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I really like all the smart led bulbs that are out. I have a couple of ilumi first gen bulbs and will get some more when their second gen. ones are released. ilumi The World's Smartest LED Smartbulb with Bluetooth LE there is nice app for your smart phone also.
Yeah the smart bulbs are the easiest way to implement automation. Other methods require modifying the switch in the wall, or outlets/receptacles in the wall.
I'm still a ways off with the new construction in my home, so I am hoping the extra time will see continued improvement in the receptacles.
Some of them already offer load monitoring for wall outlets, so you can see the load per socket. I'd also like to have some of them with USB type C connectors built-in for easy charging without a brick/adapter. These are available today, but only with older USB connectors. Type-C is the future.
Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little Equities, Fixed Income, Metals, U308 and Crypto.
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We installed a Control4 system for about 5 years now and are very happy with it. We have all our entertainment equipment (8 TVs, 2 DVRs, Blue Ray, 2 Apple TVs, XBox, Wii, Amps & Digital Music Player), Speakers in every room, most of our lights inside and outside, our security system, two door bells, some external camera's, in home ethernet network and internet connections, and our wifi all connected in. You can also have automated door locks, garage doors, shutters and much more but we didn't do that. It can be controlled by their remotes, their tablets/touchscreens, but also any computer, laptop and phone with their app on it. I gotta say its really nice to be sitting on the couch watching TV and to grab you iphone and switch on/off anything in the house in seconds.
It's quiet clever how it works. For example unlike a conventional light switch, the light switches are actually two separate components. The first is the button/switch that you press and the second is the electrical connection that makes and breaks the circuit. While they are contained in the same fixture they work separately. So when you press the switch, it actually sends a message to the control box saying 'somebody just pressed this switch'. The control box then processes that information and responds. So in this example the control box knows when 'somebody presses this switch' we need to switch the light on, so it sends a message back to the light switch, telling it to complete the electrical circuit so that the light comes on. All pretty obvious but the beauty is that you can program anything you want. Some of our light switches when 'double tapped' switch on different sets of lights than when single tapped. In every room with a TV there is a light/dimmer switch that when held up (or down) increases the volume on the TV, and if tapped three times switchs the TV on (or off). We have keypad's in certain rooms where a single touch to a button can perform multiple functions. For example one of the buttons on the keypad in my bedroom is our 'good night button'. When you press that button, it switches off all the TVs and speakers, switches of all the lights and activates the alarm. You probably laughed when read above that our door bells are on the system. That's actually a very nice feature because you can program which rooms hear the door bell/get the audible alert. You can also have it so that TVs automatically pause and switch to a camera view of the door but we didn't do that.
Control4 is a dealer installed system rather than a DIY system. The good thing about that is that it's more reliable, the downside is that it's more expensive. The other downside, and the one thing I don't like, is that your dealer and not you has control of the system. I can not change anything, I have to get my dealer to log on and make the changes for me. Thankfully if its nothing major my dealer considers it maintenance and doesn't charge me, but adding a new component, buying a new TV etc, does involve some programming.
Cost is not surprisingly dependent upon what and how much you want to automate. The most expensive component in my system was not the automation devices themselves but an 8x8 HDMI Matrix Switch (8 inputs, 8 Ethernet outputs, with 8 Ethernet/HDMI converters for the TV end, allowing you to watch any input on any devicem and most importantly all at the same time) to do all the video switching. Unfortunately that component has had issues now on two separate occasions. Not only do I need the dealer to come out to trouble shoot it, but while there's a problem none of the TV's work in the entire house and there's no jury rigging the system.
Some pictures...
(one of those Cisco box's is a Cisco RV016 Multi-WAN VPN Router which allows me to have multiple internet connections and not lose my trading systems if one of the connections goes down. The others are just Ethernet switches. There's also a Cisco wireless router in another room that is hard wired back to here.)