Home Automation For All

For many years the idea of ‘home automation’ has been regarded as a playground for only the wealthiest, or a work of science fiction. The reality is that, up until recently, the cost of these systems did indeed make them unattainable to most….

Enter Control4, automation for the rest of us!

Control4 is a cost effective way to enter into the world of home automation, also allowing you to build a system at whatever pace you want.

A majority of Control4 accessories can be added with no wiring, meaning that adding to your project is possible in many homes where existing construction would not permit wired installations.

But what is home automation you ask?

Most of us are familiar with universal remote controls, that make it easy to control all of our home audio and video equipment with one remote. Think of home automation as a ‘universal remote’ that controls things like lights, blinds, garage doors, thermostats, locks, and of course a/v equipment! These systems can be controlled by as little as a single remote, or any combination and number of handheld remotes, computer software, tablets, smart phones, on-wall touch screens, or tabletop keypads.

Home automation can also mean control and monitoring from anywhere you can connect to the internet! With Control4 you can turn off the light you forgot once you’re at work, turn down the air conditioning that you left on once you’re at the cottage, or make sure that you locked the front door before bed, without leaving the bedroom! A Control4 system can even email you to let you know the kids got home from school on time!

The other big part of a Control4 system, and where the term ‘automation’ comes from, is the system’s ability to do things on a schedule, or triggered by specific ‘events’. Triggers can be things like a door opening, the phone ringing, or a light switch being tapped twice or three times. At my house, when you tap a light switch by the front door three times, all the lights turn off, as does the TV. This means that when my wife is leaving the house, with our two kids in tow, she has an easy way to turn everything off all at once.

Interested yet?

This post will be just the first of many, keep your eyes peeled for the next installment. In the future entries I plan to highlight some examples of interesting Control4 installations we’ve done, as well as expanding more on the system’s capabilities.

If you’d like me to answer any questions you have about this technology, feel free to email me at daved@shopgibson.com, or follow me on twitter: @GibsonDaveD.