Do you drag yourself out of bed and down two flights of stairs to check if you turned off the space heater in the basement? Home automation was supposed to have solved this. For decades, technology companies and futurist magazines have teased us with visions of houses in which the lighting, temperature, TV and audio system could be controlled from a central unit. You are supposed to be able to check on that basement heater while staying snug under the blanket.
But while much of the necessary technology exists, easy-to-use smart home systems have always been the province of the ultra-wealthy. Economical D.I.Y. alternatives for the rest of us, including partial home-automation devices like universal remotes for entertainment systems and devices that control appliances remotely, have largely fallen short of the home-automation dream.
The good news is that the prices on that other route to a smart home, customized systems installed by professionals, are slowly starting to fall. Some upper-middle-class people may already be able to afford a professionally designed setup that controls at least a complete entertainment system, or maybe one that controls a few items, like the TV, the lights, the thermostat, the door locks and, say, the coffee maker, while others may be able to afford them soon.
From the article, "Smart Home Systems Go Mainstreatm" by Farhad Manjoo
