Insteon Garage Control

I just ordered all the equipment required to automate my shops lighting and Compressor.

My shop has two doors one for the garage and one for the machine shop.

Goal is to be able to turn on lights for the room entered and compressor for either side. Also be able to turn on light for other room if required. When leaving any door, I will be able to turn off all lights and compressor from any door.

So I ordered 2 of these:

http://www.smarthome.com/2487S/Keyp...pad-with-On-Off-Switch-Dual-Band-White/p.aspx

2 of these:

http://www.smarthome.com/2475SDB/In...ontrol-In-Line-On-Off-Switch-Dual-Band/p.aspx

And one of these:

http://www.smarthome.com/72800/Elk-...ctured-Wiring-Panel-Enclosure-Elk-9200/p.aspx

Discussions about this can be found at the end of this thread.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=231499&page=3

I found the 30amp Insteon relay unit was not compatible with inductive loads (motors) so I had to go with the big ugly but cheaper ELK unit.

Attached are pictures showing the garage with two man doors prior to adding compressor shelter and the exterior compressor shelter currently being constructed.

No comment about the switching, but I think you should put some vents high and low in the compressor shed to get some air. It's going to get mighty hot in there in the summer with the compressor running. May want to even consider a small exhaust fan to run when the compressor is running. All depends on how much you are going to be using the compressor.

Your smarthome links take me to generic sales page, not the individual items. I have an Insteon system in my house/garage. I have a keypad in the garage and also one in the house. From in the house, I can open/close the garage doors, also monitor if the doors are open/closed. I can also turn all the lights on/off in the garage, and monitor their status, from in the house. I did find some florescent fixtures generate enough electrical noise so that I needed to put filters on them or else the Insteon signal got lost in the noise and control was unreliable. I also use an ISY-994i controller as it makes programming much easier.

pattenp said:

No comment about the switching, but I think you should put some vents high and low in the compressor shed to get some air. It's going to get mighty hot in there in the summer with the compressor running. May want to even consider a small exhaust fan to run when the compressor is running. All depends on how much you are going to be using the compressor.

Click to expand...

There are already vents high. The soffit over the door is all vent. Today I finished insulating and tried out the compressor. 1 cycle from a cold start and you could feel the heat when opening the door. So I will be adding lower vents to get some circulation going. May have to go for the fan as well and it may need to be a big one.

ixlr8 said:

Your smarthome links take me to generic sales page, not the individual items. I have an Insteon system in my house/garage. I have a keypad in the garage and also one in the house. From in the house, I can open/close the garage doors, also monitor if the doors are open/closed. I can also turn all the lights on/off in the garage, and monitor their status, from in the house. I did find some florescent fixtures generate enough electrical noise so that I needed to put filters on them or else the Insteon signal got lost in the noise and control was unreliable. I also use an ISY-994i controller as it makes programming much easier.

Click to expand...

I don't know why they work for me. Maybe the authors gets different results.

ixlr8 said:

Your smarthome links take me to generic sales page, not the individual items. I have an Insteon system in my house/garage. I have a keypad in the garage and also one in the house. From in the house, I can open/close the garage doors, also monitor if the doors are open/closed. I can also turn all the lights on/off in the garage, and monitor their status, from in the house. I did find some florescent fixtures generate enough electrical noise so that I needed to put filters on them or else the Insteon signal got lost in the noise and control was unreliable. I also use an ISY-994i controller as it makes programming much easier.

Click to expand...

Just got my stuff yesterday. Kind of disappointed with a few things.

1) ELK box is just a cheep contactor in a box, need to get another on/off relay to activate it. I sent it back. The ELK unit had no motor rating although 60 amps should be good for a 5HP motor. I will get a real relay and appropriately sized NEMA 3R outdoor box. The whole setup is about twice the price but the relay I ordered is good for up to 10HP compressor. Ive also ordered another ON/Off switch for this. If I have to order filters this task will exceed $600.00 don't know if I will save that in electricity in a lifetime.

2) The on/off switches have no provision for mounting. They just hang loose inside a box. It will work but it goes against everything I do as an Engineer. For my garage I would prefer to have the programing switches exposed. I may just make a way to mount it to a GFIC cover.

Why not just connect the Insteon universal relay through your existing compressor mag starter. No need for a high amp secondary relay if you do this.

C96 said:

Why not just connect the Insteon universal relay through your existing compressor mag starter. No need for a high amp secondary relay if you do this.

Click to expand...

I don't have a mag starter just a pressure switch so no coil to activate.

600SL said:

Just got my stuff yesterday. Kind of disappointed with a few things.

2) The on/off switches have no provision for mounting. They just hang loose inside a box. It will work but it goes against everything I do as an Engineer. For my garage I would prefer to have the programing switches exposed. I may just make a way to mount it to a GFIC cover.

Click to expand...

I agree with switches just hanging inside the box, that is a irritant for me as well. I understand the older ones could be mounted just like any other switch but they cheapened things up and dropped the mounts.
The filters were expensive enough to eliminate any possible cost savings, I wanted control of lights and doors from the house so I had to add them.