Tired of nagging about the Lights?

Home automation pays for itself. When I was a boy, I remember the constant refrain of "turn off the lights" - red faced rants on learning about the other direction that a switch could flick for some reason did nothing but amuse me. That was probably because I wasn't paying the bills.

Now I have four energy wasters of my own, pay the bills, and worry about the impact of our collective energy squandering on the world. I still remind them to turn off the lights, but now I have an energy warden: my HAI home automation system. It runs security, smoke alarms, thermostats, and lights in a completely programmable and coordinated way.

The first step was installation of the security devices. I prefer wired items for the core security system, because there are fewer things that can go wrong. My favorite security device is a motion detector with both infrared and radar: the GE Precision RCR-A. There are no false alarms and nothing escapes the watchful eye of this detector. Doors and windows need sensors to detect opening and closing. I suggest you skip the sonic glass break detectors, they create way to many false alarms to be useful.

Special thermostats replace the existing ones so they can be controlled by the central system, smoke and carbon monoxide can be wired to the central system, and you can add any other sensors you would like, such as humidity or other temperature sensors.

The lights are replaced with special switches that can report their status and be controlled by the central system. I use UPB switches because they are extremely reliable, and don't require any changes to your house wiring. I have tried X10 switches in the past, but they are slow, not reliable, subject to interference from many appliances, and can actually cross-talk with a neighbor who is also using X10. I considered wireless switches like Z-Wave, but they didn't have the selection or tight integration with the HAI that I was looking for. Now that HAI has Z-wave support, I would consider Z-wave if it is competitive on price and switch selection. Even though Z-wave is wireless, it could be faster and more reliable than UPB since UPB has to coexist with the power signal and there is the added expense of bridging your two 120V lines using a UPB coupler. The ideal solution is hardwire control of your light switches, where the switches all have a dedicated low voltage control line back to the panel, but that isn't practical unless you are building a new house and plan for this before the sheetrock is installed.

Installing the switches is very easy. You simply shut off the circuit breaker that supplies the switch you want to replace, remove the switch plate cover, remove the switch from the wall outlet box, and remove the wires from the old switch. Then you use the supplied wire nuts to connect the new switch wires to the house wires, and reinstall the switch and switch plate cover. The new switches use decora style rocker switches, so you may need to order new switch cover plates too. Sometimes it isn't obvious which wire is the supply line from the breaker and which is the line from the switch to the light fixture, so when in doubt use a voltmeter to check (the supply "hot" will always have voltage, but the fixture "load" will only have voltage when the light is on). It can get a bit cramped when you have three or more switches in a single box (this is called 3-gang or 4-gang), but it just take patience to carefully bend the wires toward the back of the outlet boxes.

When you have more than one switch that controls the same fixture, you use an auxiliary switch that sends control commands to the master over the "traveler" wire. There are several different ways to wire a multi-switch system, but the most common is for the supply line to come into one switch, a traveler line connecting one switch to the other, and the fixture load in the second switch box. Again, the voltmeter can really help here in understanding the wire layout. If you are confused and unwilling to research this, you can skip these fixtures or consult an electrician.

To interact with the system, you need keypads, which in addition to arming and disarming the system, can be used to control any feature in the house. You also can buy software to control the system from your PC, using a web browser, mobile phone, or windows media center.

Once you have this all in place, you have tremendous flexilibility and power to control the house. You can turn lights on slowly in the morning to wake up, and turn them off an hour after sunrise. You can turn off lights after no motion is detected for an hour. You can turn off all lights in the house (or most of them) when you arm the security system. You can turn off the HVAC automatically if the fire alarm goes off. You can turn off the HVAC when doors and windows are open for fresh air. You can turn up and down the thermostat based upon motion or other occupancy indicators. You can check to see if the kids still have the lights on in their room using your computer, or manually override anything using your computer or phone.

The switches cost about $50 a piece, so they pay for themselves after they save 250 - 500 kilowatt hours, which for a 500 watt fixture is 500 - 1000 hours. if you have lights staying on 12 or more hours a day because they aren't getting turned off, they can pay for themselves in a couple of months. The thermostats are $100 a piece, but can pay for themselves even faster. Saving yourself from getting worked up over the waste: priceless.