HomeEasy ... has just arrived!

So after months of deliberation I have finally gone ahead and invested in the HomeEasy Range of home automation products. I have to say at this stage that I think it was a good choice. The problem I have had is that there are such a wide range of products to choose from, x10, RF, Bla bla bla that your head is soon spinning with options. As I am to put it mildly inexperienced in this field you are soon left bewildered. So it was some delight that I came across a range of home automation products that seem to offer me everything I was looking for. My list of requirements were as follows: -

1) Easy to install
2) Reliable
3) Cost effective
4) No monthly subscription costs
5) I could take it with me if I needed to move house
6) Allow home security in the future if required

I basically wanted the product to a) turn lights on and off b) save on energy usage by turning appliances off when not in use c) allow advanced scheduling of events without the use of a PC.

Now some of the above can be found in a lot of home automation ranges but my problem with allot but not all is that you needed to have a PC running all day long or subscribe to service via a router. I felt that neither of these seemed appealing considering that I wanted to have low energy usage and no subscription costs.

In all I looked at the following ranges: -

Bye Bye Standby Online
Motorola Home Sight
Alert me
X10
and finally HomeEasy from B&Q.

HomeEasy offered several advantages over its rivals which made me decide to go with it. It was easy to install; Plug modules, Stainless steel light switches can replace your standard light switches. It was RF controlled; This offered advantages over X10 as from what I have read, X10 can be unreliable sometimes. It also had a controller that was not wired up to a PC, which could set schedules of when your lights came on and the ability to individually control modules and lights with ease. It did not require subscription which Bye Bye Standby Online, Motorola Home Sight and Alert Me all required.

Below are some pictures of the HomeEasy items that I decided to go ahead with.





























In my next post, I will outline each individual product that I have used and how I have got on with using HomeEasy.