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Home Automation, also known as making a home a "smart home", is the process of firstly providing remote on/off facilities for appropriate appliances, particularly lights. Once the remote capability is in place automation and sophistication can be applied. There are a number of ways that this can be achieved. In the simplest way, this can include adding a timer plug to a lamp, so the lamp turns on and off automatically. It can also be as advanced as hooking up a computer, and telling the computer to turn on and off your lights, lamps, coffee makers, television, and just about anything else that can be left "on" when unplugged, or controlled by remote signals. In extreme installations, rooms can sense not only the presence of a person but know who that person is and perhaps set appropriate lighting, temperature and music/TV taking into account day of week, time of day and other factors. Other automated tasks might be setting air conditioning (a/c) to adjust to an Energy Saving setting when the house is unoccupied and resetting so that the proper conditions are establish when an occupier is due to return. More sophisticated systems can maintain an Inventory of products recording their use (through perhaps an RFID tag) and preparing a shopping list or even ordering replacements automatically. TECHNOLOGIES There are different technologies that can be used to automate a home. The X10 technology is a power line communications protocol based on sending bits when the AC electrical system reaches the zero crossing (0 volt mark). This means it uses your existing home electrical system so that wires don't need to be run between devices. X10 is an open-loop communications protocol, which means that a command is sent but no acknowledgment is received. X10 products include manual consoles for sending commands, modules that receive commands, wall switches that send and receive commands and computer interfaces to permit programs such as Mr. House to control electrical appliances. Insteon is also a power line communications and wireless home-control networking technology. The system is a platform for home automation, incorporating dual band mesh networking — radio frequency (RF) integrated with power line communications. Insteon is a closed-loop technology, which means that when a command is sent out the protocol expects a response from the device acknowledging (I got it OK), not acknowledging (somethings wrong) or a time out due to no reply. This is just one feature that makes it more reliable than X10. Insteon can co-exist with X10 and UPB. Also the Insteon controller and modules support Insteon and X10 protocols. This permits you to keep existing X10 products and to upgrade to Insteon as you see fit. Insteon products include manual consoles for sending commands, modules that receive commands and send back replies, wall switches that send and receive commands and computer interfaces to permit programs such as Mr. House to control electrical appliances. UPB is also a power line communications technology, also closed loop. It uses your home's AC electrical system to communicate between devices. UPB can co-exist with X10 and Insteon technology. UPB uses 2-way communications, allowing devices to reveal their status with each other, providing feedback that commands have been successfully executed. The Z-Wave interface is based on communicating wirelessly. Although the same principles apply (For example, regular switches are replaced with a z-wave switch), there are no problems with devices not being reachable perhaps due to a Three Phase installation or use of electronic noise filters. Also, each z-wave device also repeats any commands it hears, so nearby devices can hear them as well. Z-Wave is a closed-loop technology. The ZigBee wireless technology is a robust, new network protocol standardizing wireless RF communications.ZigBee is primarily designed for low-speed sensor and control devices with low cost and low power in mind.Zigbee is strictly wireless, and is not backward-compatible with X-10.The ZigBee system promises to provide longer battery life and to be a lower-cost alternative to Bluetooth for wireless sensing and control applications. |
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