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If you're looking for some fun and creative ways to use Smarthome products
in your home, trust the people who know the products best.
The following are a few simple, fun solutions the Smarthome team has imagined.
Brief lists of required products
are included in case you want to mimic these solutions to help make your home
a Smarthome, too. |
Don't Panic When You Hear a Noise Late at Night
Enjoy Fresh-Brewed Coffee When You Get Up
Enjoy a Toasty Bathroom on Cool Mornings
Don't Leave the Garage Light on
Prevent Your Valuable Equipment From Overheating
Don't Let Your Guests Stumble in the Dark
Control Outdoor Lights Without Leaving the House
Add Candlelight to Mood Lighting Scenes
Create a TV-Watching Scene
Never Come Home to a Dark House
Add More Security to Your Automatic Garage Door Opener
Make Your Home Look Occupied When You're Away
Avoid Bright Lights on Dark Mornings
Turn on Different Sets of Lights From One Location
Stop Running Through the House to Turn Off the Lights When You Leave
Avoid Tripping in the Dark
Control Christmas Lights Without Crawling Beneath the Tree
Solution: Don't Panic When You Hear a Noise Late at Night
Required Products:
KeypadLinc V2 Dimmer Switch
SwitchLinc V2 Dimmers or LampLinc V2 plug-in modules for all lights to turn on
Link all the lights in the house to a single KeypadLinc button, and you'll have an "All On" panic button that can be pressed for instant peace of mind. As an added bonus, the button will double as an "All Off" button to ensure that no lights are left burning when you go to sleep.
Solution: Enjoy Fresh-Brewed Coffee When You Get Up
Required Products:
ControLinc Tabletop Controller
ApplianceLinc V2
Since you probably don't roll out of bed at the exact same time every morning, just plug your coffee pot into an ApplianceLinc module. Hit the programmed button on your ControLinc on your way to the shower, and by the time you're out, you'll have a pot of fresh-brewed coffee to enjoy as you're getting dressed!
Be sure to disable local control of appliance module to prevent accidental on.
Solution: Enjoy a Toasty Bathroom on Cool Mornings
Required Products:
ControLinc Tabletop Controller
SwitchLinc V2 Timer
On cool mornings, it can be hard to get out of a warm bed. We installed a SwitchLinc V2 Timer on the switch that controls the bathroom heater and turn the heater on from a bedside controller. The room is warm by the time we get in. Using a SwitchLinc Timer also comes in handy if someone forgets to turn the heater off. The heater turns off automatically, so it won't be wasting electricity or getting dangerously hot.
Solution: Don't Leave the Garage Light on
Required Products:
SwitchLinc V2 Timer
Instead of leaving the light on until you turn it off manually, wire in a SwitchLinc V2 Timer, and the light will shut off automatically. This is particularly convenient if your arms are full with laundry, groceries, or kids.
Solution: Prevent Your Valuable Equipment From Overheating
Required Products:
Sensaphone
Particularly important for companies that maintain their computer equipment in a single location, the Sensaphone can alert you if the air conditioning fails and the powerful equipment isn't kept at a cool temperature. This simple device connects to your phone line and calls up to four different numbers if it senses a marked increase or decrease in temperature.
Solution: Don't Let Your Guests Stumble in the Dark
Required Products:
ControLinc Tabletop Controller
SwitchLinc V2 Dimmers
Create a Night Light mode that sets all bathroom lights to 30% so that they are easy to find in the dark.
Solution: Control Outdoor Lights Without Leaving the House
Required Products:
X10 Mini Timer
Black & Decker Freewire 500-Watt Outdoor Lamp Modules
Use an X10 timer to control outdoor lights. In addition to having lights on a timed cycle, I like being able to control them from inside the house.
Solution: Add Candlelight to Mood Lighting Scenes
Required Products:
ControLinc Tabletop Controller
SwitchLinc V2 Dimmers or LampLinc V2 modules for all lights in the room
Electric Flicker Candles
One ApplianceLinc V2 for every Electric Flicker Candle
Set up the ControLinc to dim lights slowly while turning on the Electric Flicker Candles to create a romantic scene with the press of a single button.
