Recently Filed in Home Control

Sequels usually aren’t very good. But the updates made to this fully-automated haunted house make it even better than when we wrote about it last year. Digital Panacea, an integration company that does a lot of Home Automation Inc. (HAI) control system programming, revisited its spookiest client for a pre-Halloween tune-up. Halloween Park, a haunted attraction outside York, Pa., isn’t a typical haunted house. It’s interactive, meaning that visitors must solve clues in order to move through the scary rooms. The HAI automation system is… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Cool Homes • Slideshows

Gotta hand it to our tech-savvy readers, you’re coming up with very creative ways to answer our “What Do You Want to Control?” contest question. The Electronic House and Control4 home automation contest is still ongoing — click here to enter — and remember it will require a little storytelling on your end. So what exactly do you want to control? Here are some more of your hopes and requests: I would like to integrate a system that allows me to monitor two houses. We… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Info and Answers

One of the main tenets of green building is “Do you really need that?” Less becomes more. Smaller becomes better. And 8,000-square-foot homes are not supposed to be. A home that size should not be considered green, says green designer and consultant Michael Anschel of Otogawa-Anschel Design-Build in North Minneapolis, Minn. “The resource consumption, water consumption, land-use are all obscenely out of scale with what is appropriate, let alone required, for living.” Custom homebuilder Margie Hamrick of Ecoexistence in Vail, Colo., would disagree. She’s the… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Lighting Control • Lighting Control Systems • Green Technology • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Cool Homes

It’s always kind of fun to hear the things you’d really like to automate in your home. Sorry, no personal robots to do everything for you yet. Until then, you’ll have to rely on a home control system, which Electronic House is teaming with Control4 to provide you in our “What Do You Want to Control?” contest. We’ve been highlighting some contest entries the last couple of weeks—you must do some short creative writing as part of the contest entry—so here are more from this… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Product News

Almost everyone by now knows the long-term benefits of a smart grid: It will displace much of our country’s oil imports and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But arriving there could take decades. Even arriving at a workable smart grid is a massive undertaking, necessitating the establishment of hundreds of standards so the grid’s many pieces and parts can work together in a reliable and secure way, according the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in its draft of a Framework and Roadmap for Smart… View this story
Home Control • Industry • Networking and Communication • Power Management • Green Technology • Info and Answers

Each week we’re highlighting some of the entries in our “What Do You Want to Control?” contest, sponsored by Control4 and Electronic House. Registration is still open for entering into the sweepstakes. Requests range from conveniently lighting your home to simply controlling every aspect of one’s life. No big chore. And while last week the wives were hoping Control4 could control their husbands, this week it seems the husbands are joking back a little. So here goes with a sampling: I desperately need Control4 to… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Manufacturers • Product News

The entries are flooding in for our “What Do You Want to Control” contest sponsored by Electronic House and home automation manufacturer Control4. You still have plenty of time to register for the contest, and add your 150-word-or-less request to the mix. Here’s a sampling of entries we’ve received this week (and if you’re a wife looking to control your kids and/or husband ... based on the entries we’ve received, join the club): I would like to control the fact that I’m a control freak.… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Product News

If you ever thought about getting into home automation technology, but decided to hold off for whatever reason, now’s your chance. Even if you’ve got some wild ideas about what you want to automate in your home, no worries. Control4 has teamed with Electronic House to present the “What Do You Want to Control?” sweepstakes with a home control prize package for the winning entry. You have to do some of the work/planning though. You have to tell us about your home control project in… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Home Control • Product News

Home control is all about simplicity. You press a button and a million things happen. If you can’t find that button, though, it’s pointless to even have a system in your house. That’s why it’s so important to make sure the interface (i.e. remote control, touchpanel or keypad) you use to command the lights, thermostats, A/V gear and other devices is well designed by your custom electronics professional. It’s a difficult endeavor, both for manufacturers who build the interfaces and for the pros who design… View this story
Home Control • Touchpanels and Keypads • Remote Controls • Home Control • Info and Answers

Millions pay $12.95 a month for TiVo and millions more the same for satellite radio. The question is, will they pay $12.99 per month to control their homes? Schlage and Trane think so. The Schlage LiNK Home Control system starts with a Schlage door lock, which comes in many different finishes and arrangements, from brass entry locks to brushed nickel deadbolts. Each has the same basic features, a keypad for keyless entry and the ability to communicate with a Z-Wave wireless RF “mesh” network. Add… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Safety and Security • Home Security Systems • Reviews • Product News

At CEDIA Expo 2009, Control4 is showing OS 2.0, which allows custom electronics professionals to design their own GUIs, at least to some extent. “There’s more flexibility and personalization around the GUI,” says Control4 president Glen Mella. “We’ve always been the guys with one default screen. Now, if you want just TV and music in a room, then you can do that level of customization.” During a sneak preview before CEDIA, John Yoon, director of marketing demonstrated a “global” thermostat view, in which users could… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Touchpanels and Keypads • Product News

It’s easy to get swept away when planning for a home automation system. The systems are so robust they can do just about anything. However, it’s important to keep a level head when designing a system for your house. Your custom electronics professional (CE pro) will be there to guide you, of course, but it never hurts to know what to watch out for yourself. Here are some tips. Overdoing it. “Designing a grand home control system can be a very intoxicating experience, and something… View this story
Home Control • Home Control Systems • Touchpanels and Keypads • Info and Answers