You may have heard the term “smart home system.” Smart home systems allow you to control and manage your living environment from devices such as keypads, telephones, handheld remotes, touch panels, or voice recognition. These devices allow you to control a preprogrammed CPU that connects various subsystems in your home. You can think of these systems as a home network, with many devices networked together to provide you with a more convenient and efficient lifestyle.

Home networks can be complicated and have special requirements such as structured wiring. This provides a base for all the subsystems in your home. You have wiring for devices such as telephones, television, and audio that runs to a centralized hub. The centralized hub also connects other services, such as computer networks and security systems. Structured wiring allows you do such things as plugging your telephone into a jack or plugging one computer into a jack to be instantly connected to another on the network in the same home.

Automating all this activity takes a little more work. Using structured wiring as a backbone for its connectivity, an intelligent controller links all your various sub-systems together through interfaces and protocols. This, in turn, allows you to control and/or monitor everything that the controller is linked to.

Controlling your environment is fun, exciting, and costly. Many new homes today are built with home control systems in mind, and have the proper wiring installed before the walls go up. If the walls of your home are already up, rewiring is a major project that requires careful planning and professional installation.

To get started with low cost home automation, X10 devices or INSTEON are a good choice.

No messy wires or anything and INSTEON is X10 compatible.

You can set up the INSTEON Holiday Lighting Starter Kit in less than five minutes. This INSTEON remote kit controls any connected device remotely using a simple “Plug and Tap” setup process.

To control “linked” devices, just tap one of the RemoteLinc’s buttons on or off, or you can hold a button to brighten or dim. Each of the six ON/OFF buttons on the RemoteLinc can be set up to control every light or just one light in your home remotely to create dramatic lighting scenes.

As a bonus, the included ApplianceLinc can control any load type, so you can remotely control anything from the spooky smoke machine in your entryway to a mechanical Santa waving to your neighbors from your rooftop.

Best of all, the INSTEON wireless remote kit can be used all year long. So, when you put your holiday gear away, you can use your INSTEON wireless remote kit to conveniently turn lighs on and off throughout your home!

Get yours – INSTEON Holiday Lighting Starter Kit

INSTEON , a product of SmartLabs, is a home control network with a revolutionary technology that allows you to control your home easily and affordably. INSTEON is more dependable and flexible than any other home management system on the market.
INSTEON uses your existing electrical wiring, combined with RF signals, and it’s simple to set up—I installed mine in minutes. Best of all, it’s backwards compatible with all your X10 devices. For instance, an INSTEON switch can turn on an X-10 lamp module. An X-10 switch can also turn on an INSTEON lamp module.

How Does INSTEON Work?

INSTEON is a dual-mesh network. The messages between devices are sent both wirelessly through Radio Frequency (RF) and through your home’s existing electrical wiring. Each message is confirmed as it is received. If errors are detected, the message is automatically resent. This network is also redundant; every device on an INSTEON network receives and sends every message to every other device, so instead of stressing the network by adding more INSTEON devices, you actually strengthen it.

INSTEON was specifically developed for home control and automation. Whether you’re looking for a basic lighting control system or envision a fully integrated and automated Home of Tomorrow, if you can dream it, you can do it with INSTEON.

What is INSTEON Used For?

• Scene and remote control lighting
• Security alarm interfaces and sensors
• Home sensors (e.g. water, humidity, temperature)
• Access control (e.g. door locks)
• Heating and cooling (HVAC) control and management
• Audio-video control
• Appliance management
• Fire alarm system networking
• Exhaust fan control and networking
• Irrigation control
• Shade and blind control

Getting Started with INSTEON Home Automation (Lighting and Appliance Control)