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Is anyone doing per-circuit energy monitoring of their house?    I have an old TED (The Energy Detective) dating from around 2007, which sort of still works, but I only have four CT's with it and they are split 200A and not accurate for branch circuits.   I've looked at their newer system with a...

So lacking a better alternative, am thinking of getting another M1G system for my new home.  Mostly this is so I can have monitored smokes, though I'll probably set up intrusion at least on the entry doors so I know if I have left them open (a risk on nice days in Florida).    Having done it...

Back in the day I had a bunch of Hickvision IP POE cameras, that worked well, but had all the usual issues with support and firmware, they were a mixture of US and international (didn't know when I bought), etc.   So when I moved I put in a few and picked Lorex as the feature set looked good and...

Using Home Assistant - liking it a lot, it's just getting better and better as I go on (and as they release new stuff).  Also using Node-Red with it for automation.   Decided to dive into some of the wifi microcontroller stuff, and got a couple of ESP8266 devices (NodeMCU), temp, humidity and...

New house, no speakers, no wiring for speakers, three nice TV's, one in a great room, one in a den.   The TV's (new LG OLED) have decent speakers for built in.   But in the den (primarily a TV room) and great room I may want to do something better.   In the old days (you know, a couple months...

I know there are some pretty scientific types here, and wondering if anyone has any math to go with this question, or has done any experiments along this line.   I have to air condition almost year round.  I now have Home Assistant installed where I know inside and outside temperatures, set...

New house, new cameras.    Long ago I used ZoneMinder (http://zoneminder.com) (http://zoneminder.com) (http://zoneminder.com), and modified it a bit, but got tired of fiddling with it.  Did a big search and chose Milestone Essentials+ (free for 8) .  Solid, nice, some limitations but reliable.  ...

Setting up a new house and chose a coat closet to become my network closet.  Right now it only gets up to about 80, but it is less than half populated.   I thought it would be easy to find a through wall ventilation fan.  I can exhaust to the side of the closet into a utility space.   I thought...

As people may have noticed in other threads have a new house and redoing various security/automation portions.   Next on my list (not that I'm finished with the predecessor) are cameras.  on the last house I had Hikvision 3mp turrets, and they worked nicely. I did go through the whole us vs...

Not having bought a ceiling fan for about 13 years things have changed.   Now house pre-wires include one hot and one switched, but...    98% of the fans I find expect you to have only a hot, and they have a remote that controls the fan and light.  So when you hang them you either use the hot...

OK, unexpectedly had to move to a new house, and it has zero automation, but (mostly) LED lights everywhere in non-recessed fixtures (i.e. bulb is not replaceable).  Nicely placed switches, lots of 3-ways.  Zero dimmers.   Eventually I will add stuff, probably first cameras, then likely security...

So I have a complicated M1G setup, lots of zones (all hardwired except fobs), a few lights on it, cellular, internet, alarm relay monitoring; also a home made NVR PC with Milestone running and hardwired cameras.   We may be moving.   I doubt seriously there's any alarm techs in the area who...

I'm not even sure what I am asking here, other than maybe some pointers to reliable sources (or direct input).    I have been doing a fair amount of electrical work lately at my house, and also finally got the last RF sensors converted to wired. This has be re-examining the state of what is a...

I confess up front I have done little to diagnose this yet...    I have switched most house lights to LED.  I always buy dimmable LED's, often from Home Depot or Lowes and whatever they have that looks reputable and on sale, so a variety of brands (Feit, Cree, Ecosmart, GE). Almost all are...

Is there any way to put an audio clip into the M1G without using the record feature for a phone line?    I don't even have a phone line any more (use cellular and internet combined).  While I can set something up it's a bit of a pain, is there another way to upload a custom audio clip?   

I'm using output 3 on the M1G for something else and thinking of controlling my garage door, whose radio has gotten intermittent.  I already have a open/close contact on it, so might as well control the opener.   My M1G also has the voice module, which plugs into J16.   The ELK-M1RB (that's what...

I'm confused by something.   I have an M1G, and for one location have a wireless heat detector "connected" to it.  All other smoke/heats are wired.   This detector is near an attic access, and now twice when someone went up there, it emitted a trouble indication.   The M1G shows trouble until...

I had an issue come up during Irma, and am wondering if people have more creative solutions than I can find.   I have a security camera setup recording on a PC.  The PC is (physically) beside my ELK security system, and both share a consumer type UPS (Cyberpower), which in turn has a USB...

Some years ago I put in IP cameras and after a rather exhausting review I decided to use Zoneminder.  It's been working OK, though I had to do a lot of programming to get a feature I consider critical (simultaneous review of multiple cameras when looking back through time).    It's working, but...

I received a somewhat disturbing call.   It was a directed robocall indicating I was a NextAlarm subscriber.  I am not, but I was until spring 2014.  Since DIY alarm users are rare, and they had my home phone, I assume they somehow got ahold of a customer list.   The message went on to say...