Hi. I've been wanting to get started with home automation for a while now, but in the limited time I have to spend (or am willing to spend, I guess) I get overwhelmed with all of the information out there.
I would greatly appreciate some help and pointers for my situation.
I'm looking for a way to program 6-8 lights in my house for a "lived in" look when we're out of town. All of the lights are switched, several of them use compact fluorescent bulbs. (I mention this because it sounds like you need a different/more expensive unit to control these sometimes?)
For controlling them, it can be something fairly basic, but I want to be able to set each light's on and off times for each day. I don't care if I have to program 1's and 0's at each point, just so I have the control. Don't need Internet, phone, PDA, etc., access or control, although something that runs from a computer would be nice. I have a wired home network. Not necessarily looking in to wireless although might consider it for a home automation solution.
I'm hoping to spend as little as possible (of course), but am willing to go up to $200 - $350 for this. (Would do more or less lights to get in that range.)
So please, any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
JV