2

I have a new bare apartment due soon to work with. It's my first time investigating home automation but all I come up with are home automation products for incandescent lighting. Yet all my rooms have main fluorescent lights. Do I just have bad luck and somehow googled only incandescent light home automation? Or is this how the current home automation industry is?

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6

I know that a part of many home automation controls are built in dimmer switches to control the level of lighting. You can't use a dimmer control with florescent light fixtures. The alternative is to use an appliance control instead. An appliance control is on/off only, and this will work with flourescent light fixtures.

Improve this answer
4

I'm not sure what products you have been looking at, but I've had good luck with SmartHome's Insteon product line. For non-dimmable florescent lights, you want the relay switches. They allow you to turn lights on and off, but not dim them.

Improve this answer
1
  • Thanks, I looked into those but the electricity here is 220v/50hz, I don't think Insteon supports 220/50 yet. So far I've only found X10 and Zwave which do. The home automation project is for a 200 square meter apt. For now, I'm leaning towards the X10 which should be adequate for the purpose of the budget conscious newcomer hobbyist.
    – Level1Coder
    Commented Nov 1, 2010 at 2:17

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.