Column from PC Magazine: Wherefore Art Thou, Smart Homes?

I once had high hopes of creating a ‘smart’ house. I have a bunch of X10 remotely controlled light switches and plug-ins and IR motion detectors and remote camera monitoring modules. I even got some software to control them all.

And it didn’t provide a very satisfactory environment, for two reasons. First, when you are walking from room to room, it is easier to turn the lights on and off as you walk by the switch rather than trying to find the remote control that isn’t where you usually leave it. Second, I am trying to migrate to compact flourescent lighting and the X10 modules don’t work with flourescents.

So all my remote lighting control is down to my being able to turn the lights in the TV room on and off from my chair.

The remote camera is still up in the barn to monitor the horses, but the only time you want to monitor them is when it is too dark to see anything and those cameras weren’t very good anyway. You could tell if there as a horse in frame and if it was standing or laying down. I don’t think you could tell which horse it was.

I never found the need to try remote HVAC controls. We don’t have a zoned house and the thermostat is outside the bedroom door.

I can see that a ‘smart ‘ building is an energy efficient method for office buildings and other large structures that have energy zones. In the standard home, it seems like a lot of overkill.

Why do I need a tool to turn off all the lights in the house at one time. 99% of the time the only lights in the house to be turned off are the ones in the room I am in. We usually turnoff lights when we leave rooms and a final walkthrough the house in the evening catches any lingering lights.

So the upshot for ‘smart’ homes is they aren’t worth the time, money and effort unless you want to really geek out.