Home Automation Made Easy: Do It Yourself Know How Using UPB, INSTEON, X10 and Z-Wave

The book I read to research this post was Home Automation Made Easy by Dennis C Brewer which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. There are apparently 4 million homes in America with at least some home automation. It can be anything from remote control lighting to computer controlled networks that let you view your property via security camera and smartphone. This book mostly deals with the x-10 standard for devices and there is quite a bit on Hal software suite of programs. X-10 can be daisy chained for up to 256 devices and Hal is the industry standard for home automation. Often they have a computer to handle the automation and they may have a server with either Hal Basic Server or Hal Ultra and separate workstation although it can be a partition on the hard drive to handle the home entertainment. Many people have it connected to a large television rather than a monitor and there are devices that let you do that although many televisions double as a computer monitor. They normally use Hal DMC for handling the entertainment media. You can use voice operated commands with Hal that recognize your voice and you have to plug in a microphone into the computer to allow this. There is an add on program called Hal Voices that sends out messages via the computer in a natural human voice. A simple example of this is like if someone phones and you aren't in you can tell them to leave a message. A typical home automation set up assuming you already have a computer can be achieved for a few hundred dollars. There is a standard called zigbee for interacting surveillance cameras with your smartphone etc so you can check there are no intruders whilst out. You can have an automated message sent out when there is an intruder or an alarm is set off. There are monitoring services you can subscribe to who will call the emergency services or check on your property when an alarm is activated. A company called Automated Living make the Hal software and you can download it from their website and purchase it there. I did quite enjoy this book it takes you step by step through setting up the various aspects of the automated network.

I purchased this book to help me understand home automation.This book does a good job of explaining what can be done to automate your home and covers many of the details that you need to worry about.This book does use a software package for its examples. Contrary to the other reviews, I like this. By showing what can be done with the HAL software, I can compare with other software to know what I should expect and what is possible.In summary I recommend this book if you are technically minded and want to understand what can be done today for a reasonable cost. If you are not a technical person, this book will help you understand what the professional installers are mumbling about. The book includes the costs as an automated home is developed which is a nice plus.My goal is to automate a home office, my aquariums, sprinklers and home security. This book fit nicely in helping me see what can be done. After reading this book I plan to do everything myself except for areas that require a licensed electrician or plumber.

I also just got this. I had pre-ordered it before it was published. I am building a new house. Agreed. Although there is some useful information contained within, I noticed it was all about HAL. Even funnier is I went to the site and an 'ultra' version he mentions does not exist - they have HAL2000, instead (they better upgrade that name!). Title should have had "...., Using HAL System" at end, which would have been right on the money. Nothing is actually misleading as it is a do-it-yourself book, and he does walk you through the whole process, and made it easy to follow. The bummer is the full-blown HAL system is upwards of $500 for the software. The 'basic' version will just get you by. It does work with all the protocols out there, which is a plus. If you have a spare PC lying around, it might be fun getting a few z-wave modules and trying it out. I might be looking further into Home SEER system at a little more than half cost of HAL flagship product, which seems to do everything, as well.My two cents...

Disappointed. Goes on and on with scattered extraneous info, rather than a straight forward process / map / info flow. Little to no value to me.

I agree with the previous reviewer. This book is all about HAL software and the implementation of that system with little else. If you are looking for a comprehensive review of multiple technologies dealing in home automation because you are unsure what to use in your set up, look for a different book. I'm ashamed that I pre-ordered this book.