Table Of Content

Home Automation by Dwight Spivey Home Automation Home Automation For Dummies® Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permis- sion of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. WordPress is a registered trademark of WordPress Foundation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Control Number: 2014946669 ISBN: 978-1-118-94926-9 ISBN 978-1-118-94926-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-94927-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-94964-1 (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents at a Glance Introduction ................................................................ 1 Part I: Introducing Home Automation ............................ 5 Chapter 1: Home Automation 101 ....................................................................................7 Chapter 2: What You Need to Get Started ....................................................................23 Chapter 3: Determining Your Home Automation Needs (and Wants) ......................37 Part II: Automating Inside Your Home ......................... 49 Chapter 4: Keeping Your Cool or Turning Up the Heat ..............................................51 Chapter 5: Nice and Tidy Does It! ..................................................................................75 Chapter 6: I’m in the Mood for . . . Anything: Automated Lighting ............................89 Chapter 7: Safe, Sound, and Hunkered Down .............................................................109 Chapter 8: Home, Home on the Automatic Range: The Automated Kitchen .............................................................................................135 Chapter 9: Monitoring Water Use and Detecting Leaks ............................................155 Chapter 10: Smart Home Entertainment .....................................................................165 Part III: Automating Outside Your Home.................... 189 Chapter 11: Checking the Weather ..............................................................................191 Chapter 12: Your Grandfather’s Dream, Your Reality: Automating Lawn Care ...............................................................................................205 Part IV: Taking Command of Your Home Automation Systems ................................................ 225 Chapter 13: Working with Mobile Devices and Computers ......................................227 Chapter 14: Controlling Your Home from One Platform ...........................................249 Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................... 265 Chapter 15: Ten Easy Ways to Begin Automating Your Home .................................267 Chapter 16: Ten Great Websites for Home Automation ...........................................285 Chapter 17: Ten Other Options for Automating Your Life .......................................301 Index ...................................................................... 319 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................. 1 About This Book ..............................................................................................2 Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2 Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................3 Beyond the Book .............................................................................................4 Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................4 Part I: Introducing Home Automation ............................. 5 Chapter 1: Home Automation 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Defining Home Automation ............................................................................8 Doing it the old-fashioned way .............................................................8 Automating homes today ....................................................................10 Benefitting from Home Automation ............................................................11 Convenience is key! .............................................................................11 S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y .......................................................................................13 The bottom line: $ ................................................................................15 Understanding the Tech Involved in Home Automation ..........................16 The technical state of home automation today ...............................16 Current home networking protocols .................................................17 The future of home automation technology ....................................22 Chapter 2: What You Need to Get Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Happiness Is a Wireless Network ................................................................24 Preparing your network for the extra load .......................................24 Being cautious when adding new devices to your network ...........27 Having the Right Tools for the Job ..............................................................30 Actual tools you’ll need ......................................................................31 Computers and smartphones and tablets, oh my! ..........................31 Power to get the job done...................................................................33 Chapter 3: Determining Your Home Automation Needs (and Wants) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Considering Factors Before You Buy ..........................................................38 Identifying your automation goals .....................................................38 Assess your needs ...............................................................................43 Deciding How Much You Want to Automate ..............................................46 Starting small ........................................................................................46 Going LARGE.........................................................................................47 viii Home Automation For Dummies Part II: Automating Inside Your Home .......................... 49 Chapter 4: Keeping Your Cool or Turning Up the Heat . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Controlling Your Thermostat from Afar .....................................................52 How setting temps remotely benefits you ........................................52 The tech behind the thermostat ........................................................53 Introducing the Big Players in the Thermostat Arena ..............................54 Honeywell .............................................................................................54 Nest ........................................................................................................58 Belkin .....................................................................................................61 ecobee ...................................................................................................63 Lennox ...................................................................................................67 Trane .....................................................................................................70 Venstar ..................................................................................................73 Chapter 5: Nice and Tidy Does It! