Second rung - now for a smart home
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Yippee! After a morning of on-again-off-again telephone calls between solicitors we've finally completed a house sale/purchase, and move another rung along the UK property ladder (and out of London now). The new home is a bit of a renovation project, which gives me ample oportunity to re-wire and to put in lots of "smart-home" features. Lighting control is sorted (I now do that for a living) but what are the best (and worst) other smart-home type features you've seen? What would your ideal house have in it gadget and automation -wise? Does anyone here have any success stories of things they've done? Sam W
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Yippee! After a morning of on-again-off-again telephone calls between solicitors we've finally completed a house sale/purchase, and move another rung along the UK property ladder (and out of London now). The new home is a bit of a renovation project, which gives me ample oportunity to re-wire and to put in lots of "smart-home" features. Lighting control is sorted (I now do that for a living) but what are the best (and worst) other smart-home type features you've seen? What would your ideal house have in it gadget and automation -wise? Does anyone here have any success stories of things they've done? Sam W
Gigabit ethernet everywhere for a start ! You can sort out the rest after that :) Elaine :rose: PS 'the rest' includes hot chocolate makers for winter, chocolate fridges for summer :cool: The tigress is here :-D
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Yippee! After a morning of on-again-off-again telephone calls between solicitors we've finally completed a house sale/purchase, and move another rung along the UK property ladder (and out of London now). The new home is a bit of a renovation project, which gives me ample oportunity to re-wire and to put in lots of "smart-home" features. Lighting control is sorted (I now do that for a living) but what are the best (and worst) other smart-home type features you've seen? What would your ideal house have in it gadget and automation -wise? Does anyone here have any success stories of things they've done? Sam W
Environment controls (save $) Distributed sound system Remote surveillance cameras Scheduled watering of plants/grass "You say your computer won't turn on? Let's see ... [flip flip flip]. Have you run ScanDisk?" - Tech Support
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Yippee! After a morning of on-again-off-again telephone calls between solicitors we've finally completed a house sale/purchase, and move another rung along the UK property ladder (and out of London now). The new home is a bit of a renovation project, which gives me ample oportunity to re-wire and to put in lots of "smart-home" features. Lighting control is sorted (I now do that for a living) but what are the best (and worst) other smart-home type features you've seen? What would your ideal house have in it gadget and automation -wise? Does anyone here have any success stories of things they've done? Sam W
I like the idea of smart houses, and have tried designing several components. One idea I especially like is adaptive heating/cooling. In my approach, each room would have separate temperature monitors and individually-controlled vents/registers. Each room could then have the environment tailored to match the occupants' preferences and the activities normally engaged in for that space. Ethernet cabling (and RS232 for older devices and simple controls) would be on my list, along with audio and video cabling to each room. If you anticipate small children, microphone jacks would be handy as well. And I enjoy having motion detectors around my current yard - anyone lurking in the yard triggers a light inside, creating the illusion of activity inside the house. One thing I'd like to play with one day is an intruder detection/tracking system using an array of waterproof microphones buried in the yard. It would be fun to use the sounds of people walking to follow their motions around the yard with a camera. The software would be a challenge, but it would be great fun!:-D
"Welcome to Arizona!
Drive Nice - We're Armed..."
- Proposed Sign at CA/AZ Border -
Yippee! After a morning of on-again-off-again telephone calls between solicitors we've finally completed a house sale/purchase, and move another rung along the UK property ladder (and out of London now). The new home is a bit of a renovation project, which gives me ample oportunity to re-wire and to put in lots of "smart-home" features. Lighting control is sorted (I now do that for a living) but what are the best (and worst) other smart-home type features you've seen? What would your ideal house have in it gadget and automation -wise? Does anyone here have any success stories of things they've done? Sam W
I assume you've checked out all the X10 sites. To detect cars on the driveway : http://www.smarthome.com/secvehicle.html[^] One system i found interesting is another way to determine if someone is in an area. Usually this is done with motion sensors or cameras that look at image deltas. This system sets up an EM field in an area. When someone enters the area the field is changed and this change can be measured : http://www.shed.com/articles/TN.proximity.html[^] There was a page (that i can't find again) that had photos and schematics. Currently most links seem to point to a site under construction. However, you can download a schematic from them at : http://www.bik.com/download/sensor.zip Unrelated, but still cool, is this setup to spy on wireless video cameras as you drive around. http://www.rhizome.org/RSG/RSG-X10-1[^] ...cmk Save the whales - collect the whole set