How Do I Control Lights Via Home Automation and the Switch?

How do I control lights via home automation and the switch?

Not a stupid question - it's not very intuitive. If you get a smart bulb, the switch needs to be always on. I've resorted to buying a little switch lock to physically keep these lights on, as family members would constantly turn them off, rendering the whole thing useless. If you want a smart light that allows you to also manually use a switch, there are 2 options:get a wired smart switch, instead of a smart bulb. These will allow you to also manually use the switch. Example: WeMou00ae Light SwitchAdd a wireless smart u201cswitchu201d to your system that is software connected to the smart bulb you want to control. Leave the old wired switch on always, and control the bulb with this new switch. Example. Philips Hue | Dimmer Switch

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What is the job title? And how do I become one. home automation?

Awolf is right but I will try to help. What you are asking about is the job of an "Integrator". It can be fun and profitable but is not just something to jump into. If you want to know more go to the CEDIA website. They provide lots of job descriptions and training for a fee. Also try Bedrock Learning

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What are the benefits of home automation systems?

Basically what LG Nilsson says, but I have something to add:I notice that often when people think about home automation, they think it is either for very nerdy or very lazy people (or both)."But when I looked into what customers use smart home devices for, there was a woman, for example, who told me how much she appreciated being able to remote control the lights when she was eight months pregnant - and even more so, when she had a newborn baby. For people with special needs, home automation is not just a convenient "nice to have" - it might enable them to live independently. For example, there is an organization in the US building smart homes for veterans. (And remember, probably everybody of us will have special needs some day. ).

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Which communication bus systems for home automation?

I've been very unsatisfied with X10-based automation systems. I've installed a bit of it in my home, and find them flakey. Smarthome's Insteon is a combo powerline/RF system that at least should be less flakey than X10. This is what I will probably try next myself, since it's backwards compatible with X10 and fairly inexpensive.Beyond that, there are Z-wave systems like Leviton's Vezia RF which look pretty interesting, but they are pricy. And I hear people say great things about UPB products, but again, they cost about twice what Insteon goes for and are powerline only. In my house, I think an RF component is a good idea because each half of my house is on a separate electrical box. Insteon also makes every component a repeater, which is helpful in my house again because there are some walls filled with concrete. For me, anything that can repeat a signal is a good thing (at least I hope). One complaint (2006-2007) with Insteon was reliability of the devices themselves, but I understand that this has improved.My experience researching home automation is that you can get excellent solutions by spending a very large amount of money (tens of thousands of dollars). For reasonable money, there's no one great answer, but there are answers that work pretty well. My suggestion is to build out slowly so you do not sink too much money into a single solution before finding out what really works in your house

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I want to start a company on home automation and smart home. How can I go about it? How much capital will I need?

It depends what skills you have.If you are a programmer, designer, mechanical engineer & electronic engineer, you are ready to go.If you need to employ people to do some of those things, you will need to factor in their costs per hour.You can start with a Raspberry Pi 2, an Arduino, an Intel Edison or an Intel Galileo. I am building home automotive gear for my own home.I would suggest starting with an existing framework to get a good understanding of how it works.I am mixing with a few different companies, such as: Nest, Solar iBoost & a a couple more. The Nest is a good example as it has a very good API that can be used to interface with the Nest devices from programs you build.Nest has the "works with Nest" range of products. Your start up could work on Nest integration too. I have a fully networked surveillance system, individual room radiator and main heating system control. It is triggered by sensors is every room, the weather reports generated by Internet services & our own weather systems. The final trigger is based on location services from our iPhones & the security system which has software defined trip zones. We have multi room audio, not yet complete home & workshop audio.We have displays that can be linked in most rooms. Many of these displays can be controlled by our iPhones & can have any source directed at them. We would like to upgrade this, quite extensively, when 6720 x 2880 21:9 OLED displays are released & we can network the whole lot into our optical networks.I would suggest looking at media storage systems too.Home automation is becoming more & more inclusive every single day. It is no longer intelligent lighting & intelligent blinds.Having the conversation you are having with someone the other side of the world over FaceTime, land line or cellular following you around as you walk through your home - that is where we are getting to today!If you would like any more information, message me on Quora or Maxwell Falstein on LinkedIn.The equipment we use for the above is not that sophisticated. A couple of Mac Pros, a couple of Arduinos, a few Intel NUCs, a few Raspberry Pis, a few custom rack mount servers & rack mount SANs. Some of the extension hardware is completely custom