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Ask Slashdot: Options For Cheap Home Automation?
New submitter goose-incarnated writes I'm looking at cheap and simple home automation. Unfortunately I'm not too clued up on what my options are. There are such a wide array of choices, none of which seem (to me) to be either cheap or simple. I'd like to:
Turn switches on/off (lights, wall sockets, general relays, etc); Read the status of on/off switches; Read analog samples (for example, temperature sensors); 'Program' switches based on analog samples/existing switches (for example, program a relay to come on at 30C and go off at 25C, thereby controlling the temperature); Similarly, program switches to go on/off at certain times; Record the samples of analog or digital inputs for a given time . I'd like to do the above using smartphone+bluetooth (for when I'm in the vicinity of the room), or smartdevice+WiFi (for when I'm in the house, somewhere), or even in a pinch, using HTTP to access a server at home from 600km away (which is what I'm willing to do). I'm definitely not willing to stream all my requests/data/responses through a third-party so third party cloud subscription solutions, even if free, are out of the question. Finally (because I know the Slashdot crowd likes a challenge :-)), I'd like something that is easily reprogrammable without having to compile code, then reflash a device, etc. What languages for embedded devices exist for home automation programming, if any. A quick google search reveals nothing specially made for end-users to reprogram their devices, but, like I said above, I'm clueless about options.
in NYC my electric bill is around $90 every month. breaks down to $25 for the electricity at $.095 per kilowatt hour, $55 for the wiring charge and the rest taxes and fees.
why spend $1000 to save $5 a month in electricity costs? because if i reduce my usage by 20%, that's $5 whole dollars a month in savings
Bah, do what people have been doing for centuries ... have kids and make them get up and do it.
When my kids stayed with their grandparents for a month, my electric bill dropped by more than half. You are delusional if you think kids will make your home more efficient.
Central control means nothing. X10 is completely insecure. Your power line is a shared bus. I had to coordinate with my neighbor to use different X10 channels, because we kept turning each other's stuff on and off. Anyone can just plug in a controller, and every X10 house downstream of the step down transformer will see the signals and respond. At one point I had a sniffer/sweeper running to debug the damn problem and that's when I got my neighbor's attention cause his house went bonkers when I swept the A channel. He moved to B and all was well after that. But still very insecure.
It cost $4.00 per year to keep a LED bulb (60 watts equivalent) on 100% of the time at 15 cents per KW/h. It would take over 10 years to pay for a switch to cover the cost. Add to this the cost of running the system as a whole and you are heavily into negative savings.
Most of the cost of having kids live with you comes from:
- laundry
- electronics
- curling irons and hair driers
- long showers
- cooking for more people
You can't reduce the laundry cost unless you get better equipment or manage laundry loads better
You can already optimize electronics power consumption by using the built in energy saving methods
You can try to educate the kids to control the length of their showers
Cooking has to continue so that cost will remain the same.
More people in a house hold equals more electricity and water usage. You can't avoid that.
In my opinion automation systems are really good for the following:
- T-Stat control (such as the Nexus) can reduce your heating/cooling bill significantly
- Oven outlet (in case you forget it on). This is both a cost saving and possibly a life saving since a large percentage of household fires are caused by ovens left on
Anything else I can think is more of a luxury such as auto ambience control, blinds...
My 2 cents.