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by TeMPOraL 4756 days ago
I think they are still a bit too expensive for people. You can either get a whole system for several dozen kUSD, or single elements (e.g. smart outlets) for ~$100 each. The former is a significant expense people might not want to pay at once when buying homes, and the latter is a bit too expensive to buy one by one, because you require to have at least few of those devices before the system starts to get useful.
1 comments
freehunter 4756 days ago
It's not nearly that expensive, though. A light socket is in the neighborhood of $15. A wall socket is less than $25. A transceiver is $30. For just over $100 you can get the controlling software, two wall switches, two light sockets, and a transceiver.

http://www.thehomeautomationstore.com/x10-home-automation.ht...

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chopsueyar 4756 days ago
Oh, but don't use CFL bulbs with those wall switches or light sockets.

...and good luck determining whether the device is on or off.

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freehunter 4755 days ago
That's not the point, and there are units which address those concerns. The point is, home automation is not "right around the corner", it's here today and it doesn't take a millionaire to have a smart home. The sticking point is not technology nor is it money, it's that people have realized they don't really want that.
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chopsueyar 4754 days ago
The technology you refer to has not changed since 1975.

It is a stretch to call this smarthome technology considering the ban on incandescent bulbs, which completely eliminate X10s ability to dim or fade bulbs (because you are using CFL, and if you use a x10 dimmer on a CFL, you can burn down a house), and writing any sort of logic based on whether the device is on or off is not possible.

Now Insteon supports bi-directional communication and you can determine state, but you are looking at $45 per outlet or switch versus the $8 X10 stuff.

So, yeah, still out of most people's price range, unless you want to settle for over 30 year old technology.

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