Building a Smart Home

From: Terence Parker (terence_at_cyberparker.nospam.com)
Date: 10/26/03 

Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 14:47:32 +0800

This isn't strictly linux related, but alt.home.automation only has three
posts in it!!

I will be moving house in the not-too-distant future, and while i'm at it
will want to integrate as many things as possible with a computer... yet
without paying too much (i.e. getting one of those "smart home providers" in
to redo everything for thousands). I am thinking, to begin with, a linux
server tucked away nicely in the corner running some software that will
control various devices. As part of the decoration for the house, I will be
ensuring that nearly every corner of the house has access to the LAN. The
thing I have in mind at the moment is not a one-off replacement of
everything, but I want to be sure the house is sufficiently wired so that I
can gradually introduce things in the future (well... I could even use
wireless).

Basically - does anyone have any pointers towards cheap solutions? I know
you can buy fancy coffee makers, microwaves etc.. that have built in web
servers in them - but anything else? At the most basic level, I suppose I
can control any power driven device by getting a smart power adaptor that
can be plugged into a computer and controlled (turned on / off). Do such
things exist? How about alarm systems - can those be interfaced with a
computer?

And of course there's surveillance systems. Unfortunately, most of these
things are all individual separate proprietary products - is there a nice
way I can get everything / nearly everything in the house to work through a
central linux server and some good 'ol open source software?

I've tried searching the net, but with so many keywords possible on this
topic, I didn't really know what to look for - and haven't found much of
use.

Any pointers would be much appreciated!

Terence

Loading