Hello Fellow Ebayers,

My name is Dale Haseley  and I have worked in  electrical/electronic industry for over 30 years. I have been heavily involved in industrial automation as well as residential electrical work. I am a Journeyman
Electrician and IBEW member in good standing.  I would like to speak briefly in this Guide about a rapidly growing field
of "Home Automation" Specifically in this Guide  I will stick to discussing various methods of remote light and appliance control. However keep in mind Home automation includes much more then this, including but not limited to security and home pc networks. We will save those for another time. But home automation is meant to make
our homes and lives more convenient and more efficient and a lot more
FUN!

I remember when fancy remote control equipment in nicer homes was done with low voltage and boxes of relays in the basement!

Now the most popular method is X10, But was is X10, well in a nutshell

X10 is a communications "language" that allows compatible products to talk to each other using the existing electrical wiring in the home. Most X10 compatible products are very affordable and the fact that they talk over existing wires in your home means that no costly rewiring is necessary. Installation is simple; a transmitter plugs (or wires) in at one location in the home and sends its control signal (on, off, dim, bright, etc.) to a receiver which plugs (or wires) into another location in the home. 

                                         X10 is Simple
Press a Button on the Transmitter and the Signal is Sent over Home's wiring to a Receiver

Using simple dials or buttons you assign each product with one of up to 256 addresses. If you wish two products to go on and off together you can set them to the same address or use scene addresses on many advanced products. All X10 compatible products can be freely mixed and matched - so use Smarthome products together with X10, Leviton, Stanley, IBM, JDS, ACT, Homepro, etc.

X10 however is NOT completely reliable. Not Too bad but not perfect
By any means.

Most of the time, X10 products work without any problems. However, because X10 products talk over your home's electrical wires they may have difficulties in two situations. The first is when there is an appliance running that generates "noise" onto the power line. Appliances that may cause problems are motors (e.g. dryer, treadmill, vacuum cleaner, etc.) and advanced electronics (e.g. switching power supplies on some laptops, some big screen TV's, etc.). The good news is that all you need to do is plug the appliance into a noise filter such as FilterLinc.

The second "issue" with X10 is when your X10 transmitter is on one "side" (phase) of your home's electrical wiring and the receiver is on the other "side". Many times the signal either bridges the two phases at the transformer at the street or via some 220V appliance in the home. When this doesn't happen, a simple plug-in phase coupler will solve this challenge.

For larger installations or electrical noisy areas such as in the city.
Or near a factory I would recommend the amplifier/repeater coupler.
As the name implies this device hears the signal from and x10
Switch let's say. Amplifies it and repeats the signal out on both
Phase conductors of a typical 220/110 volt home wiring system.
Still on occasion you may have to push that x10 button twice to get results!

X10 advantages:
* Inexpensive
* No new wiring is required -- perfect for retrofit
* Simple to install
* 100's of compatible products
* Control up to 256 lights and appliances
* Time proven -- it has been around for over 30 years

By far the more reliable system is Smartlabs INSTEON system
It beats x10 in reliability, but is a little more expensive
INSTEON is a robust, redundant dual-band mesh network that combines wireless radio frequency (RF) with the home's existing electrical wiring. INSTEON is less susceptible than other single-band networks to the kind of interference and noise commonly encountered within the home. INSTEON confirms every message to ensure that messages are received error-free, and it automatically retransmits corrupted messages. Because every INSTEON device acts as a two-way repeater, the INSTEON Network becomes stronger and more reliable as it grows. INSTEON-enabled devices will work with legacy X10 products.

Again INSTEON is the best-selling, most-reliable home automation technology. Using both the existing wires (power line) in the home and radio-frequency communication, INSTEON adds remote control and automation to lighting, appliance and home control applications of all types, This  new home automation standard allows you to manage your home the way you want. Easy to install and setup, INSTEON offers the flexibility and dependability to make your life more convenient, safe and fun.

Until next time,

Dale

Please check out the link below to learn more about home automation products.

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