Getting started with home lighting automation

When you think about this from a home-owner point of view, it sorta makes sense that you'd want various lights to go off and on to make it look like someone's inside.

But from the point of view of break-in prevention, unless someone is casing your house and observing it (which is unlikely) then all the effort you're putting in will not really be any more effective than keeping one (or more) lights on all the time.

If it's night-time deterrence you're after, then keeping a bedroom light on (and/or onsuite bathroom light) that's visible from street (or the approach to the house) combined with a porch light (or anything that lights the exterior during the night) will be all you need.

Keep a radio going all the time as well. That might spook anyone expecting an empty house.

A TV going at night in a room that's visible from the street should give enough visual distraction to indicate that maybe someone's home.

Switched where? On the wall or in the lamps themselves? If they're on the wall then you can just replace the wall switches with ones that can be remote controlled. If you're talking table lamps without wall switches then you'd have to leave the lamps 'on' and plug them into controllable modules.

Some CF bulbs can be dimmed but many cheap ones can't. As such you'd need to make sure you don't use a dimmer switch to control them.

A Basic X-10 starter kit would probably handle most of your basic needs.

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 23:27:14 -0400, "wkearney99" spake thusly:

Wall switches.

I doubt these are dimmable. So if it the light is used as a normal light and I just get something simple that turns it on and off, I don't have to worry about it?

I'll look at these again -- so far it seems like I keep running in to kits that try to do everything from brewing coffee to running a rectal thermometer.

Thanks for your help,

JV

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 23:11:33 -0400, Some Guy spake thusly:

Thanks for your comments. I agree to a point, but I think it's better, for example, if I have the exterior lights go on after dark and go out around midnight. If these lights are on all day it definitely looks like you're gone. Maybe I don't need to run so many other lights, but a few going on and off I think will be a good idea.

JV

Always remember keys just keep your neighbors out. Anyone else WILL get in. A burgler wants the easiest way in to get the best and fastest way OUT.

Sure, having exterior lights on a timer is good - there are small electronic timers with LCD screens that are designed to replace a single-gang wall switch that you can program to turn on and off at different times of the week (and even add a 15 minute random window to the set time).

But I wouldn't have them go off at midnight. I think most residential breakins occurr at something like 3 or 4 in the morning. Also if you keep cars parked outside near the house, keeping a light on until just before sunrise is more of a deterrent to someone that might try to break in than if it was completely dark.

It sounds like you are more worried about your neighbors breaking into your house than a roving teenage delinquent.

Lights that turn on or off in a sequence are effective if a potential thief is approaching your house when the sequence is active. If you have a light change every hour or half hour during the night, what are the chances that a potential thief will be approaching your house at the exact instant that a change happens? (and the thief wouldn't have known that the lights were also on during the daytime - because he wasn't there to notice).

Only your neighbors would notice a light change every so often. Are they the ones you're worred about?

PS: Get yourself an alarm system panel that can call a phone number when an intrusion is detected. Have it call your cell phone or some other land-line where you are. No need to pay for a monitoring service.

PPS: If a punk breaks into your house (which by the way is maybe more likely to happen during the day when people are at work), the first place they go is to the master bedroom and look for jewlery or money. So don't keep your good shit there. And they're not likely to take your 40" big screen TV. Sometimes they'll even raid your fridge for any T-bones you might have.

Most residential brakeins occur in early afternoon, in broad daylight.