Home Automation: We Used to Dream About This Stuff!

We saw these scenes in the Sci-Fi movies from our past. The lights turn on and off when you walk in or out of the kitchen. The hallway lights turns off after you lock the door. It may have sounded futuristic 5 years ago, but not any more.  Today’s technology can make your home “Smart.” There are a lot of home automation technologies on the market right now, like Insteon, X10 and Z-wave. I have spent last 4-6 months to make my home smart and wanted to share my setup with you.

There are many home automation technologies on the market right now, like Insteon, X10 and Z-wave.  After a lot of researching on the internet and on forums, I finally chose to use Z-wave technology.
 
Z-Wave is a wireless technology that makes regular household products, like lights, door locks and thermostats “smart.” Z-Wave products “talk” to each other wirelessly and securely, and can be accessed and controlled on your phone, tablet or pc. Here is the link to the z-wave home page where you can find what is the z-wave and what products you can use in z-wave system: http://www.z-wave.com/what_is_z-wave

Here is the list products I bought for my home automation.

1. Z-wave Controller: This will control all other z-wave devices and make devices to talk to each other. I am using VeraLite as my z-wave controller.

2. Led Bulbs.

• Philip Hue: this LED bulb can change both brightness and color. It actually can recreate any color in the spectrum.
• TCP Lighting: this LED bulb can change brightness only.