Insteon Motion Sensor

Rating: 4 out of 5

Home automation is one of those addicting things that feeds off itself once you get going.  For example, many people (myself included) begin with an assortment of light switches and remote controls, thinking that controlling any light in the house from the couch is as good as it gets.  Once the system works, we begin to take the functionality for granted, and almost become annoyed with the prospect of having to reach for the lighting remote.  "Shouldn't it just know what I want?" begins to enter our thoughts and the next phase of upgrades begins.

One of the key aspects of having a system 'know' more about us has been termed presence awareness and basically it involves sensors...many of them.  There are some very cool projects out there involving RFID tags, bluetooth proximity applications etc, but they all have shortcomings for the average person (RFID is still very much a hacked technology with no solid integration offered yet, and bluetooth proximity requires you to always carry your cellphone...even at night, when you're wearing your robe.)  As these mature, I'll be all over them however for now a more practical solution involves motion sensors - Affordable, easy to install and they don't require you to carry anything for them to work. 

Insteon	Zigbee
Rating: 5 out of 5	Rating: 2 out of 5

There are a plethora of products out there that claim to be able to convert your home into the dream house you imagine it to be.  Auto-closing curtains, lighting that adapts to your mood, you know the drill.  For years, Zigbee has been working on refining its wireless, ‘self-organizing mesh network’ technologies outside of the scope of home automation, preferring to target the commercial groups and applications by providing kits for product developers rather than the end-user products themselves. 

Zigbee has always been more of a standard (802.15) than a brand name, which is why you won’t find much when searching for ‘Zigbee products’ and they’ve created an entire framework for development with the Zigbee Alliance, Zigbee PRO standard and Zigbee Home Automation application profile.  The idea is that by making life simpler for product developers we will see a variety of competing brands offering every product the consumer could imagine.  It’s taken about 9 years for the Zigbee concept to ratify itself into a standard, but now that it’s there, who is using it and how does it stack up?

1. Start Simple

The biggest obstacle to home automation isn't the technology or the installation, it's the overwhelming amount of information to digest when getting started.  To avoid "analysis paralysis" and get a feel for how the technology works, begin with a starter kit.  Contained within is everything you need to form the basis for your later goals, and will give you the experience to move forward.

2.  Make a Plan

The next biggest issue that people run into is being scattered in their approach to home automation.  While some people enjoy this approach of randomly adding things, for the majority of home automators a specific vision of how you want your house to feel and act can guide you as you expand the system.  Tools like Microsoft Visio (Windows) or OmniGraffle (Mac) can aid in your design, or a good old fashioned pen and paper can work too.  Begin by writing your goals (ie. "Temperature control from anywhere in the house" or "Flash all the lights when the doorbell rings") and then decompose the goals into lists of items needed.  A list of items and categories is available halfway down the home automation review article. 

If you need help with the breakdown of ideas into components, discuss your goals in the comments below and other Live Automatic readers will help out.  

ISY-99i

Rating: 5 out of 5

Home automation holds tremendous promise, however much of the excitement felt when installing the devices turns to frustration when dealing with the current array of software packages.  Difficulties with software installation, hardware communication issues and steep learning curves for many of the packages leave the uninitiated with little progress after hours spent with configuration.  All of this while the other members of your household are screaming at you to stop turning the lights off on them…  Is the ISY-99i the answer?  Read on to find out.