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!

Google is everyone's personal business.
They are not welcome in my home.

I agree. Full smartphone home automation is probably 1-2 years away and current all-inclusive systems are big $$$.

Stuff I like now that is simple yet effective:

-Smart T-stats to control HVAC are cheap and work very well.
-Motion sensor lighting for both indoor/outdoor.
-Wifi based security cams that will text you a photo of an event based on your schedule or awareness settings. Great for home-away security.
-Irrigation automation complete with rain and soil moisture sensors.

All this stuff is available now and can be DIY set up starting around $500. I sorta like automation that takes care of things so I don't have to continually input commands.

The good news is these systems will most likely be all WiFi based, so installation should be easy, as in not running wires, etc thru your home.

I use Foscam cameras; simple to set up and inexpensive.

There is no likely about it. IP addressable is the route. Why anybody will need a controllable toaster or blender is beyond my comprehension but they are coming. Ditto every other convenience product you own or will own.

And future products will be able to access your network via hardwire, wireless or power lines & they will choose the best route automatically on the fly to eliminate any interruption.

Ian

Three years or so ago I had an alarm system installed by Alarm.com people. It was over a grand and that was mostly for two video cameras installed via Cat-10 cables to the cameras. I can turn my alarm on of off and monitor the cameras anytime. The camera are strictly outside. I will never have a camera inside my house watching my activities no matter how secure it is claimed to be.

The outside cameras are color but I would call them color-infrared. Trees and grass are red and they have great B&W night vision. They are handy when visitors are coming over. I can can see when someone has arrived. My driveway is on the side of my house as is the garage.

My biggest complaint is the video is not HD and it is one frame every .5 seconds so it is jerky and not real sharp. It is nice to be able to turn the system on or off from my phone or monitor it from anywhere.

I installed my sprinkler system 18 years ago. It is not a "smart" system but fully programmable. I can set the zone to run any length of time & it has four different programs that I can run. It has a rain & freeze sensor as well.

I don't see the need for a internet based thermostat. My thermostat has a program to fit our schedules. I just don't see the need to put it on the net. That goes for any appliance I have.

I designed a lighting system recently that has a photo sensor in each entry switch allowing you to sample light levels in each zone and adjust lighting levels according to exterior light conditions. have been talking to the manufacturer to take it a steep further and incorporate a color temp sensor too as the fixtures that I like to use can adjust color temp from 2000k-8650k.
the color of light changes through out the day and from day to day, this would make illuminated spaces seamless to outdoor natural light.
the systems are not cheep at this level-

Funny, I'm replacing the brains of our home system now. It lasted 14 years and was cutting edge in it's day, actually still is :) (I love the slow comments here)

I started looking at home automation as a spin off company to mine years ago so dove into it head on. My system controls alarm, lights dimmers and timers, HVAC, and has x10. I can call in and turn up the heat, lights on, etc. two touch pads, motion, glass break, fob access, doors, blah, blah. I smartly bought extra dimmer packs and two extra control units when I knew the industry was struggling a few years back.

I just hooked up LED lighting in a up lighting Cornise in the basement last summer when we built in our basement, very hard to dim led strips that span 18 yards each, but it worked.

Overall really pleased with the system I have video but it's wireless and not connected. About 10 more years and Google or Apple may have figured it out.


Bob

There's already one there, on your smartphone. And probably on your laptop. :eek::eek:

I don't own a laptop. I do have a iPhone and an iPad. They are turned off and face down every evening at bed time. There should be no video of our little Red Riding Hood or Alice in Wonderland antics. We never bring electronics in the dungeon!

Not a one size fits all answer to your question, but if you are looking for a cheap solution that works, a few items have done most of that for me...

