Automate Your Lights Using Your Home Computer
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
Putting your lights on timers is a smart move, especially if you travel a lot or get home from work late at night. Seeing the indoor lights on can fool burglars into believing someone is at home even when they’re not. Thieves want the easiest route, the one that is least likely to force them into a confrontation, so they’re not likely to break in if they think someone is at home.
Now it’s easier than ever to automate your lights with gadgets such as the HouseLinc Desktop Starter Kit. With this software, you can control any Insteon and X10 devices (two of the most popular security brands when it comes to lighting and home automation) directly from your home computer, using a USB powerline interface. The software makes it easy to schedule times for lights to turn on and off every day (you can even rotate when exactly you want the lights to come on each day, to offer a more realistic effect). You do need to leave your computer on at all times if you want the events to be triggered (for some people, the computer is on all the time anyway, so it’s no big deal). The price for the software is $140 from SmartHome: