Home & Interior Design books:
Absolute Beginner's Guide to Home Automation (Absolute Beginner's Guide)

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Get the home of tomorrow, today! Absolute Beginner's Guide to Home Automation will help you turn your ordinary home into a high-tech haven. Want to schedule your lights to turn on while you're on vacation? Stuck late at work and want to start the roast you put in the crock pot this morning? You can make it all happen with the help of existing 110V electrical wiring in your home and this step-by-step tutorial. Through simple, do-it-yourself instructions, you will walk through the process of outfitting every room in your home with a network connection that you can control with a few clicks on your computer keyboard. Complete with illustrations and photographs, Absolute Beginner's Guide to Home Automation will have you riding the wave of the future in no time.

Good, but contains a VITAL mistake -
Maybe it's the copy I'm reading, but on page 80, the author is completely (and quite possibly dangerously) wrong about the following point:

"If you are installing a light switch that uses a neutral wire ...
it is essential that you determine which wire is the load wire (carries
current at all times; also called the hot wire) and which is the
line wire (carries current only when the switch is off; also called
the switched-hot wire)"

NO! It should read as follows (emphasis on changed words):

"If you are installing a light switch that uses a neutral wire ...
it is essential that you determine which wire is the *LINE* wire (carries
current at all times; also called the hot wire) and which is the
*LOAD* wire (carries current only when the switch is *ON*; also called
the switched-hot wire)"

In the very next section he uses the correct terminology but that is most definitely a serious mistake in the book that could have serious consequences should somebody confuse the two.

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make an overall plan first -
The book is mostly about developing nifty controls using X10. In this field, X10 is by far the dominant controller. Soper explains why, by describing numerous varied ways to have it control items in the typical household. It is probably simpler to read this book than thumb through the official X10 documentation. Soper does not require that you have a deep technical background to implement the book's methods.

Aside from the specific automation methods, he also offers a chapter on planning what you might want to and be able to automate in your home. Here is where you can start, to devise an overall plan, in a top-down fashion, rather than plunge into hooking up one or two gadgets. That can come later. The chapter is good for helping decide, especially within the constraints of a budget, which surely applies to many readers.

The book also points out a strong point about the latest X10 devices. These can be wireless, hugely easing installation. No awkward and unsightly wires trailing along your floors and walls.

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