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Cleaning Up While You’re Away ..................................................................76 Keeping clean while on the go ...........................................................76 Automating cleaning chores ...............................................................76 Understanding how it all works .........................................................77 Introducing a Who’s Who of the Remote Cleaning World ........................77 iRobot ....................................................................................................77 LG ...........................................................................................................82 RoboMop ...............................................................................................82 Neato Robotics .....................................................................................84 Grillbot ..................................................................................................85 RoboSnail ..............................................................................................87 Chapter 6: I’m in the Mood for . . . Anything: Automated Lighting . . . .89 Lighting Your Life Automatically .................................................................90 Reasons for automatic lighting ..........................................................90 Auto-lighting technology .....................................................................91 Illuminating the Kings of Automatic Lighting ............................................92 Philips ....................................................................................................93 INSTEON ................................................................................................97 TCP ......................................................................................................102 SmartThings .......................................................................................104 Belkin ...................................................................................................107 Chapter 7: Safe, Sound, and Hunkered Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109 Establishing Security in the Automatic Age .............................................110 Keeping your eyes homeward ..........................................................111 Locking things down .........................................................................111 ix Table of Contents Staking Out the Wardens of Home Security .............................................112 SmartThings .......................................................................................112 Belkin ...................................................................................................114 Alarm.com ...........................................................................................115 ADT ......................................................................................................117 Vivint ...................................................................................................118 Schlage ................................................................................................120 August .................................................................................................123 Yale ......................................................................................................125 Lockitron .............................................................................................126 Kwikset ................................................................................................129 Piper ....................................................................................................132 Chapter 8: Home, Home on the Automatic Range: The Automated Kitchen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135 Cooking Without Being in the Kitchen, and Other Kitchen Awesomeness ............................................................................136 Checking Out the Top Home Automation Chefs ......................................137 Crock-Pot with WeMo ........................................................................137 LG .........................................................................................................139 Whirlpool ............................................................................................141 GE .........................................................................................................143 iDevices ...............................................................................................145 Quirky ..................................................................................................152 Chapter 9: Monitoring Water Use and Detecting Leaks . . . . . . . . . . .155 Watching Your Water Usage ......................................................................156 The why’s of monitoring water ........................................................156 The how’s of monitoring water ........................................................157 Assessing the Water Monitoring Mavens .................................................157 Wally ....................................................................................................158 Driblet ..................................................................................................160 INSTEON ..............................................................................................162 Chapter 10: Smart Home Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165 Modernizing Home Entertainment ............................................................166 Home entertainment today ...............................................................166 Smart home entertainment technology ..........................................167 Introducing the Smart Home Entertainment Gurus ................................168 Roomie ................................................................................................168 Blumoo ................................................................................................172 Logitech...............................................................................................173 Apple ...................................................................................................176 Roku .....................................................................................................178 Google..................................................................................................181 Bose .....................................................................................................185 Sonos ...................................................................................................186 x Home Automation For Dummies Part III: Automating Outside Your Home .................... 189 Chapter 11: Checking the Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191 Keeping Tabs on the Weather ....................................................................191 Checking the Weather Automatically .......................................................192 Netatmo ...............................................................................................193 ARCHOS ...............................................................................................197 AcuRite ................................................................................................199 Chapter 12: Your Grandfather’s Dream, Your Reality: Automating Lawn Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205 Caring for Your Lawn Doesn’t Have to Break Your Back .......................206 Reasons for automating lawn care ..................................................206 Lawn care tasks that you can automate .........................................207 Getting to Know the Top Companies in Lawn Automation ....................207 Robomow ............................................................................................208 Husqvarna ...........................................................................................211 LawnBott .............................................................................................214 Robotic mowers around the world ..................................................216 Watering Your Lawn Automatically ..........................................................220 Cyber Rain ..........................................................................................220 Rachio ..................................................................................................222 Part IV: Taking Command of Your Home Automation Systems ................................................. 