Home Automation
 

I am interested in your experiences with home automation.

Idea would be to turn some room and outdoor lights on and off per schedule, turn other outdoor lights on if motion is detected, view and record from some security cameras, get text alerts if motion is detected, control my thermostat, etc. I don't think I need to know if my refrigerator door was left open, but being alerted to a water heater leak might be nice.

Some reading turns up a variety of communications standards. ZigBee, X10, Insteon, Z-wave, WiFi, etc. And a confusing number of companies, some with proprietary systems, others with open standards, some of which seem to be acquiring others every month. Samsung, Belkin, Nest, Crestron, Insteon, Control4, Lorex, Foscam, and dozens of others.

Google is apparently making another run at this market via Nest, and Apple apparently plans to enter via HomeKit.

What would you do? How to make sense of it all?

Following.

I just bought a Phillips Hue hub for my house. It uses ZigBee. The cost of the multicolor Phillips bulbs is pretty high but you can also use CREE and GE "connected" bulbs which are just soft white bulbs you can get at Home Depot for about $15 a pop.

One thing I think is important to think about with 'connected' lighting is that you only use it in specific places. If you changed every bulb in the house to a connected bulb you might get annoyed after a while having to bust out your phone or iPad to turn on a hall light.

You -can- just flip a switch off and flip back on and a connected bulb will just default to "on full blast."

I put just enough connected bulbs in my house to have a little fun and to do some timer stuff when I'm away.

It will also turn on a specific scene when you leave the house and when you return, based on your phone leaving and re-entering your house's wifi. That's cool but a little more than what I'm looking for, I think.

I have the Hue as well in my bedroom. Good to know I can also use the GE connected bulbs, as they are half the price. Timed off and on, can turn on when you approach the house with your phone. Lots, like hundreds of colors or use their presets. Several cool free apps as well.

I guess my Nest thermostat qualifies as "home automation" but Nest/Google have been pretty slow to extend to other things. Smoke alarms don't excite me.

Google bought Dropcam, but it isn't integrated with Nest in any meaningful way, and I think Dropcam is exorbitantly priced anyway.

I am getting started in a very small way. Bought an Insteon camera from another Pelican. Ordered the basic Insteon "Hub". Apparently that hub is very limited, which may be why it is only $40. The "Hub Pro" is coming out soonish, costs $150, and supposedly it and all the other Insteon products will be compatible with Apple Homekit, when that ever gets off the ground. Anyway I will play with this stuff and see what I think, then decide whether to go further down the Insteon path, or to get a different path.

This was supposed to be my career... twenty years ago... I'm pretty disappointed at how slow the tech is moving on this.

Ya know... like out flying cars and the paperless office.

but I'm not bitter :p

FWIW one of my Prof. had his house wired to a computer (cough*** twenty years ago**** cough) and he could dial up connect to his house and turn stuff on/off.

But it shouldn't be too difficult, sorry I am too lazy to dig up any info right now... but there was a commercial running on TV last year... some guy operating his house remotely with his smart phone.

Now were is my life like female robot?

Both of my houses are done by Crestron, if you have the means its the hands down winner.

My brother is probably the biggest Crestron installer up this way. My understanding is that Crestron is great for multi-million dollar homes and commercial applications. It uses a lot of proprietary standards, but its very extensible and rock solid when set up properly. The problem is that it costs big $$$ to set up or modify.

True, but it controls my security, my lighting, my media devices and even my lawn sprinklers. The only downside is I have to refresh all of my touch panel batteries every year.

Thanks, Scott. The Creston systems are more than I want, both in cost and functionality. I don't want my home to be automated to that degree. And I want to DIY this.

Seems to me, with Apple entering this year, and Google/Nest too, the ease of setup, ease of use, and cost should all improve pretty dramatically.

Home automation.... such a joke in this day and age. Standards and manufacturers are all over the place.

In 1989, I came up with a Macintosh-based home automation system with a custom Hypercard interface. I went on a road show with Apple salespeople to pitch it to builders for inclusion in new, high priced tract homes. Back then, it was costly at about $3,500 per system, but it had all sorts of features, including connection to the local public school system for school monitoring, and of course, all the electrical on/off capabilities to control your home. The builders were concerned with every nickel, so it never took off. We were close to getting it off the ground in Victorville, California, but came up short. I can only imagine how far it would have progressed by now.

They have a pretty slick system at Lowes. Name escapes me.

Covers all the basics.

if i hadn't already gone with the nest I would look hard at that system.

This was the same conclusion I came to when researching the topic a year ago. The closest we got was two Ecobee thermostats, a Big Ass Fan with SenseME and a herd of Lutron Maestro switches (not true automation, but press/hold for 2 seconds for delayed turn off is nice).

Too many standards and cost is still way up there.

This. I have looked into this and Motion is exactly right. It's all over the place. Each system out there is good at one thing, then sucks at everything else. Noone makes a good system that does everything you want.

I want one App/system that will control my lighting, alarm, HVAC, garage doors, sprinkler system, fridge/appliances, TV/DVR, and water heater. Each of these individual manufacturers currently have a way to do that but then I have to buy 10 different systems to get total automation.

Nest is a neat thermostat but it only works for very, very basic systems. I have a two furnace, four zone, humidity controlled HVAC system. Nest can't do that. Honeywell has a pretty nice setup, I can change my thermostat from their phone app, but I can't control the higher order functions remotely.

I would say wait 5 years, then someone will tackle this. My guess is it will be Google.

Home automation, autonomous cars, personal robots...I've been waiting to live like the Jetsons for nearly 50 years!


Well, at least I have a Roomba. :rolleyes:

This is the problem that Apple Homekit is supposed to solve.


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Patience is required. We are just on the cusp of the smart phone taking over our world - even more than it already has. iOS & Android apps along with compatible hardware will make home control systems à la Crestron et al vastly overpriced & obsolete.

Ian

Oh yeah! It has to control the Roomba!