I often visit X10.com home automation store website to see all the different little gadgets and read about them to see what can be done to automate an individuals home. (Usually I end up saying something to my husband about how fun it would be to have an automated home where the lights and appliances can be controlled with a remote.) He hasn’t decided to purchase any for me yet, but maybe one of these days he will.
So, I just went to the website to see if there was anything new on there. I’m not sure if it’s new or if I just didn’t see if before, but I did find something interesting. It’s the MT12A 64-Event LCD Mini Timer (New MT10A). Now I know that doesn’t really tell you what it is for real. It’s an alarm clock that can be programmed to turn up to eight x10 lights and appliance modules on and off.
From what I can tell, it looks like this alarm clock can be programmed to do up to 64 different activities. That would be 8 per light or appliance! Wow! Of course it is important to figure out what this kind of automation would be good for in one’s house before spending any money. Afterall, in these hard times, we can’t just spend money on any old thing.
I think it could be nice to program a certain pattern of events to happen in the morning when it’s time to wake up. I am not the sort of person who likes to be woken in the morning so some nice soothing music turning on and then the lights gradually coming on one at a time could be a good thing.
Another thought is to set various lights to flip on and off in the evening if the house is empty. If the lights are flipping on and off at different times it will give the appearance of someone being in the house even when nobody is. Of course this can be really good when we’re away on vacation too. The fewer people who know there’s nobody around, the better.
Christmas is a good time to use this sort of equipment too. It can be hard to always remember to turn on the Christmas lights outside if life is busy. It would be great to have them on a timer that turns them on right before my husband comes home and then back off around the time we head to bed. That will help keep the electricity bill down and also have the lights on no matter whether we are there to do it or not.
I’ve got my list . . . it must be time to take it to my hubby. We’ll just have to see what he says about this new idea of how to automate our house.
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