225 Chapter 13: Working with Mobile Devices and Computers . . . . . . . .227 Discovering Devices Commonly Used for Smart Home Automation .........................................................................228 Smartphones ......................................................................................228 Tablets .................................................................................................235 Computers ..........................................................................................239 Keeping Apps Up-to-Date ............................................................................245 iOS ........................................................................................................245 Android ...............................................................................................247 OS X .....................................................................................................247 Windows..............................................................................................248 Chapter 14: Controlling Your Home from One Platform . . . . . . . . . . . .249 Examining the Lack of Unity .......................................................................250 Recognizing the “higgledy-piggledy” state of home automation .............................................................250 Seeing ways to achieve platform unity ...........................................251 xi Table of Contents Choosing the Single-Platform Path ............................................................251 Peeling Apple’s HomeKit ...................................................................252 Wink-ing at Home Depot ...................................................................255 Opting for Multi-Protocol Solutions ..........................................................257 Revolv-ing around a hub ...................................................................257 Building your CastleOS .....................................................................259 Link(sys)ing with Staples Connect ..................................................262 Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................ 265 Chapter 15: Ten Easy Ways to Begin Automating Your Home . . . . . .267 Wink ...............................................................................................................268 Philips Hue products .........................................................................269 Dropcam ..............................................................................................271 Nest Protect ........................................................................................272 Quirky Spotter ....................................................................................274 Quirky+GE Pivot Power Genius ........................................................275 Leviton Dimming Plug-In Lamp Module ..........................................276 Quirky Tripper ...................................................................................277 WeMo ............................................................................................................279 Insight Switch .....................................................................................279 NetCam ................................................................................................280 LED Lighting .......................................................................................282 Chapter 16: Ten Great Websites for Home Automation . . . . . . . . . . . .285 Smarthome ...................................................................................................285 CNET ..............................................................................................................287 CEA ................................................................................................................288 SmartThings .................................................................................................289 Amazon .........................................................................................................290 Home Controls .............................................................................................292 Z-Wave.com ..................................................................................................294 ZigBee Alliance .............................................................................................295 Lowes ............................................................................................................296 Home Depot ..................................................................................................297 Chapter 17: Ten Other Options for Automating Your Life . . . . . . . . . .301 Cleaning Your Home’s Gutters ...................................................................302 Making a Robot Part of Your Family .........................................................303 Feeding Pets While You’re Away ...............................................................305 xii Home Automation For Dummies Cleaning Up Kitty Litter ..............................................................................307 Using standard litter ..........................................................................307 A kitty toilet? Why, yes, indeed! .......................................................308 Cleaning Your Pool the Robotic Way ........................................................308 Waking Up to a Fresh Cup of Joe ...............................................................310 Starting Your Vehicle Remotely .................................................................311 Flushing Your Troubles Away Automatically ..........................................312 Pulling the Shades from Across the Room ...............................................314 Controlling Your Home’s Humidity ...........................................................316 Index ....................................................................... 319 Introduction F lying was a pleasure meant only for birds or for fools jumping off a cliff with homemade wings. The stuff of fancy and fantastical tales. In 1903, a couple of brothers put that kind of talk to rest with the first flights of their Flyer in North Carolina. Computers in the home was something only seen in science-fiction films until a few kids got together in one of their parents’ garage and created a little thing they called the Apple I. According to Forrest Gump, that little “fruit company” has done quite well since those days. Staying on that theme, folks used to think that teleportation was only possi- ble in Star Trek, but just yesterday I was beamed from my local transporter to our secret moon base in no time flat! It was really — uh oh! I’m not supposed to talk about that yet . . . just forget you read that last paragraph, please. Nothing to see here. Moving on. The point is that when it comes to technology, fiction can often become reality. The fiction of being able to automate our homes became a reality a few decades ago, but it was something only the very (and I do mean very) well-heeled could afford. Since the advent of the smartphone (there’s that “fruit company” again) and the proliferation of cellular networks, we have had greater access to each other and our world than we’ve ever dreamed. As smartphones and apps have grown in popularity, so has the need to use them in ways many of us couldn’t have conceived of before. Today we not only can make calls and send texts, but we also use our smartphones (and tablets) for watching movies, catching up on the news, checking weather forecasts, viewing live sporting events, listening to our favorite music, and many more tasks that Isaac Asimov couldn’t have thought of. Wi-Fi networks and the Internet have also opened the door (in some cases literally) to a whole new level of home accessibility: using our smart devices and apps with our home’s Wi-Fi network to remotely control and automate tasks in our home. You can use your iOS or Android device to adjust the tem- perature, set the mood with customized lighting schemes, preheat the oven so you can cook your meal the moment you walk in the door, and even tell your lawn mower to start cutting your grass. That’s just scratching the sur- face of what you can do with today’s smart home automation technology — and in this book, I happily tackle the subject with you.

