get wired

What if your exhaust fan was smart enough to

know that the fire alarm had been triggered

and could blow the smoke out of the house

during a fire? What if you wanted your blinds to lower, your

lights to dim, and your home alarm system to engage at

10:30 p.m. on weeknights and at midnight on weekends?

What if your home was smart enough to do all these things

with the touch of a button?

Insteon is the powerful home-control networking

technology that provides homeowners with the potential

to command their homes. Insteon creates a network that

lets devices in the home talk to each other over radio

frequency and existing wiring. A mind-boggling 16 million

devices can be controlled on a single network, and includes

anything powered by wire or battery.With minimal energy

consumption, the network also offers over 65,000 possible

commands including on, off, dim, lock, and open.

It's very, very, very easy, says Ricki Darbee, senior

marketing manager of SmartLabs Inc., the company that

pioneered the platform. We designed it that way on

purpose to be able to bring the idea of home networking

and home control and electronic home improvement to

people who are not already using it.

The main difference between Insteon and other home

automation systems is that Insteon does not have a central

point of control. All of the devices are equal on the network and every new device added to it joins and repeats an

existing command sequence. In this way, the masterand-

slave relationship is eliminated. Although SmartLabs

is encouraging hardware and software developers to use

their platform in a range of new products, it?s in lighting

systems where Insteon is really breaking ground.

Newlywed Shawn Tyler created a home lighting network

for his 2,500-square-foot courtyard-style home by upgrading

all of the light switches on his main floor to Insteon. My

wife is notorious for leaving lights on and the house is a giant

U shape. With all the architectural lighting there were 10

switches, so you had to run around the house turning each

one off. I was able to put in a couple of keypads and now I

can turn on every single light in the house with one button if

I want to.

Once the switches were installed, Tyler programmed a

lighting sequence in about an hour. Next he was able to

replace his home's seven timers by establishing a lighting

sequence for his virtual switches through the home

computer. Says Tyler, it knocked a good $80 a month off

my electric bill.

Insteon switches can be installed room by room for

about $25 per switch. Starter kits, which may include

plug-ins or wire-ins, are over $100, but if you want your

entire house wired every switch requires an Insteon device.

Visit www.smarthome.com for more information.