Home Automation 2.0

What is a Smart Home or Home Automation Hub? A Hub is a computer, it is a specialized computer. Like your cell phone is, in a sense also a computer but it is a specialized computer for the purpose of being a portable communications device. Some people do not realize that they probably have a couple dozen computers running in there home today. Even if the don't own a personal computer or laptop. Chances are you have a computer in your coffee maker. You have computers in your car, truck, suv, microwave, refrigerator, washer, dryer etc.. Depending on how recently they where purchased they even have networking gear inside them. Which means technically they could be already connecting to or could connect to other devices. Hubs range in price and capabilities from 1 end of the spectrum to the other. Some are great and some could could be used a paper weight. It is important to note that not all hubs are created equal. Hubs are self contained computer's refereed to as standalone c...

Welcome To Smart Home 2.0 I am writing my first blog because after months of searching for good information on smart homes online and coming up with more questions and less answers each time. I decided if I have this many questions there has to be more people out there with questions. If you have found my blog then you know exactly what I am saying. Do a google search you will get hundreds of results all saying the same thing, nothing you already didn't know. Top 10 smart homes 2016. Whats New In Smart Homes for 2017. Stuff like that with the same top 10 list and the same information. I published a few pages before they were done, I will be updating them and fixing them this week. So I am creating this page so the most recent post will be this one. I have provided links below: What is Home Automation? What type of home functions are typically automated? What Type Of Control should I Get? More Coming This Week Equipment List - hardware Equipment List - So...

Types of home functions typically automated: Lighting is almost always the first things someone automates when they start to build out there Home Automation System. Quickly followed by adding appliance controllers to there system. Then users typically have a good idea about how all the basics work and start looking for a brain for there system so they can try building more advanced functions. Lighting Functions Turning lights on and off Flashing Lights a certain number of times Brightening your lights from off to 100% on or any percentage Slowly or quickly brightening your lights from off to on over a specific amount of time Dimming your Lights from 100% to off or any percentage Slowly or quickly dimming your lights from on to off over a specific amount of time Dimming your Lights from 100% to 50% or any percentage Scheduling Lights to turn on and off at a certain times Triggering Lights off or on when a specific event or events happen All of these functions can...

What Is Home Automation? Home automation  is the use of one or more computers to control basic  home  functions and features automatically and sometimes remotely. An  automated home  is sometimes called a smart  home. That definition above is the popular version on hundreds of web today.  My definition is a bit different, I will write a entire post about it  later.   Now is the short Version BELOW: What is Home Automation?   Home Automation, is the use of networked devices to create a infinite array of virtual assistants designed to improve our quality of life. By Monitoring, Harvesting, Logging, Analyzing, Reporting and Reacting to our surroundings and us individually. Note: Home Automation is an aspect of a Smart Home in its self it would never be considered a SMART HOME. Below is where all the FUN Starts: Automated functions in Home Automation range from basic on & off functions to complex chains of fun...

What Type Of Control should I Get? It really depends on a few factors. Cost, Convenience, Control-ability.  There are more factors then just the three, we will stick with three for now. Cost Take my dining room as a example, just did the lighting last week. I have a chandelier that uses 8 bulbs. There is 1 switch that controls the lights in the chandelier. To purchase 8 Hue Smart Bulbs currently the cheapest smart bulb at my local home depot. $13.99 each so for smart bulbs it would cost $111.92. I can get LED non-dim 3, 3 packs for $9.00 or I can get dim-able ones for $12.00 and a smart switch $44.99 or a dim-able smart switch for $49.99. For  Cost  the switch option wins hands down Convenience If you do the Smart bulbs, you will have to pair 8 devices and control them separately. But you can create a zone and scenes to control them as a group. Which is great but all that takes more time to setup and manage. if you have to re-pair them s...