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by  Dwight Spivey
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Home Automation by Dwight Spivey Home Automation Home Automation For Dummies® Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permis- sion of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. WordPress is a registered trademark of WordPress Foundation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Control Number: 2014946669 ISBN: 978-1-118-94926-9 ISBN 978-1-118-94926-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-94927-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-94964-1 (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents at a Glance Introduction ................................................................ 1 Part I: Introducing Home Automation ............................ 5 Chapter 1: Home Automation 101 ....................................................................................7 Chapter 2: What You Need to Get Started ....................................................................23 Chapter 3: Determining Your Home Automation Needs (and Wants) ......................37 Part II: Automating Inside Your Home ......................... 49 Chapter 4: Keeping Your Cool or Turning Up the Heat ..............................................51 Chapter 5: Nice and Tidy Does It! ..................................................................................75 Chapter 6: I’m in the Mood for . . . Anything: Automated Lighting ............................89 Chapter 7: Safe, Sound, and Hunkered Down .............................................................109 Chapter 8: Home, Home on the Automatic Range: The Automated Kitchen .............................................................................................135 Chapter 9: Monitoring Water Use and Detecting Leaks ............................................155 Chapter 10: Smart Home Entertainment .....................................................................165 Part III: Automating Outside Your Home.................... 189 Chapter 11: Checking the Weather ..............................................................................191 Chapter 12: Your Grandfather’s Dream, Your Reality: Automating Lawn Care ...............................................................................................205 Part IV: Taking Command of Your Home Automation Systems ................................................ 225 Chapter 13: Working with Mobile Devices and Computers ......................................227 Chapter 14: Controlling Your Home from One Platform ...........................................249 Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................... 265 Chapter 15: Ten Easy Ways to Begin Automating Your Home .................................267 Chapter 16: Ten Great Websites for Home Automation ...........................................285 Chapter 17: Ten Other Options for Automating Your Life .......................................301 Index ...................................................................... 319 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................. 1 About This Book ..............................................................................................2 Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2 Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................3 Beyond the Book .............................................................................................4 Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................4 Part I: Introducing Home Automation ............................. 5 Chapter 1: Home Automation 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Defining Home Automation ............................................................................8 Doing it the old-fashioned way .............................................................8 Automating homes today ....................................................................10 Benefitting from Home Automation ............................................................11 Convenience is key! .............................................................................11 S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y .......................................................................................13 The bottom line: $ ................................................................................15 Understanding the Tech Involved in Home Automation ..........................16 The technical state of home automation today ...............................16 Current home networking protocols .................................................17 The future of home automation technology ....................................22 Chapter 2: What You Need to Get Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Happiness Is a Wireless Network ................................................................24 Preparing your network for the extra load .......................................24 Being cautious when adding new devices to your network ...........27 Having the Right Tools for the Job ..............................................................30 Actual tools you’ll need ......................................................................31 Computers and smartphones and tablets, oh my! ..........................31 Power to get the job done...................................................................33 Chapter 3: Determining Your Home Automation Needs (and Wants) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Considering Factors Before You Buy ..........................................................38 Identifying your automation goals .....................................................38 Assess your needs ...............................................................................43 Deciding How Much You Want to Automate ..............................................46 Starting small ........................................................................................46 Going LARGE.........................................................................................47 viii Home Automation For Dummies Part II: Automating Inside Your Home .......................... 49 Chapter 4: Keeping Your Cool or Turning Up the Heat . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Controlling Your Thermostat from Afar .....................................................52 How setting temps remotely benefits you ........................................52 The tech behind the thermostat ........................................................53 Introducing the Big Players in the Thermostat Arena ..............................54 Honeywell .............................................................................................54 Nest ........................................................................................................58 Belkin .....................................................................................................61 ecobee ...................................................................................................63 Lennox ...................................................................................................67 Trane .....................................................................................................70 Venstar ..................................................................................................73 Chapter 5: Nice and Tidy Does It! