RE: X10/Room Occupancy/SWMBO acceptance

[Robert Chasmer <robert.chasmer@xxxxxxx>]

Tony BUTLER [mailto:roaming@xxxxxxx] wrote:
> There are two reasons why I will not be automating my curtains:
> 1/ I do not want to end up with a system where manually operating
> the curtains results in total confusion and the system unable to 
> handle it until someone in the know fixes it.
> 2/ The systems I ahve seen take far longer to close curtains than
I
> can do manually and if I'm going to go to the curtains and press
> the button on the closer, hell I may as well pull the chord and do
> it myself.

I only have automated curtains in one room, my lounge.  They were
faily
afordable and have a timer built into them so that they open at say
7.00,
and close at 9.00. 
Manually via the wall mounted button, or an IR remote can be
opened/closed/stoped using three individual buttons.

Personally I love them, I hardly ever need to manually open or close
them,
if they wern't automated they'd probably be left open.  They always
bring a
smile to anyone that visits, pose factor.  Its also nice to be able to
lie
on the couch, shut the curtains, dim the lights, and hit play on the
DVD
player.

The downsides for me, I need to reprogram the close/open times a few times
a
year to compensate for the changes in amount of daylight we get.  If
we had
a powercut, I wouldn't be able to close/open them.   Also had the
moment one
of them as screwed up, cheap Swish rubbish.  SWMBO wants me to
immediately
fix, or replace cost is not too important.  Proves she's got used to
having
them.

None of the other rooms downstairs have curtains, and the upstairs rooms
are
manual curtains with tie backs, or blinds etc.  I doubt I'll ever
automate
these, as I can think of better ways to waste my money, and with swish
out
of the picture...

Re: Automating lights etc, I think a house should operate in a
traditional
manor.  I want normal light switches that always work, good for me,
SWMBO
and guests.  If I can interface these with my computer or other
hardware for
a good price then great.  PIRs to automatically turn lights on/off
when
movement is detected seems a bit unreliable to me.  Fine as a
security
device in the garden but not much else.  I'd like to be able to talk
to my
lights "light on", or zap them with my pronto, even turning them
all off at
once seems usefull.  But other than that NO!  Why would I want to
turn the
light on in the office if everyones in the lounge, becuase I can?

For your SWMBO, I think a normal light switch is the way to go.  She
is
incontrol of when the light goes on/off, rather than the house trying
to
guess her.  Hell I can't even do that.  Maybe another swich on
your side of
the bed to turn her light on/off would solve the problem.

I've yet to see anyone discuss a lightswitch I'd want to implement
throughout my house.  All this X10 stuff seems a bit dodgey, and the
others
are too expensive or require complete re-wires to work well.  The
Lutron
Telumes are defintely heading in the right direction, they work with
traditional wiring and have IR remote control.  But I don't think you
can
interface these with other hardware (Serial link) like the other more
expensive Lutron kit.

Different types of HA suits different types of people.  Some HA is
hard to
use - Unhappy SWMBO, Some HA is invisible - SWMBO doesn't care, Some HA
is
easy to use - Happy SWMBO.  A happy SWMBO, make me happy, and gives me
a
bigger toy budget.


Rob
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