New Home Automation?

An anonymous reader writes "Ok, fellow geeks... I have the luxury of finally building my dream home from scratch. It's going to be good sized (~4000 sq ft over 3 levels), and rather than run around at night to make sure my lights are off, doors are locked, garage is closed, etc, I really want to put in a home automation system. Since the walls aren't up, this is the time for complete flexibility as to my options. The last time I did a whole house, it was years ago, X10. Since then, lots of other protocols, both 'proprietary' and more general (like WiFi) have come on the market for devices — all better than what I've worked with in the past. What do you all have experience with and recommend as reliable, secure, and fairly easy to use? Something with a good chance for long term availability of parts and features would be a bonus."

Clap on! Clap off!

[pcwhalen]

I've fallen, and I can't get up! [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlpDiXPZHQ [youtube.com] ]

Boy, I'm old.

Re:WTF?

[noh8rz10]

so instead of Denis Bergeron your name should be Penis Burgeoning. Pics or it didn't happen.

Re:conduit in anticipation

[grub]

While he's at it, he may as well install some Twinax in case someone with an AS/400 comes for a visit and needs some Token Ring love.

Re:WTF?

[ls671]

Hi Denis!

This is Lea Samson from HR, could you please come see me tomorrow when your are in the office? I have an important matter to discuss with you regarding your career advancement.

Re:Don't.

[JoeMerchant]

>Ever lived in a house with a built-in intercom? Find yourself using it?

I did, I never would have installed it myself, but since it was there, yeah, we used it, and would have used it more if it had decent sound quality.

That was a uniquely laid out house, 2800sf in a sort of U shape - intercom went from one tip of the U to the other - beat the hell out of waving your arms frantically in the window to get attention followed up by charades / sign language, which we also did sometimes when the intercom was on the fritz.

Wrong approach

[El Puerco Loco]

If my staff were so absent mindedly leaving so many lights on and doors unlocked that I had to consider installing a home automation system, I would begin by replacing the butler. He really ought to be doing a better job of keeping the help under control.

Always behind the curve

[Anonymous Coward]

In my first house, I put in coax everywhere for 10BASE2 to be on the cutting edge. It was cool until copper came out.
In my second house, I put in CAT5 everywhere for 100BASE-T to really future-proof the wiring. Then fibre was the rage.
In my third house, I put in fibre everywhere for ATM and wasted a lot of money. Did I say I wasted a lot of money?
In my fourth house, I put in CAT6 everywhere for 1000BASE-T since it should also do 10GBASE-T. But my runs were longer than 55 meters.
In my fifth house, I said, #%!% it, and didn't wire anything. It became a ghost house where if I pick up my wireless phone, my Wi-Fi connection dropped, my Wi-Fi cameras went nuts, and my Wi-Fi controlled lights flipped randomly. It was great for Halloween.

Movin's a bitch.

Re:WTF?

[cold fjord]

It is well known the America's Germans beat Russia's Germans to the moon. I don't think China had any, hence the delay.