Rob Viccars

For most of us, complete home automation is beyond the reach of our budgets, but there are some easy ways to incorporate ‘smart’ technology into your home, making life more convenient and helping to save you money.   Until the price comes down on robot butlers, here are some of my suggestions to making your home ‘smart’

At the high end of the market, the technology is currently available to control nearly everything in your home from one central system.  Things such as your heat, lighting, TV and  music can be adjusted whether you’re at home or away using your cell phone or on a wireless connection on your laptop.       

Even if your budget isn’t limitless there are many easy and inexpensive ways to incorporate similar features to your home.

Wireless Router – This is the heart of your smart home.  You can buy a wireless ‘G’ router for well under $100, or for even faster speeds spend a few more dollars and buy a Wireless ‘N’ router.   Most of my electronic devises are attached to my wireless router.  My wife and I can access the web from anywhere in the house or in the yard on our laptops.  Our printer is also connected to our network through our router so we can send documents to print without our computers having to be hardwired.  

SlingBox – it’s a device which allows you to stream your TV’s cable, satellite or personal video recorder to any computer connected to the internet.   Connect one end of your cable to the Slingbox and the other end to your wireless router, download a little software and you are good to go.  I originally bought a Slingbox so my brother in Japan could catch Canucks games and the NFL, but it’s been great for keeping tabs on what is happening at home when I’m travelling or when my daughter is watching Dora, The Explorer’s latest adventure.  You can also use a Slingbox to watch TV on your internet equipped cell phone or PDA.

Stream music and video – From music bridges (Sonos Music Bridge) to media extenders (Apple TV, Xbox 360) there are a number of devises on the market and they are all relatively inexpensive.  Connect one to your network and your home theatre system and you’ll have access to all the music and video stored on your computer.  I use the Xbox 360 and Windows Media Center.  Apple TV and Microsoft are also in the beginning stages of offering movies and TV shows for rent and music for purchase.

Personal Video Recorder – I can’t live without my PVR anymore.  I set it up to record the TV programs I want and I can watch them on my schedule (and even skip the commercials).  It’s also been great to keep a steady stream to children’s programs on hand for my daughter, and each time a new one is recorded, the old one is deleted.  While PVRs are still relatively expensive, the prices from the cable and satellite companies are coming down.

Programmable Thermostat - I mentioned saving money before, and updating our old thermostat to a new programmable thermostat probably cut our heating bill between 1/3 and 1/2. Thermostats are very easy to install if you can handle a screwdriver.  Once installed, simply program the thermostat to turn your heat down or off when you’re at work or away from home.

If you are interested in learning more about ‘smart’ homes, the National Post recently published an interesting article on the subject.  Meanwhile, I’ll be saving my pennies for my robot butler.