Hardwired everything for 15 years till a wireless system proved me wrong

I used to be one of those guys who swore hardwired was the only way to go. Thought wireless was just for homeowners who didnt want to drill or pay for real labor. Then last spring I did a 4 bedroom house in Austin where the attic was completely finished with no crawl space. Running wires would have meant cutting into drywall all over the place and patching everything after. Customer was set on the Ring alarm pro with the zwave sensors and keypad. I went in expecting to hate it but after installing 22 sensors in about 4 hours I have to admit it saved me a full day of work. The range was solid and the customer could add stuff themselves later without calling me back. I still prefer hardwire for commercial jobs but for residential retrofits I get it now. Anyone else come around on wireless after hating it for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

irisg5715d ago

You said "the range was solid" and that's actually the thing that surprised me the most when I finally gave in and tried a good wireless setup. Everyone always complains about dropouts or interference but modern zwave stuff just WORKS if you put the hub somewhere smart. The REAL angle nobody talks about is how wireless changes the homeowner's attitude toward their system. When everything is hardwired they treat it like a fixed appliance they're scared to touch, but with wireless they start tinkering, adding sensors, actually understanding how it all connects together. That means fewer worthless service calls for something they could have fixed or expanded themselves.

paulw6315d ago

Yeah the homeowner tinkering thing is real and I actually saw that play out in a weird way with my brother in law. He got a SimpliSafe setup a couple years ago and at first I made fun of him for it. Then he started adding door sensors, a smoke detector, and even a water leak sensor under his washing machine. He never would have done any of that with a hardwired system because he'd have to call me or someone like me and pay for it. Now he's telling me he wants to get into home automation and hook his lights up to it too. It's like once they get a taste of being able to change stuff themselves they go all in.