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Cleaning Up While You’re Away ..................................................................76 Keeping clean while on the go ...........................................................76 Automating cleaning chores ...............................................................76 Understanding how it all works .........................................................77 Introducing a Who’s Who of the Remote Cleaning World ........................77 iRobot ....................................................................................................77 LG ...........................................................................................................82 RoboMop ...............................................................................................82 Neato Robotics .....................................................................................84 Grillbot ..................................................................................................85 RoboSnail ..............................................................................................87 Chapter 6: I’m in the Mood for . . . Anything: Automated Lighting . . . .89 Lighting Your Life Automatically .................................................................90 Reasons for automatic lighting ..........................................................90 Auto-lighting technology .....................................................................91 Illuminating the Kings of Automatic Lighting ............................................92 Philips ....................................................................................................93 INSTEON ................................................................................................97 TCP ......................................................................................................102 SmartThings .......................................................................................104 Belkin ...................................................................................................107 Chapter 7: Safe, Sound, and Hunkered Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109 Establishing Security in the Automatic Age .............................................110 Keeping your eyes homeward ..........................................................111 Locking things down .........................................................................111 ix Table of Contents Staking Out the Wardens of Home Security .............................................112 SmartThings .......................................................................................112 Belkin ...................................................................................................114 Alarm.com ...........................................................................................115 ADT ......................................................................................................117 Vivint ...................................................................................................118 Schlage ................................................................................................120 August .................................................................................................123 Yale ......................................................................................................125 Lockitron .............................................................................................126 Kwikset ................................................................................................129 Piper ....................................................................................................132 Chapter 8: Home, Home on the Automatic Range: The Automated Kitchen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135 Cooking Without Being in the Kitchen, and Other Kitchen Awesomeness ............................................................................136 Checking Out the Top Home Automation Chefs ......................................137 Crock-Pot with WeMo ........................................................................137 LG .........................................................................................................139 Whirlpool ............................................................................................141 GE .........................................................................................................143 iDevices ...............................................................................................145 Quirky ..................................................................................................152 Chapter 9: Monitoring Water Use and Detecting Leaks . . . . . . . . . . .155 Watching Your Water Usage ......................................................................156 The why’s of monitoring water ........................................................156 The how’s of monitoring water ........................................................157 Assessing the Water Monitoring Mavens .................................................157 Wally ....................................................................................................158 Driblet ..................................................................................................160 INSTEON ..............................................................................................162 Chapter 10: Smart Home Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165 Modernizing Home Entertainment ............................................................166 Home entertainment today ...............................................................166 Smart home entertainment technology ..........................................167 Introducing the Smart Home Entertainment Gurus ................................168 Roomie ................................................................................................168 Blumoo ................................................................................................172 Logitech...............................................................................................173 Apple ...................................................................................................176 Roku .....................................................................................................178 Google..................................................................................................181 Bose .....................................................................................................185 Sonos ...................................................................................................186 x Home Automation For Dummies Part III: Automating Outside Your Home .................... 189 Chapter 11: Checking the Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191 Keeping Tabs on the Weather ....................................................................191 Checking the Weather Automatically .......................................................192 Netatmo ...............................................................................................193 ARCHOS ...............................................................................................197 AcuRite ................................................................................................199 Chapter 12: Your Grandfather’s Dream, Your Reality: Automating Lawn Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205 Caring for Your Lawn Doesn’t Have to Break Your Back .......................206 Reasons for automating lawn care ..................................................206 Lawn care tasks that you can automate .........................................207 Getting to Know the Top Companies in Lawn Automation ....................207 Robomow ............................................................................................208 Husqvarna ...........................................................................................211 LawnBott .............................................................................................214 Robotic mowers around the world ..................................................216 Watering Your Lawn Automatically ..........................................................220 Cyber Rain ..........................................................................................220 Rachio ..................................................................................................222 Part IV: Taking Command of Your Home Automation Systems ................................................. 