Automated Home

German manufactures Micropelt are producing an intelligent thermostatic radiator valve (iTRV) that uses a thermogenerator chip to convert thermal energy (heat) into electricity.  This allows them to create a battery-free self powering unit that, in condjuction with its build in EnOcean radio, becomes part of a smart home heating control system. Check out the video below… Smart valve [...]

Ever since I was a kid and saw my first remote controlled light, I got it in my head that this was something that I had to have.  I have always been fascinated by computers, robotics and all things electronic, and home automation fits perfectly in the middle of all of that.  So here I [...]

We’ve covered some in-depth Loxone Case Studies already, but here’s something really easy to digest.  The Loxone guys have put together a quick 90 second video showing their Miniserver set up to control lighting ‘scenes’.  With home automation systems like this you get much more than the ability to just remotely turn lights on and [...]

Control4 have announced a new family of of wireless lighting control products.  The company says they reduce programming complexity and are ideal for both for retrofit and new build projects. The new Control4 Wireless Lighting family includes Keypads, Switches, Controllers and Dimmers.  Make sure to check out both videos below… Control4, a market leader in home automation systems, today [...]

There have been plenty of Google Glass reviews already but last Sundays episode of ‘This Week in Tech’ provided one of the best insights yet into the product.  The $1,500 developer preview should be more like $200-$500 once it’s available as a consumer product in 2014.  But it’s going to require an adjustment to ’social norms’ before we [...]

We all have gadgets that seemingly need endless charging and the nature of our favourite mobile devices means that they are often away from a mains power source. Smart phones and particularly modern tablets like the iPad have even more demanding charging requirements.  For the last four years I’ve been using a little external USB [...]

A recent post on our C-Bus Forums highlighted a couple of new videos from Clipsal on their new eDLT (enhanced Dynamic Labelling Technology) switches… The best just got better with Clipsal’s eDLT (enhanced Dynamic Labelling Technology). The eDLT provides sophisticated and user friendly control of your C-Bus System and offers the ability to customise the colour [...]

We’re hearing on the grapevine that CommandFusion may be about to launch a ‘Lite’ version of their highly regarded iViewer Ethernet control software.  Currently users have to pay a license of around £100 for each device (iPhone, iPad etc).  This isn’t unusual as part of a quality bespoke home automation system, however there are DIY [...]

HouseLogix are launching their new ZigBee Voice Control Device for Home Automation called VoicePod.  It’s a completely hands free system that interprets voice commands and sends appropriate signals to the home automation system using wireless ZigBee technology. VoicePod can be used to control all the usual HA suspects, including TV, music, thermostats, lighting, shading, security and [...]

The £170 ZipaBox from little known Croatian company Zipato challenges VeraLite’s Micasa Verde on price, yet promises a feature set on a par with high-end controllers like the Fibaro Home Centre 2. We put the ZipaBox through its paces to find out if it can really deliver. For this test, we’re using a ZipaBox together [...]