Speaking of doing things properly, there are very few options that are going to allow your house to pass inspection once you decide to modify the system. If I were you, I'd want something that you allows you to restore back to the old GE system, which apparently passes code or passed code once upon a time. A valid certificate of occupancy is not an intangible benefit in the real estate world.
If you can't design a "loosely coupled" retrofit, be very careful about what you select. Try to find out before sinking $$$ into something whether it's likely to be certified by an inspector. You may want to consider whether you want to risk making him so frequent a visitor you begin to think of him as a member of your immediate family.
From what's been discussed here and elsewhere, a kludged electrical system can force you to take a hit of up to $20K on the sale price. It frightens far more buyers and real estate agents than it excites. Of course, it may be that you already got a $20K price break because the previous seller had trouble selling the house because of unusual lighting system. Still, if it's currently approved, that's worth something.
You won't be able to do *anything* that passes code without a schematic of the original installation and lots of time spent with a meter, a wire tracing set and a pen and paper. Even then, inspectors don't usually trust what they can't see or trace. If they even suspect you fished a single wire through existing staples, you'd be all washed up. They would assume ALL the cables in the wall had insulation scraped off them. That's how they think.
They are not likely to let you hook 110VAC devices to wires buried in walls they can't see, especially when there's a chance you may have inadvertently connected low power switches to 110VAX loads. That's why electrical inspections have to be done before the drywall goes up. Most inpsectors have the power to make you rip out every square inch of wallboard if you screw up, too, before they'll approve your job.
The reality is that inspectors can throw you right out of your own house and revoke your C of O if they decide there's a risk to any of the occupants. If you're doing all the mods yourself, and you're not a licensed electrician, it's doubtful they'll give you the benefit of the doubt on any issue that arises. If you're not inclined to get the place inspected while doing the work, well, that's only putting off the trauma to some unknown future date in all likelihood.
The place I'd make the change is at the big rotary switch(es) and at the fixtures and outlets themselves. I'd take all the wires coming out of the wall to the rotary switch and feed them into a multi-conductor connector. I'd put the mate on pigtails going to the rotary switch so that I could reconnect the old device easily in a few seconds. I would use that same style of connector to interface the control wires with an Ocelot control system. "Plug compatible" as the old mainframers used to say.
Although the wall switches are low voltage, too, you've still got options like in-line modules and socket rockets. The Ocelot and a relay control module like the SECU16 interfaced to your main rotary controller(s) will give you tremendous automation capability in terms of turning loads on and off remotely according to rules.
The Ocelot controller is smart enough to interpret a rapid flick of the old-style lightswitch as a request to enter dimming mode and to consider the next two toggles within a period you define as requests to begin dimming and end dimming. Whether that would work depends on whether the local switch signal can be sensed at the remote multiswitches or not.
You might not even have to use an Ocelot if you can make a connector that serves to keep all relays open and in the on state. Then, use the PLC inline modules, socket rockets and wall outlets to control the house like any other house with PLC equipment.
It sounds like your system is "once on, always on until turned off." If so, perhaps removing the LV switches, shunting the wires to "always on" and covering the switch plate with a "StickaSwitch" would be the way to go. You should be able to revert easily if you want to. Yes, there's a tiny lag for RF switching, but I understand they've deliberately put a time lag in UPB hardwired switches (to wait for a double tap) so if you don't like the lag, be careful what you chose instead.
If it isn't, you can get in-line modules, socket rockets and wall outlets into the current system, they usually are already UL approved and not too much of an issue for an inspector. Controlling them from an X-10 wireless switch would give you dimming and light control.
While I agree that X-10's remiss in not have a single button, `1 unit RF light switch (except the ugly panic button) my wife, who hated StickaSwitches to begin with, has found them less objectionable recently. That's because I re-arranged the lamp unit codes so that with three or four buttons, she can turn on lights in her path before she turns off the lights behind her from one location. And there was no cutting of plaster, spreading of plaster dust or rewiring house circuitry. That's probably the most important feature.
Bear in mind, this is all abstract information. The data I could find about GELV is apparently about units installed in the early 90's. It sounds like your unit is much older. I'd really want to run some multimeter and tone tracer tests before I decided on how to proceed for real. There are lots of ways they could have designed their relays so that advice concerning one type might not be appropriate for other configurations.
-- Bobby G.
