Cost of Home Automation

I'm in the very early stages of a build and i'm thinking about a base level home automation system to control audio/visual to certain rooms, air conditioning & lighting. I don't want to go full on and get it to control the blinds, door locks etc.

I've been doing some research on it and it's hard to get even a starting price for such a system. Has anyone had it done or getting it done that can give me a ball park figure?

This is something I am interested aswell. I looked into it with insteon. But most require the device to be wired behind the switch or power point.
I also looked at things like raspberry pi. Google that if your not sure. If your handy with electronics or want to have ago like me then maybe something like that. I'm still researching and looking so haven't gotten a solid answer for you.

I'm building at the moment, and while that's been happening I have been playing around with home automation in my current home as a testing ground. I'm using Vera 3 as the controller with zwave devices. I'm also building my own stuff too. Have a look at www.mysensors.org

Hey Mate,

Wondering how did you go with your automation ?

I'm in very early stages of building and have similar interest as yours... having done some research I saw Fibaro Home Automation system & devices which can help you control your lights & devices... still not sure on the exact costs and setup expertise required.. I'm not a techkie myself but having seen a few videos on youtube looks like it is pretty straight forward..

At the risk of being facetious, what you have described above is not really a base level system. What you want to automate is a rather advanced type of system.

Now as a guide, if you were to use C-Bus the following would be your costs in trade prices, less of course installation, configuration etc.

Light switch

For a basic 30 series, master $95, slave $17. The way these work is they fit into a standard clipsal plastic plate, you can have 1 master and up to 3 slaves, depending upon the number of buttons you want. If you want 6 buttons, then you need two masters and 4 slaves.

For the high end Saturn switches (the glass facia type), 2 button $265, 4 button $291, 6 button $304.

Dynamic label switch, 5 button $380-400

Have many in between.

PIR, outdoor $250, indoor $200.

Dimmers, 8 channel, $1000 (this is for a standard 1amp per channel model). Wanted more you pay significantly more.

Relay, 8 channel $800, 12 channel $1070.

Power supply $510, may need two or 3 depending upon what you connect.

PC interface (USB) $465 (for programming)

Now getting into the fancy stuff.

Colour touch screen $2800 with logic

B&W touch screen $1300, no logic

Wiser $1400. Wiser is basically a box that sit on your LAN and allows you to control C-bus through a smart phone. You can program in fancy logic.

Pascal automation controller $763 (note if you have a touch screen with logic or a wiser no need for this).

Single zone thermostat with relays (for HVAC) $408, no relays $318

Now I haven't even started on multiroom audio etc. I'm not really into that so no idea what you would need, but the parts aren't cheap.

So there is a bit of an idea. The cost for someone to supply, program and install, double and then some.

Oh blind control is quite simple, your looking at $202 per window and ceiling fans $186.

I installed C-bus in my house in 1999/2000, only a very basic system, 8 dimmed lights, 4 switched, few PIRs and a Minder alarm/automation system.

Back then doing it myself (with sparky doing the 240v side), it cost me close to $5000. But that was for what I consider a basic system, which was essentially lighting control, security and irrigation control (through Minder which is now discontinued). I've added components over the years as new products have come. But would think to do what I did back then now would be looking at a minimum of closer to $8000-$10000 for parts, but like I said add a lot more for someone else to do it.

For prices you can download the Clipsal iphone app, I assume they have android too. If your lucky you may be able to buy parts at trade, if not look out for retail mark-up.

I think with the advent of z-wave, C-bus is pretty much obsolete. My builders' sparky said that C-bus isn't worth installing these days. The other advantage of z-wave is that it's wireless and you can incrementally install it with existing wiring (like I'm doing). You can even get z-wave enabled door locks.
The Vera controller is also programmable (if you're that way inclined), and can interface with home brew electronics
The only gotcha is that z-wave units for Australia work on certain frequency, so don't be tempted to get them imported unless they're at 921.4MHz. So you're going to have to pay the Australia Tax

Not really. Protocols and systems like z-wave (X-10, Zigbee) are complimentary to C-bus and build on c-bus, but it isn't a replacement for c-bus.

Where protocols like this will replace c-bus are in integration to devices, take the C-bus HVAC thermostat range for example.