Home Automation

     Today, intelligent home automation systems can control the environment of a home or business with unlimited applications, energy conservation, and affordable convenience. Homeowners can regulate every type of function at the touch of a button.

With conveniently located inter-active controllers, homeowners can control every aspect of their living environment to make the home more enjoyable. Heating and cooling, security, lights, appliances, telephones, and computers, become components of an integrated system that can be managed from inside the home or from a remote location by using a cellular phone. The comfort and convenience afforded by home automation is particularly valuable to families with busy lifestyles.

Lights and appliances can be automated using a "communication protocol" called X-10. This enables communication commands to be sent to lights and appliances over the existing AC wiring in your home. This means that it can easily be retrofitted to existing wiring already in the home.

     The lights can be activated by events such as the opening of a door or walking through a motion detector. For example, when you walk in the front door, the foyer light turns on. When a child awakens in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, the motion detector will turn on the hallway light.

     Some lights can randomly activated or dimmed by time of day from lighting program. For example, when you arm the alarm system in the away mode, individual room lights can turn on in a random pattern to give the home a "lived-in" look.

     Lights and appliances can be manually controlled from the wall switches or portable hand held controllers or scheduled automatically from your home’s computer.

Paging features of the alarm control panel are ideal for working parents. When children come home from school and disarm the alarm system, the control panel can page the parents, letting them know that their children are safe at home.

     Monitoring the comings and goings of housekeepers and baby-sitters is also important. Not only can you monitor what time the housekeeper arrived at home or left for the day, you can also arm the alarm system remotely, from the interactive phone module.

     Alarm systems are normally controlled from the keypad in the house. Portable hand held controllers can serve to arm and disarm the alarm system, as well as serve as a panic button. The telephone can act as an alarm controller also.   

At night time, it may be inconvenient to get to the alarm console. Since telephones are readily accessible throughout the house, the telephone can serve as a keypad. The alarm system can be armed from any telephone in the house, including portable phones.

While away from home, the telephone can be used to control the home’s functions. From a phone at work or a portable cell phone, a homeowner can arm or disarm the alarm system after they leave.

     Controlling the heating and air conditioning of a home through remote telephone access is also popular – especially for vacation homes. Just about any function in the house can be switched "on and off", can be controlled remotely by phone.

     Intelligent control of heating and cooling translates into comfort and energy savings. It doesn’t pay to heat or cool a house that is unoccupied, so why not have it "setback" automatically whether the alarm system is set in the "away from home" position?

     Let your alarm system do the energy savings for you. Upon returning home, when you disarm the alarm system, the thermostat kicks into "normal" temperature mode.

In the winter, arriving at a winter vacation home is uncomfortable for the first few hours until the house warms up. With an "interactive phone module" at your vacation home, you can pick up your car’s mobile phone while you are still on the highway, and tell your alarm system to turn on the heat. Your vacation home will be toasty warm when you arrive. Conversely, the same system can be used to turn on Central Air Conditioning for summer homes.