Vacation Rental in Construction

Other Devices & Integrations Door Locks & Sensors
#1

I’m halfway through construction on a vacation rental. I’m pretty sure I’m going to purchase the vera system just have a few questions.

Will the vera lite work for a 2200sqft home for two entry locks and thermostat control? or should I upgrade to vera3?

I read I should have the thermostats wired with C wiring?

Am I ok having the wifi modem and vera in a cabinet above the fridge, accessible but hidden?

Any issues I need to worry about being 300 miles away from property?

#2

Depends on the construction … but should be quite do able.
You will need some extra devices to fill in the mesh because of the distances between nodes.

I am not sure what “C” wiring is, unless they are referring to a Common. Just tell the HVAC guy that you need to power the Thermostat with 24V … this is pretty much the standard now.

The Vera 3 basically provides more memory than the the Vera Lite. This is only needed if you are going to add lots of plugins … Not likely for a rental home. You will pretty much want to automate locks and HVAC. Many people lock out the AC if the doors are left open.

You might want to add a nightly reboot … This is in case there are any network errors during the day … At most you will only be one day away from restoring connectivity. Another approach is to put the Wifi, Cable Modem, and Vera and a UPS.

#3

No problem. I have Vera 3 (2 lite and one normal) in 3 homes varying from 1800 to 4000+ sq ft. The key is having enough units to allow multiple paths. Door locks need to be close or have paths with devices that can relay properly. I have installed replacement antenna on all 3 to gain better communication.

Tstat needs to have a 24v source for most types. I now have all Trane and they require 24v. Previously had a Wayne Dalton before it failed.

I keep the Vera, cable modem and router all in a locked closet in the rentals. I set it up to use a bathroom circuit so can reset by toggling a GFI. All 3 are on a battery back-up to avoid surges and short outages. It has worked quite well.

For one year I kept the router and Vera in the open. I did not experience problems but was always concerned when communications were down that something had happened. MCV is normally the cause for inability to communicate, but occasionally it would be the cable modem that needed resetting. The cable company could reset on command remotely.

I am over 1000 miles away so 300 should be a breeze. My worst issues have been frozen devices. A frozen 3750 used to control the hot water heater caused a bit of an issue. And several times I have had light switches become unstable. Sometimes allowing local control and sometimes not. The fix in almost all cases in power cycling via a circuit breaker.

Note I have over 100 devices on the Vera3 and dozens on Vera light. Not an issue.

#4

Richard,

How do you add a nightly reboot? I have had issues with lost connectivity and have had to have someone go to the house and unplug/plug in Vera. a real pain

#5

Use the instructions in Section UI5 Advanced at [url=http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Restart]http://wiki.micasaverde.com/index.php/Restart[/url]

#6

Thanks Brian! I’ll give this a try…I sometimes wonder if it is my cable modem that needs to be restarted. Am I able to restart both using a UPS? If so, would this be a better way of doing this?

#7

My router is on an UPS and has been active without rebooting for more than 50 days. My Vera 3 is on a separate UPS elsewhere in the home and is generally active without rebooting except on occasion when I add new functionality or modify existing functionality. Both are backed up with a home standby generator. I also have a Web Power Switch 7 [url=http://www.digital-loggers.com/lpc.html]http://www.digital-loggers.com/lpc.html[/url] that I plan to add to the mix when I have the time to co-locate the Router, Vera, UPS and Web Power Switch.

I recommend you place your Vera and Router on an UPS and add the periodic reboot behavior to Vera first. If that does not cure your circumstances, then consider adding a Web Power Switch.

#8

We have a 2600sq ft chalet style cabin. We use the Vera 2 with the Kwikset lock and the Honeywell thermostat. We’ve had the Vera device set up in various locations and have never had any issue with any of our devices. Currently it is plugged in on the floor of our second story loft which is open to below. Everything works great. Fortunately, power outages are not common so we do not need a UPS. In addition to the lock and thermostat, we have a number of light controls including outdoor lights on Vera which we control through a scene (on at sunset, off after a specified time delay). We also have two cameras - one VistaCam and one VistaCam HD. I just got the motion sensors working on them and am testing it out. The system is incredibly reliable for a vacation cabin and the multiple access points are great (iPhone apps and webUI).