is in the garage. Both the playhouse and the garage receive power via a load panel located in the garage.

The two products that I would look into would be Insteon and UPB. UPB is based off of the electrical wiring in your house. Anything connected to that breaker panel would be able to be controled through a single UPB system. Insteon utilizes both RF and powerline. The issue you will run into with Insteon it is a mesh network, meaning each device is acting as a repeater.

Personally I have never used Insteon. I use UPB with the automation system that I use.

I would second InstallerCarl's suggestion of UPB. The range your are talking about is no problem for UPB. X10 would be cheaper but It wouldn't be as solid as UPB. Insteon in this application would be not much better then x10.

I did an install with a guest house about 200 ft from the main house and had no problems with controlling lighting in the guest house from the main house...

I suggest you give Automated Outlet in Texas a call for your UPB products. They have excellent customer service and right now have a sale on UPB products.

Here is a link:

[Link: automatedoutlet.com]

Dave

I third the suggestion on UPB, but if you are only doing 2 lights in a playhouse and can keep the transmitter and lights on the same phase X10 would be dirt cheap. Range is not a problem, we just supplied a bridge company 200 X10 relays for control on a 2000 ft bridge and all went perfectly. Knowing what you are doing, and how to use the technologies is what makes the difference. If you are going to expand beyond the 2 lights, UPB is going to be more trouble free for the average user.

Bill
www.homeautomationnet.com