Home Automation

[bapenguin]

Anyone have any experience with it? I'm just looking for some basics like hooking up a few light switches and lamps really.

I've been browsing the Smarthome site and there's a ton of technologies - most seem to be X10 compatible.

[biosc1]

http://www.htguys.com/

I used to listen to those guys when I had more money than I do now. I had to stop listening because I realized I couldn't always afford what they reviewed ;)

I remember the one guy got broken into, so he revamped his whole house with cameras and decided to do all his lighting as well. Looks like they just had a podcast regarding home automation as well. May be a good starting place.

[Handmade.Mercury]

Is your house going to be voice activated? That would be awesome.

[biosc1]

Is your house going to be voice activated? That would be awesome.

The features that interest me are:

Controlling heat from a web interface - To warm up the house before you arrive home
Pre-heating the oven before you drive home
Web cameras - You know...to make sure the maid is doing her job ;)
Lighting and blinds - Pressing a button to create the perfect theatre experience. I saw this occur once at this person's house and it was amazing.

[bapenguin]

The features that interest me are:

Controlling heat from a web interface - To warm up the house before you arrive home
Pre-heating the oven before you drive home
Web cameras - You know...to make sure the maid is doing her job ;)
Lighting and blinds - Pressing a button to create the perfect theatre experience. I saw this occur once at this person's house and it was amazing.


Well there's a few things I want to do

1) Thermostat control is definitely up there
2) Tying in lighting with the alarm system
3) Controlling certain lights around the house from a central location

I actually already have a web camera set up and it works great! Sadly...we have no maid.