The idea and the promise of home automation is to connect any type of device you can think of in your home so that they can be controlled from anyplace on the planet and they can also react to one another. Devices such as your entertainment systems, appliances, heating and cooling system, security systems, lawn sprinklers, telephones and intercoms, lighting and even your window blinds can be controlled using the latest in home automation technology. Just imagine arriving at your house after work and the garage door opens, the alarm system is disabled, and the downstairs lights come on while the news is tuned on to the television. Your oven is preheating and house has already been cooling to or heating to the temperature you like for the past half an hour.

To make all of this happen, you have to network all of these things together and you have to have a home network. As a general rule you will two separate networks within your house, one that will run your broadband internet and one that will control the devices in your house. These networks can and should talk to each other. Home Automation networks only need low data rates to work well, most of the time the data rate is 200kbps or less and is very inexpensive, uses very little power and can control hundreds of devices.

There is one other critical piece of a home automation system. The interface is really the key to everything from a user’s perspective. How are you going to tell the system what to do and when to do it is the job of the interface? You should be able to use many devices to control your system. The system should come with a remote and/or a touchpad. It should be able to be controlled via the internet from anywhere in the world using any device that can connect to the web. Your tablet computer, your laptop, you’re smart phone should all be sufficient to connect to and control your home automation network.

Shop around and get the best deal from a home automation dealer in your area, but be sure whatever you decide to purchase has no limitations as far as what you can control within your house while you are not there.

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