Is the Smart Home Lighting System, really Smart!

May 17th, 2010

One of the basic automation system that can make a really smart investment is to install a smart light system that will detect the motion and turn on/off the lights. This will save energy for one and make your life a little more easy and comfortable and even smarter! But, the real trouble really kicks in when you decide to stay inside the room a little longer or you decide to stay awake. When the motion sensor doesn’t detect any motion for a long time then the systems turns off. This is a real problem and the smart home systems fails in those instances. The best alternative is to make the motion sensor detect objects to react accordingly to switch off the light in a series of dim downs. The smart light is not very smart when you have the light go off when you are reading a book or watching a movie. To get to the level of sophistication that is required to make a smart lighting system really go the right thing is a little ways down the road.

One alternative that is being suggested is to let the light system detect when a object, in this case the human on to its on stage and the human determines the length of the stay and turn the light off upon exit. That is not a very good alternative or can be called fully automated lighting system either. Smart lights do however save energy in the process. It can be made into a heat sensor then a optical sensor that we have at this present moment. Phillips is one company that leads when it comes to lighting home automation.

The other technology that is gaining momentum when it comes to light automation is the using solar as a way of powering your energy and also to regulate their operation. Solar energy is vital to conservation and energy manipulation.

Smart Home Products and What is X10?

May 3rd, 2010

x10 is the language of home appliances used between them to communicate between each other. A language originally coined by a Scottish company called Pico Electronics in 1975. X10 i like a protocol like the 802.11 protocol used in the cell phone communication but in the form of little bursts of radio waves in home appliances. Basically the x10 sets the standards for all the home devices and easier for controls and software to work together.

Functionality

The functionality is based on a 4 digit unit code and a house code. The unit code is a binary code or 1 through 16 and the house code is a numeric code from A to P . Together they can control 16×16=256 devices in a nut shell.

Phase Couplers

They operate seamlessly on most devices but runs into issues with high voltage appliances like washers/dryer and electric stoves. That can however be taken care by introducing additional phase couplers to distribute the x10 signal between the different phases.

Repeaters

Like any other signal the x10 signal incurs loss over a distance greater then 240 feet of electrical wire and that includes the junction boxes. A repeater system is what you need to take care this loss in signal.

With this brief introduction to home automation we have provided you with a starting point in getting your Do it yourself  automation projects. Here is a easy to understand home automation book to get your projects on the way.