A few months ago I started a home improvement project a little different from your typical home improvement project. Home Automation.
There’s many things to consider when looking to automate your home and so many choices and paths to follow. You can do security, CCTV cameras, remote monitoring, water/leak monitoring, remotely controlled thermostats, multi-zone HVAC and we haven’t even touched on Audio/video yet!
What we did at our house was to run cat5, coax, phone lines and tie lines all throughout the house. This allows us to distribute networking, phone, and TV to all rooms. In addition, we have Cat5e tie lines from our entertainment center to the TV, utility closets and laundry room/kitchen areas. This lets us run component video, zone2 line level audio, HDMI, DVI or VGA over balun adapters to any room in the house. Doing this, I was able to sell one of my tivos since I could watch my main tivo in any room in the house now!!!
Another great feature of using multi-use tie lines is that you can run the zone2 audio all over the place. We can listen to radio in the kitchen while we watch TV in the other room. Or I can listen to FOXNEWS in the shower upstairs while my daughter watches TV. We can also take our computer out to the back porch and control what internet radio we listen to out there, while someone else can watch a movie in full 5.1 surround sound, all from the same receiver!
There are endless possibilities to wiring your home for automation, many of which I have not discussed here. You’ve got lighting, timing, security and many many other things you can do to automate your home depending on your budget, the possibilities are TRULY endless!
To get an idea of what you want to do as well as understanding what’s all entailed and how to go about it, check out this Ebook on how to setup for home automation. This book will teach you what you need to know and where you need to go to get what you need for the project. It’ll teach you how to go about it and most importantly, where to start.
It’s a tough job, but the rewards are immense and the project itself is VERY fun! Get this book on home automation and then GET WIRING!!!
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