Motion sensor lamps on timers exist that aren't connected to a system and cheap.
Nest for home thermostat - not cheap but really slick.
Regular IP cameras with motion sensing and cell-texting alert exist, also cheap.
Simply safe alarm for the rest: also cheap - get the most basic set and add whatever motion detector modules you need, and the water leaks modules as well and place them near your water tank or wherever it makes sense. The base station will also text you or call you ($350 or so for me but that included door sensors too).... IMO all that while not integrated under one umbrella is doable for cheap.

But each has a monthly fee if you want it to text you, in that sense an integrated solution might work out cheaper long term. Subscribed.

My wife and kids have an automated system. ME. They rely on me to turn out the lights for them when leaving a room, turn down the A/C on request and reheat dinner. They live like the Jetsons.

Clearly they aren't paying for the monitoring monthly contract that limits complaining about it on forum boards ;-) Shut up and do your job ;-) Funny !! I'm there too...

And the best part the "LET" you pay for the utilities and the service. :D

Just chiming back in with some opinions/info gathered after a bit of looking.

Starting later this year, Google and Apple will fight a war for your home.

Google's interest in the home is obvious. They paid $3.2BN for Nest (smart thermostat/smoke detector), $0.6BN for Dropcam (smart surveillance camera), some unknown sum for Revolv (hub to connect/manage home devices), and the companies who have signed up for the "Works With Nest" program. They also have Chromecast (sort of a lightweight Roku). Nest's CEO is one of only a handful of direct reports to Google's CEO.

Apple's CEO has said their next opportunities are health, car, home. Health is HealthKit, Apple Watch, iPhone apps. Car is Apple CarPlay, already showing up in some cars. Home is Homekit, dozens of companies that will make their products HomeKit-compatible/certified, and Apple TV. A new Apple TV is rumored to be coming this summer. HomeKit-compatible products will work with Apple TV in some undisclosed manner. It isn't confirmed that Apple TV will act as a home automation hub, but it will have an A8 processor, Wifi, Bluetooth, SDK and an App Store so it obviously could.

Google/Nest has gathered an industry group to popularize a new wireless communication protocol for home automation, called Thread (kind of a Zigbee derivative, and already used by Nest). Apple is using WiFi and Bluetooth, which are already pervasive. This seems like a VHS vs Betamax or Android vs iOS contest developing.

Well, I see why home automation hasn't gone anywhere, in a mass market sense. The systems are crap, from an ease of setup point of view.

I'm trying to setup an Insteon hub and IP camera. The hub was easy enough. The camera is a royal pain. The iPhone app that you are supposed to use to set it up can only handle a few things. For the rest you have to install and figure out a PC/Mac application that looks like it was developed in 1995. Then you need to log into your router and open ports. Who is really going to get down in the weeds with static IP, MAC, subnet, TCP UDP, and equally poorly written management software from Cisco and Comcast? Not enough people to make this a real market.

The new companies have figured out how to skip all that crap. The Nest thermostat takes five minutes to setup and all you need to know is the name and password for your wireless network. Dropcam doesn't need port forwarding. Etc. With new and smarter companies like this, I can see the market going somewhere.

Just like live streaming video via the internet... the tech has been able to do it for years but everyone controlling content wants a slice of the pie and holding up the show.

And speaking of cameras in the home, just logged onto yours jyl... love the Lion King PJ's!

Shop Iris Comfort and Control Kit at Lowes.com

You have summed it up well. We have seen it happen in the audio video side of the Consumer Electronics business over the last 10 years. We are rapidly moving from a standard handheld remote (or a spendy Crestron keypad) to an App on your phone or tablet which offers better control and far better content if necessary or desirable. Consumers will naturally gravitate to an inexpensive & easy diy plug and play solution so this is where real success will be found. As to format wars, iOS compatible products have been typically leading the charge with Android bringing up the rear so advantage is to Apple at this stage.

Ian

My Crestron dealer has been trying to get me to upgrade my panels to using "Ipads" but I just can't get used to the idea. I don't like walking around looking for an Ipad when I just have my panels in wall-docks around the house.

Probably just something I'll have to get used to in the future.