Austin · Hill Country, Texas
Smart Home, Lighting & AV in the Hill Country.
Acreage estates on wells and septic west of the city, a cooperative grid, wildfire risk mapped by the state, and fiber that stops where Starlink begins. The Hill Country asks for a system that runs on its own.
Hill Country, Specifically
A System That Runs on Its Own.
In the Dripping Springs extraterritorial jurisdiction, a lot on a private well and septic system needs two acres, and the city's Agriculture district sets the same minimum, so a Hill Country estate is several buildings spread across the land. Pedernales Electric Cooperative serves most of the area, and during Winter Storm Uri its outages peaked at 8,790 meters in Hays County and 11,741 in Travis County.
The Texas A&M Forest Service maps the county's wildland-urban interface and wildfire threat, Onion Creek's 2015 flood killed five people and damaged more than 500 homes, and fiber from AT&T and Spectrum reaches part of the area while Starlink reaches all of it. The design follows: fiber between buildings, a generator the cooperative recognizes, and a network with two paths.
01 · Distance
Fiber Between Buildings
On two acres and up, the gate, the barn, the casita, and the pool are fiber runs with spare conduit, laid before the drive is cut. One Lutron and Crestron system then covers every building with the same keypads and scenes.
02 · Power
A Cooperative Grid
PEC treats a non-exporting standby generator differently from a solar or battery system that can export, which needs an interconnection application. We size the generator for the house and the rack and follow the cooperative's rules for anything that feeds back.
03 · Connectivity
Fiber Where It Reaches, Starlink Everywhere
AT&T Fiber and Spectrum cover part of Dripping Springs; Starlink is listed at every address. The network carries both, with automatic failover, so the cameras and the house stay reachable.
At a Glance
Hill Country in brief.
- Lot sizes
- In the Dripping Springs ETJ, a property on a private well and septic needs a two-acre minimum lot, or 1.5 acres with rainwater harvesting; the city's Agriculture district sets a two-acre minimum with 100-foot width and 150-foot depth.
- Electric service
- Pedernales Electric Cooperative serves most of the Hill Country here, with core territory in Travis and Hays counties; during Winter Storm Uri its outages peaked at 8,790 member meters in Hays County and 11,741 in Travis County.
- Generators
- PEC treats a non-exporting standby generator differently from a distributed-generation system such as solar or batteries that can export power, which requires an interconnection application and the cooperative's permission.
- Internet
- AT&T Fiber, with plans up to 5 gigabits in limited areas, and Spectrum serve Dripping Springs; Starlink is listed as available to 100 percent of Dripping Springs addresses.
- Wildfire and flood
- The Texas A&M Forest Service maps Hays County's wildland-urban interface and wildfire threat; Onion Creek, which passes near Dripping Springs and Driftwood, flooded in 2015, killing five people and damaging more than 500 homes.
- Market
- Bee Cave's median sale price has run near $1.01 million, well above Dripping Springs at roughly $542,500 to $686,000 in recent months (Redfin data cited by a local brokerage).
Sources: Hays Free Press, Dripping Springs lot-size rules; Dripping Springs zoning code (Zoneomics); ElectricRates, Pedernales Electric Cooperative; Pedernales Electric Cooperative, Winter Storm Uri; Malco Electric, PEC generator and interconnection rules; BroadbandMap, internet providers in Dripping Springs; Texas A&M Forest Service, wildfire risk; Onion Creek (Wikipedia); Austin Home Girls Realty, Bee Cave or Dripping Springs.
Reading for Hill Country
Guides and work nearby.
What We Install and Service
Every System. One Keypad.
Lighting & Shades
Lutron HomeWorks, Ketra and Rania light, Palladiom keypads, and shades that disappear into the ceiling.
Lighting →Whole-Home Control
Crestron and Lutron on one set of keypads and touchscreens, programmed the same way in every house you own.
Residential →Cinema & Music
Dedicated theaters, media rooms, and music in every room without a speaker in sight.
Residential →Network
Enterprise Wi-Fi and fiber sized for a large house, guest houses, and the far end of the lawn.
Networking →Security & Gate
Cameras, access control, gate intercom, and an alarm that a UL-listed central station answers.
Security →Outdoors
Landscape lighting and outdoor sound on one buried infrastructure, on the same keypad as the house.
Outdoor →Upgrades
Older Crestron and Lutron systems brought current, reusing the wiring already in the walls wherever possible.
Upgrade paths →Support
Monitoring, remote fixes, and priority response under one plan.
Cave Watch →Questions From Hill Country
Hill Country, Answered
Who installs Lutron and Crestron systems in Dripping Springs and the Hill Country?+–
Cave Group does. We are a Crestron Elite Gold Partner and Lutron Gold Dealer based in New York, and we design, install, and service lighting control, shades, cinema, outdoor audio, networking, security, and backup power for acreage estates in Dripping Springs, Driftwood, and Bee Cave on a project basis, on site with Texas-licensed trades.
Can one system cover the main house, the casita, the barn, and the gate?+–
Yes, and it should. We link the buildings with fiber, give each one a small equipment location, and run them as one Lutron and Crestron system, so keypads, touchscreens, and the app work the same way everywhere. On acreage it is far easier to do while the site work is open than after the drive and the fences are in.
How does a New York firm work on an Austin house?+–
On a project basis. Our offices are in New York and New Jersey; the design and the drawings happen with your architect and builder from there and in person at the key milestones, the installation and commissioning happen on site, and Cave Watch supports the system around the clock afterward. The licensed trades Texas requires, a licensed electrical contractor for line-voltage work and a Department of Public Safety licensed security contractor for monitored alarm work, are local.
What about the grid?+–
Standby power is part of the design here, not an option. Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 took power from about 220,000 Austin Energy customers under ERCOT's load shedding, and the February 2023 ice storm left more than 170,000 without power, some for over ten days. We size a generator and a battery-backed rack for the network, the control system, the cameras, and the house, and plan the permit, the setbacks, and the noise limits with the licensed electrician.
What internet is available in the Hill Country?+–
AT&T Fiber and Spectrum reach part of Dripping Springs, and Starlink is listed at every address. We confirm what reaches the house and design the network with two paths and automatic failover, so the cameras, the remote access, and the house itself survive a cut.
Start Here
Walk the House With Us.
Bring the drawings if the house is on paper, or the list of what no longer works if it is already built. We will tell you what we would do, in what order, what it would take, and how we run an Austin project from New York.
Start a Projector call · +1 (888) 712-2283 · [email protected]