Dwight Spivey 
Home Automation For Dummies 

The easy way to control your home appliances

Do you want to control common household appliances and amenities
from your smartphone or tablet, wherever you happen to be? Home
Automation For Dummies guides you through installing and
setting up app-controlled devices in your home, such as heating and
air conditioning, lighting, multimedia systems, game consoles, and
security and monitoring devices–and even suggests popular
products to consider.

The saturation of the mobile market with smart devices has led
to an upsurge in domestic devices, such as thermostats,
refrigerators, smoke detectors, security systems, among others,
that can be controlled by those devices. Both Google and Apple
offer fully-integrated solutions for connecting mobile devices to
home theater and audio systems, and now Google has branched out
into smart thermostats and smoke detectors. If you’ve caught the
bug and want to get your feet wet in this cool new phenomenon,
Home Automation For Dummies gives you plain-English,
step-by-step instructions for tech-ifying your home without
breaking a sweat.

* Provides clear instructions on remotely controlling your home
appliances

* Shows you how to set preferences to automatically adjust
lighting or temperature

* Explores digital ’life hacks’ that explain how non-app-ready
appliances can be controlled via smart phones using third-party
go-betweens

* Covers an emerging segment of the industry that was one of the
primary focuses of this year’s Consumer Electronic Show

If you’re looking to find new ways to simplify and better
control your home environment using app-driven devices, your phone,
or tablet, Home Automation For Dummies makes it easier.

Innehållsförteckning

Introduction 1

Part I: Introducing Home Automation 5

Chapter 1: Home Automation 101 7

Chapter 2: What You Need to Get Started 23

Chapter 3: Determining Your Home Automation Needs (and Wants) 37

Part II: Automating Inside Your Home 49

Chapter 4: Keeping Your Cool or Turning Up the Heat 51

Chapter 5: Nice and Tidy Does It! 75

Chapter 6: I’m in the Mood for . . . Anything: Automated Lighting 89

Chapter 7: Safe, Sound, and Hunkered Down 109

Chapter 8: Home, Home on the Automatic Range: The Automated Kitchen 135

Chapter 9: Monitoring Water Use and Detecting Leaks 155

Chapter 10: Smart Home Entertainment 165

Part III: Automating Outside Your Home 189

Chapter 11: Checking the Weather 191

Chapter 12: Your Grandfather’s Dream, Your Reality: Automating Lawn Care 205

Part IV: Taking Command of Your Home Automation Systems 225

Chapter 13: Working with Mobile Devices and Computers 227

Chapter 14: Controlling Your Home from One Platform 249

Part V: The Part of Tens 265

Chapter 15: Ten Easy Ways to Begin Automating Your Home 267

Chapter 16: Ten Great Websites for Home Automation 285

Chapter 17: Ten Other Options for Automating Your Life 301

Index 319

Om författaren

Dwight Spivey has been a bona fide geek since the age of twelve, kicking off his Nerd Quest with a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 4P. He is the author of many titles on the Mac, i Phone, and Microsoft Office. His technology experience is extensive, consisting of OS X, i OS, Linux, and Windows operating systems in general, smart home automation, desktop publishing software, laser printers and drivers, color and color management, and networking.