Visited California....Now I want home automation too...

[BigEasy]

Every time I visit California for business or pleasure, I find myself wanting to upgrade my house! First it was LED accent lighting, then it was minimalist home decor, now its home automation.

We visited a couple of friends in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach and both homes had built in home automation systems. Wow...everything was  controlled by smart phones or flat panel displays in the home. Security, environmental, lighting, entertainment...Very convenient and had a cool factor. Both friends said the systems also monitored energy  and lessened overall costs.

DW and I live in a restored 127 year old farmhouse and installing a complete home automation system would be quite daunting. But I made the first attempt...

I installed numerous Belkin WeMo WiFi smart light switches ($38 each and DIY installed) to control all of the external lighting and some of the interior lighting. We now can control those switches with our iPhones or iPads while home or away. For instance, we can turn on all the lights remotely and arrive to a fully lit home. Thinking of other WeMo add ons such as smart receptacles...

What have any of you done regarding home automation? Maybe just the beginning of Sky Net taking over the world from us humans!

Big Easy

[Bracken_Joy]

I tend to be a bit anti-gadget factor. Have you ever visited a house from the 70's that had the cutting edge technology of the time?

Cool when it's new, but that stuff does not age well. So as far as ROI, not a good bet IMO.

[cars+FIRE]

I have a wifi connected thermostat with a phone app which I thought was silly at the time of purchase (got upselled into it) but is actually super useful.

The parallel universe version of me has a house where my music is broadcast/streamed throughout the whole house and controllable anywhere, but that's about all that gets me excited in the connected home front.

[deborah]

Yes, ten years ago a work colleague was building a house, and had it completely wired with cat 5 cable. Pretty useless now, with everything WiFi. Sometimes I think electronics is the ultimate in consumer sucka!

[Ricky]

More stuff = more headache. I agree with Bracken_Joy in that these things don't age well. Home security is overrated (I'll never have nor pay for it - come rob me) and automation is just something that will become antiquated in 5 years - if it doesn't give you issues before that.

That said, I have a Nest. Nest is pretty much a "meh" device - could live without it. I just figured since thermostats are electronic anyway, why not get the one that claims to be the most energy efficient and I do have the option of controlling it from anywhere in the house.

[Bracken_Joy]

That said, I have a Nest. Nest is pretty much a "meh" device - could live without it. I just figured since thermostats are electronic anyway, why not get the one that claims to be the most energy efficient and I do have the option of controlling it from anywhere in the house.

I will say, I am pro-Nest. Like you said, you already have a thermostat, so this is an easy upgrade that makes sense. And it actually is designed brilliantly. DH is an electrical engineer, and he explain how current thermostats work- basically, they runrunrun until it says "we're at temp!" then stops. Which means it overshoots, and waits to cool down, and then clicks on again, and overshoots again... lots of wasted overshoots and cycling on and off your equipment. The nest overshoots a couple times, but records how long it takes to heat your space. So after that, it uses that info to stop prior to your set temperature and coast up to the asymptote- more efficient, more accurate, and easier on your equipment. (Apologies if I butchered the explanation- I'm trying to describe it as far as I recall his explanation).

[MrsPete]

I tend to be a bit anti-gadget factor. Have you ever visited a house from the 70's that had the cutting edge technology of the time?

Cool when it's new, but that stuff does not age well. So as far as ROI, not a good bet IMO.

I'm with you.  Anyone remember built-in intercoms?  A friend of mine had a record player that kind of "flipped out" of the wall.  And those TV commercials about using your smart phone to lock your doors?  I don't get the point.

[Bracken_Joy]

I tend to be a bit anti-gadget factor. Have you ever visited a house from the 70's that had the cutting edge technology of the time?

Cool when it's new, but that stuff does not age well. So as far as ROI, not a good bet IMO.

I'm with you.  Anyone remember built-in intercoms?  A friend of mine had a record player that kind of "flipped out" of the wall.  And those TV commercials about using your smart phone to lock your doors?  I don't get the point.

Ha, my parent's place totally had those intercoms. We actually did use them, but the house was just too damn big, IMO.

[wienerdog]

Depends how much you are a DIY type but I use Domotigz.  You can run it on a Raspberry Pi.  http://www.domoticz.com/wiki/Wemo

[JLee]

Yes, ten years ago a work colleague was building a house, and had it completely wired with cat 5 cable. Pretty useless now, with everything WiFi. Sometimes I think electronics is the ultimate in consumer sucka!

With (multiband) 802.11AC the speed advantage of a wired network is decreasing, but the consistency, reliability, and speed of a gigabit ethernet network is far from useless. You also don't run into frequency saturation difficulties with wired networks.

[WildJager]

Tech automation can be done elegantly.  It can also be overwhelmingly gaudy.  Window shades that automatically adjust for the time of day to accommodate a passive house I would consider a great use of current technology.  You can accomplish an energy efficient task even if you're off doing other chores.  Pretty much anything you can control with a smart phone instead of standing  up and doing it manually I consider a waste of resources.  If you have the capacity to click the buttons on your phone or tablet, you generally have the capacity to adjust whatever needs changing on your own.  There is a distinct difference between automation and gee wiz gadgetry.  That difference delineates what is timeless and what grows old when the honeymoon is over.

[BigEasy]

My main reasoning is home security....My wife or I returning home after dark can now arrive to a fully lit home.

Also, I can set the lighting to come on at different times when we're away to create the appearance of the home being occupied.

These WeMo switches cost $38 each and install in place of existing switches. So, for a couple hundred bucks, I can have a basic system in place.  Our next project is security cameras.

Big Easy

[Vilgan]

I *LOVE* our shades that go up and down with the click of a button. It was a serious relationship win since my wife prefers that they are all down at times and I prefer that they are all up anytime the sun is out. Rather than constantly adjusting them all manually which could result in a bit of a passive/aggressive tug of war, instead it just takes a split second of effort. Its not the most high tech solution possible, but it is one of our best purchases.

As for the smartphone control lights/etc stuff I found it a lot more interesting to build apps for than to actually have around the house. It makes everything more expensive and the benefits don't seem proportionate to the higher price.