Solution: Create a TV-Watching Scene
Required Products:
SwitchLinc V2 Dimmers for switched lights
LampLinc V2 plug-in modules for plug-in lamps
Set lights to a comfortable TV-watching level with a single switch. Link all the lights in the TV room to a single SwitchLinc and set them to 50%. You can also set the same scene to turn off lights in surrounding rooms or turn a hall light to a dim level in case you need to leave the room during your show. A quick double press turns all the lights on at full bright for reading if needed.
Solution: Never Come Home to a Dark House
Required Products:
PowerLinc V2 Controller with Smarthome Manager Essential, Timer Software
SwitchLinc V2 Dimmer at every light to be controlled
A simple yet basic for my family is the fact that our outside lights all come
on at sunset and turn off at unrise. By putting an INSTEON switch at each outdoor
light location and setting up a PowerLinc Controller with Timer software, this
was simple, affordable, and reliable. We can't live without it now.
Solution: Add More Security to Your Automatic Garage Door Opener
Required Products:
ControLinc Tabletop Controller or KeypadLinc V2 Dimmer
ApplianceLinc V2
When going on vacation, you may rest more easily if you lock the garage so it
can't be opened by a hacker on the radio frequency. An ApplianceLinc on the opener
allows the unit to be secured from an INSTEON command. For example, an "All house
secure" scene may turn off all lights and appliances and lock the garage door.
The garage door will not open again until the associated ApplianceLinc is turned
on.
Solution: Make Your Home Look Occupied When You're Away
Required Products:
PowerLinc V2 Controller with Smarthome Manager Essential, Timer Software
Install the timer software on your PC and connect the PowerLinc interface to your computer. Set up a program that turns lights on and off in different rooms
at different times to give the illusion that someone is home.
Solution: Avoid Bright Lights on Dark Mornings
Required Products:
SwitchLinc V2 Dimmer
Setting bathroom lights to ramp up slowly is a nice way to ease into the day.
Solution: Turn on Different Sets of Lights From One Location
Required Products:
KeypadLinc V2 Dimmer
SwitchLinc V2 Dimmers or SwitchLinc V2 Relays for connected lights
If you have both fluorescent and under-cabinet lights in your kitchen, you can turn the lights on in any combination from a single location. Install SwitchLinc
Relays to control fluorescent lights or other non-dimmable lights and SwitchLinc Dimmers to control dimmable lights. Install a KeypadLinc and link the SwitchLincs to
the KeypadLinc so that different buttons control different combinations of the kitchen lights. One button can even turn them all on.
Solution: Stop Running Through the House to Turn Off the Lights When You Leave
Required Products:
KeypadLinc V2 Dimmer
Install the KeypadLinc at your front door. Set up one button to represent "Daytime Goodbye" and another to represent "Nighttime Goodbye": Daytime Goodbye turns
off all the lights in the house. Nighttime Goodbye turns off all the lights in the house, turns on the porch light and sets the entry light to 50%. You can also create an
"Entry Mode," which lights the path from the front door to the family room.
Solution: Avoid Tripping in the Dark
Required Products:
ControLinc Tabletop Dimmer
SwitchLinc V2 Dimmer
If I want to get water in the middle of the night, I can turn on the kitchen light from my bedroom so I'm not walking in darkness and tripping over things.
Turning off the light from bed is convenient. Setting a slow ramp rate also allows time to walk through a room before it gets dark.
Solution: Control Christmas Lights Without Crawling Beneath the Tree
Required Products:
ApplianceLinc V2
ControLinc Tabletop Dimmer
We use a ControLinc to turn on the lights on the tree remotely, because its lights
are plugged in to an outlet behind the tree and we can't reach it. By plugging
the holiday lights into an ApplianceLinc, we can control them from any convenient
location.
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