225 Chapter 13: Working with Mobile Devices and Computers . . . . . . . .227 Discovering Devices Commonly Used for Smart Home Automation .........................................................................228 Smartphones ......................................................................................228 Tablets .................................................................................................235 Computers ..........................................................................................239 Keeping Apps Up-to-Date ............................................................................245 iOS ........................................................................................................245 Android ...............................................................................................247 OS X .....................................................................................................247 Windows..............................................................................................248 Chapter 14: Controlling Your Home from One Platform . . . . . . . . . . . .249 Examining the Lack of Unity .......................................................................250 Recognizing the “higgledy-piggledy” state of home automation .............................................................250 Seeing ways to achieve platform unity ...........................................251 xi Table of Contents Choosing the Single-Platform Path ............................................................251 Peeling Apple’s HomeKit ...................................................................252 Wink-ing at Home Depot ...................................................................255 Opting for Multi-Protocol Solutions ..........................................................257 Revolv-ing around a hub ...................................................................257 Building your CastleOS .....................................................................259 Link(sys)ing with Staples Connect ..................................................262 Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................ 265 Chapter 15: Ten Easy Ways to Begin Automating Your Home . . . . . .267 Wink ...............................................................................................................268 Philips Hue products .........................................................................269 Dropcam ..............................................................................................271 Nest Protect ........................................................................................272 Quirky Spotter ....................................................................................274 Quirky+GE Pivot Power Genius ........................................................275 Leviton Dimming Plug-In Lamp Module ..........................................276 Quirky Tripper ...................................................................................277 WeMo ............................................................................................................279 Insight Switch .....................................................................................279 NetCam ................................................................................................280 LED Lighting .......................................................................................282 Chapter 16: Ten Great Websites for Home Automation . . . . . . . . . . . .285 Smarthome ...................................................................................................285 CNET ..............................................................................................................287 CEA ................................................................................................................288 SmartThings .................................................................................................289 Amazon .........................................................................................................290 Home Controls .............................................................................................292 Z-Wave.com ..................................................................................................294 ZigBee Alliance .............................................................................................295 Lowes ............................................................................................................296 Home Depot ..................................................................................................297 Chapter 17: Ten Other Options for Automating Your Life . . . . . . . . . .301 Cleaning Your Home’s Gutters ...................................................................302 Making a Robot Part of Your Family .........................................................303 Feeding Pets While You’re Away ...............................................................305 xii Home Automation For Dummies Cleaning Up Kitty Litter ..............................................................................307 Using standard litter ..........................................................................307 A kitty toilet? Why, yes, indeed! .......................................................308 Cleaning Your Pool the Robotic Way ........................................................308 Waking Up to a Fresh Cup of Joe ...............................................................310 Starting Your Vehicle Remotely .................................................................311 Flushing Your Troubles Away Automatically ..........................................312 Pulling the Shades from Across the Room ...............................................314 Controlling Your Home’s Humidity ...........................................................316 Index ....................................................................... 319 Introduction F lying was a pleasure meant only for birds or for fools jumping off a cliff with homemade wings. The stuff of fancy and fantastical tales. In 1903, a couple of brothers put that kind of talk to rest with the first flights of their Flyer in North Carolina. Computers in the home was something only seen in science-fiction films until a few kids got together in one of their parents’ garage and created a little thing they called the Apple I. According to Forrest Gump, that little “fruit company” has done quite well since those days. Staying on that theme, folks used to think that teleportation was only possi- ble in Star Trek, but just yesterday I was beamed from my local transporter to our secret moon base in no time flat! It was really — uh oh! I’m not supposed to talk about that yet . . . just forget you read that last paragraph, please. Nothing to see here. Moving on. The point is that when it comes to technology, fiction can often become reality. The fiction of being able to automate our homes became a reality a few decades ago, but it was something only the very (and I do mean very) well-heeled could afford. Since the advent of the smartphone (there’s that “fruit company” again) and the proliferation of cellular networks, we have had greater access to each other and our world than we’ve ever dreamed. As smartphones and apps have grown in popularity, so has the need to use them in ways many of us couldn’t have conceived of before. Today we not only can make calls and send texts, but we also use our smartphones (and tablets) for watching movies, catching up on the news, checking weather forecasts, viewing live sporting events, listening to our favorite music, and many more tasks that Isaac Asimov couldn’t have thought of. Wi-Fi networks and the Internet have also opened the door (in some cases literally) to a whole new level of home accessibility: using our smart devices and apps with our home’s Wi-Fi network to remotely control and automate tasks in our home. You can use your iOS or Android device to adjust the tem- perature, set the mood with customized lighting schemes, preheat the oven so you can cook your meal the moment you walk in the door, and even tell your lawn mower to start cutting your grass. That’s just scratching the sur- face of what you can do with today’s smart home automation technology — and in this book, I happily tackle the subject with you.

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