Re: A mentor / Advisor ?

["accidental plumber" <aplayerinla@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Hackett wrote:

>
> Data:
> -----
> It's cool that each room has a cat5e run to it, but I've been happily using
> my wireless network for some time now, and wouldn't be disappointed if I
> continued using my wireless.  Although I don't know if my wireless Ethernet
> will help or interfere with any wireless HA products or services.  I
> definitely would like to have access to my HomeAutomation system via my data
> network (so I can access it from my laptop or from the internet .. maybe
> with some nat rules on my firewall).
>

Don't buy anything that would interfere with your wi-fi.  Would you go
back to looking for the Ethernet socket in every room you take your
laptop into?  I bet they didn't wire the bathroom, which I take my
laptop into everyday.  Guess what I'm doing now?

Everybody goes cordless, even though most homes have a telephone socket
in every room.

There are many things wi-fi, wi-fi cameras, media adapter, and even
residential main phone replacement.  Then the rest are most likely have
a USB for plugging into a PC.  Get the free VNC, which make the
commercial PC Anywhere like a joke, and you can control you home
desktop or a dedicated computer over the internet as if you are at
home.

> Phone:
> -------
> My phone requirements are pretty small.  Don't use home phone for much of
> anything.  Wife uses it occasionally, but for the most part we're cellular
> people, and would probably give up home phone service if not for DSL.  One
> person suggested installing big fancy phones in lieu of a speaker or
> intercom system.  I don't know if that's necessary or not .. probably not.
>

You should go for internet phone - Sunrocket or Vonage.  Not only they
will save money for light (and heavy) users, they have full features.
You can see your phone logs and read your voicemails over the internet.
 You can bring your phone with you anywhere in the world and people
still reach you as if you are at home, and the call is local charge
wise.  You have E911 instead of just 911.  But if there's a power
outage, your modem fails or your wireless router fails ...  They never
failed on me for years, 24/7.  But you have cell phones for back up.

The adapter is free if you want to keep your old telephones.  But if
you pick the wi-fi phone, you can use it on any hotspots I think.

But for DSL, you can't port your old number to the new service without
giving up your DSL service.  Go cable, 5 M is rather pleasant.

If you need an intercom, you need video intercom.  Otherwise a camera
is safer than voice intercom.  If you get a wi-fi cam around $100, you
can use it as a security cam when you leave home.  You can see it over
the internet without your PC.

> HVAC:
> --------
> I don't know what all the options are with this, but I would suspect that
> anything above and beyond the standard programmable thermostat would suffice
> for me.  It might be cool to have a few temperature sensors in various
> places in the home and control the system from those sensors as opposed to
> the single sensor that's in the thermostat.  In our current home, we moved
> the thermostat into the master bedroom instead of out in the hall.
> Definitely care more about the temp in the bedroom than in the hall way, and
> there's a significant difference.

I used wireless programmable thermostat Totaline.  I carry it where I
need the temperature to be regulated.   Evening time, center of the
living room.  Night time, the coolest or hottest bedroom.  More
thermostat is a waste, you only get bad compromises.  Optimum location
of thermostat depends on season and time.  If all your rooms are of
equal temperature no matte what, you just need the plain old
thermostat.

>
> Security:
> ---------
> Again, I would expect that whatever is above and beyond the standard system
> is cool with me.  My system now has standard burglar and fire monitoring
> with all the usual bells and whistles (zones, motion, perimeter, etc..).

Think wi-fi cam.  The range should be better than any of the x10 craps
and the 1.2 GHz tiny craps.  By definition you get as many cams as your
wireless router can support NAT.  Not just 1 channel for the 1.2GHz
craps and 4 channels for the 2.4G X-10 craps or similar craps on eBay.
You can see your home when you are on vacation.

>
> A/V:
> ------
> This is probably one of the bigger issues for us.  We have, and LOVE, our
> dual tuner DirectTivo.  Only problem is that we only have one of them in the
> family room.  We can't route the signal anywhere else.  Well, I suppose we
> could, but currently we don't.  I'm thinking there must be some sort of
> solution to put the TIVO, and all the other AV equipment in the theater, and
> use IR "stuff" to control it from other rooms, and program which signal goes
> where.  My guess is this stuff aint cheap, so it may be cost prohibitive.
> Oh .. and whole house audio is always cool.

The newer Tivo's are all network aware.  You can have a Ethernet
adapter or a wi-fi adapter.  Multi room transfers are the aim, but I
think you need 1 Tivo for each TV.  Well if you have plasma in each
room, I guess the price of tivo doesn't bother you.   I suppose you can
control all your Tivo's via your laptop wirelessly.  I think you can
grab the video with your desktop and beam it via wi-fi and receive it
with a wi-fi media adapter, if that's cheaper than a tivo box.

There are always those dump IR range extenders, which turn IR signal
into RF and back.  No line of sight is needed.

>
> Lighting:
> --------
> I don't think there's anything too unique about what I think is cool here.
> Pre-Set "scenes" like "evening" or "party" or "sleep time" or whatever.  I
> had a fellow out that was telling me that I would need to start replacing
> all the switches with some kind of $100 switch.  That would be WAY expensive
> for me .. I would bet the gang of switches in the entry way would cost me
> close to $1,000 to replace, and that's only taking 3 steps into the house!
>
> Whew .. that's a lot.  I guess what I'm thinking most about now is the main
> panel and how much it will cost to make sure that down the road I don't have
> to replace it because I didn't give it enough thought.

Even if you throw money indiscriminately into X-10, a main filter, lots
of blockers for noisy appliances, it's much cheaper.  Then it's fully
programmable via PC, and executed at the click of a button.  For
brownouts, you need some sort of interruptible power supply for the
lights, which I guess is not practical.  The alternative is battery
operated wireless switches, which by default should remember the on-off
state before brownout.  For the new standard, you have to wait till
next year.  Now there are propriety systems.