Looking for a Homeworks dealer within a reasonable distance from White Sulphur Springs, WV (home of the Greenbrier Resort) to troubleshoot and possibly make programming changes to a system. I brought in a dealer on a previous project, and after that experience, I wouldn't let those hacks put a dimmer in a dog house, so I need to find someone I can trust, that is competent in dealing with the Illuminations era systems.

Background: The system was originally installed by a dealer from New Jersey that opened a satellite office here when construction was booming in the early 2000's. They pulled out of the area years ago. This house is on its 3rd owner, and the new owners want things working properly. There are some issues with the lighting, mostly minor, but a large one is that the front, exterior lights aren't working. The owners would prefer all aspects of the home can be handled by someone local, but there are no Homeworks dealers within the area, and my experience with a dealer that the area rep suggested on a previous job turned into an absolute nightmare over one lousy shade. I also don't want them to be in a position where their installer is 3 or more hours away, and getting a service call takes an act of congress due to the distance.

Honestly, After my last experience, I'm leery as hell about bringing in someone else, but there doesn't appear to be much choice. The homeowner was asking if it was possible to just rip it out and use plain old switches. I'm sure the look on my face was priceless, but I told them I'd find someone who can deal with that aspect of the house.

So, feel free to chime in if you're interested, available, within proximity or have a recommendation for someone who is.

Thanks

To make you even less popular withe the homeowner, you should be sure to let them know that HomeWorks Illumination has reached the end of life with Lutron.

Very few parts are still available so they'll be in a bind if they get in a pinch and need a repair.  Once you get in touch with a good Lutron dealer, they can let you know the details and also put together and estimate for upgrading to HomeWorks QS.

Yeah, we're going to discuss that negative aspect in the next meeting with the property manager who is the go between. Honestly, I don't know what level of frustration the new owner is at just yet, as all my dealings so far have been with the property manager. All I know is they want sh1t to work, and they want someone local who can handle issues quickly, which already eliminates any homework dealer due to proximity, but it is what it is.

Are you a C4 dealer? It’s pretty easy to replace with C4 panelized lighting. Even if you found someone on here they may be reluctant due to the location and your clients are probably just looking for someone to handle it completely. Hell, is crestron an option?

Nope, no C4 here. Elan, so Crestron, too is out of the equation. I may just pass this off entirely to a dealer from VA. I've been involved in plenty of projects where the homeworks system was handled by another company, but I'm not entirely sure I want to deal with managing the process and being the go between. But if I pass it off, that entirely defeats the homeowner's hopes for it to be dealt with locally.

Products dead...doesn't work. Time to buy a new lighting system. They can pay you for RA or QS or they can pay the electrician to convert it to local switch control (assuming it's centralized).

It's a tough pill to swallow for sure but so was the $900 I had to spend for a new sump pump a month after buying my house :).

I have to admit, the thought of converting to RA2 crossed my mind. In all honesty, homeworks is kind of overkill for this house.

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I'd recommend you call an "electrician who *knows* Lutron", not an "AV guy who does lighting". Once you find someone like that, pay them what they want to make the trip out there and fix it properly.

I'd also bet a fat chunk of money that the exterior lighting was last serviced by an electrician who had no idea how to deal with a lighting system, so he used some kind of workaround to get those lights up and running, like a mechanical timer or light sensor. And the 'minor' things you referred to sound like scene or button behavior changes.

You didn't provide much detail, but it sounds like the keypads and modules aren't the issue. If the processor is unstable (needs frequent reboots), which I've seen with Interactive processors at about the 15 year mark, then you may want to consider replacing/updating it.

Most panelized lighting systems are really quite reliable, and once they're set up properly, they last a good long time. I still maintain 2 houses with Litetouch systems that just refuse to die...knock on wood!