A few years back my husband and I enjoyed watching the Home Alone movies. Each of the movies had parts about them that were similar and then parts that were unique. In the first two the kid gets separated from family at Christmas, in the third he has a micro chip the “bad guys” want, and in the fourth the little guy just wants his family back together again. I always think of the 3rd movie as the funny one and the fourth as a bit more sobering.
In the fourth movie I must say there is a really neat house. This house is equipped so the occupants only need to say a certain word and the blinds close, the lights come on and the door shuts. How fun would that be?! It’s not like I normally need this kind of luxury but it does seem like it would be fun to have remote lights, video cameras and automated appliances that can all be programmed to come on at the push of a button from one remote control.
It may not be totally voice automated, but I have found that this kind of luxury does exist in the product line that X10 offers. They have a CreditCard Thin Remote Control (KR22A), a Keychain Remote Control (KR19A), and other automated remote controls that can work in conjunction with appliances, lights, motion sensors and much more.
I’ll never have the kind of house shown in Home Alone but that doesn’t mean mine can’t have a few luxuries. My husband told me about The Home Automation Store several months ago. I don’t know why, but I guess I was actually surprised to find out you can buy these sorts of things. I guess it’s easy to think stuff only ever happens in the movies. To an extent that’s probably true, I mean, who ever survives all the mishaps like MacGyver is portrayed to live through? Oh well, this is one thing that really can happen to us “normal folk.” We can have automated homes too.
Now honestly, once I found out this stuff really did exist, I was sure it’d be way out of my price range. Wrong again! This stuff really is affordable! Now keep in mind you may have to purchase a couple different pieces like an appliance module and a remote control to control it but the per piece price really isn’t bad. The fact that these remotes work with several (even 16) different modules makes it all the more price efficient.
Home Automation isn’t just for the movies, it’s available in real life at a real life sort of price! Now I could have that Home Alone kind of house (but someone else can have the experiences of the rest of the story.)
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