Home Automation
The art of running your life remotely!
Common definitions of Home Automation include:
Climate control Lighting control Motorised devices such as blinds and curtains Security systems (including cameras) Home audio and video equipment Security systems (including cameras)What are the advantages of Home Automation?
At the moment most households have more or less automated appliances and systems that are independently operated, the principle behind home automation is to tie the operation of all these systems and appliances together.The ideal of home automation is that you should be able to control any and all of your automated systems and appliances from anywhere in your home, and that the systems and appliances have some connection with each other.
If you had full home automation for example, then at the end of the day or whenever you return home, you can do everything with the flick of one switch – open the garage door and turn off the lawn sprinklers while at the same time opening the front door and switching off the alarm system, switch on the lights and television, draw the curtains and make sure the calls go to voicemail.
That is what you call smart control.
This may sound fantastic, but at present all of these things are operated remotely but independent of each other in many homes, for true efficiency you need a system or network that will tie all these operations into one.
Use your iPhone as a remote control for your home
The iPhone home automation kit allows you to control anything electrical in up to 4 ways: on and off, and bright and dim (for lamps and lighting). You use your iPod touch or iPhone as a remote control, whether its within your own home over WiFi, or anywhere else over 3G.The set up is fairly simple: you plug your existing appliance or light into a plug and play module, assign it an address, and enter that address into the provided PC software.
It's then on your iPhone, allowing you full control by simply tapping your iPhone or iPod Touch's screen. Using the provided software, you can also automate and schedule everything from your kettle, to the lights and lamps in your house.
Links
coming soon coming soonWelcome to Home Automation
Home automation products are capable of delivering a complete home solution because they can integrate the control of lighting, video, audio, security and climate control into a single easy to use system.In the past you had no choice but to get out of your chair to turn the lights on or off, to open or close blinds and curtains, to change television channels and so on. Most of us just did these things as a matter of habit and anything that was automated was usually a result of some home hobbyist having a go at making things a bit easier.
This is no longer the case, and there is now a much wider interest in home automation and what can be done to increase people’s levels of comfort and provide more independence for those with a physical disability.
The way things are going, research suggests that it won’t be long before we can enjoy full home automation where virtually everything can be controlled at the touch of a button, no matter where you are in the home. This may sound fantastic, but home automation has increased considerably over the last twenty years and it is still a growth area.
Automated systems for the home
Remote lighting, curtain and blind control is already established in many homes and for anyone with limited mobility this type of automation gives them some level of control over their environment. The digitalisation of home entertainment has meant that people have been able to control music systems and televisions from their armchairs. Broadband and wireless internet connections have allowed an increasing number of people to work from home, freeing them from the drudgery of the work commute on a daily basis.The principle idea behind increasing home automation is to make life comfortable and more enjoyable and current research centres on ways of streamlining home automation to make things even easier. At the moment, besides lighting, curtains and home entertainment systems, we have digital home security systems, lawn sprinklers, communication systems, heating and cooling, along with an increasing number of home appliances.
Using wireless networks for Home Automation
The best way to get all your home automation operating from one point is to look more closely at wireless networks. WiFi networks connect computers in your home and office with no problems because it is an ideal means of distributing data, both audio and visual to different parts of your home. However, if full home automation is to be achieved in the manner described above, then you need two separate WiFi networks. You need a network that will deal with all of the data and broadband content, and another to deal with all the appliances and automated systems in your home.At the moment there are existing networks for dealing with the systems and appliances in your home, which at the moment are more popular in the US than they are in Britain. There are three major networks in operation at the moment, and these are:
X10, which is a power line technology that makes use of your home’s electrical system to provide a home automation network.
Wireless radio signals, which are a more sophisticated version of an ordinary RF TV remote, and moist of the emerging wireless technologies are based on this principle.
Phone lines, while this is feasible there are very few options available in this area.
Structured wiring is the most reliable option but is only practicable in new homes where the system is built in.
All home automation systems stand or fall by their interface and emerging technologies control systems through mobiles and PDAs. There are, for example, home security systems that send alerts to your mobile if there is a problem and let you view what is going on at home on your mobile or PDA screen. Out of the four technologies for home automation cited above, the most popular, certainly in the US is X10 and it has a growing following in the UK. The most promising emerging technology is based on a wireless system like that from Z-Wave in the US and other companies in the UK.
The UK is fast catching up with what is going on over the pond and there are new systems emerging all the time. As per most of the material in this article, the front runner in home automation is wireless technology and many do it yourself and home electrical and computer suppliers, now sell these systems to the general public. Wireless technology is fast changing the world in which we live and it would seem to be an ideal medium for integrated home automation systems.