Dear Lifehacker,
I want to set up some basic home automation tasks but I’ve never done anything like this before. How do I get started? For that matter, what kind of things can I do and how much should I reasonably expect to pay?

Sincerely,
Manual Living

Dear Manuel,
“Home automation” is a category that can span really simple to extremely complex tasks depending on who you ask. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by jargon and devices and standards. The simplest way to wade into home automation is eliminate the clutter and focus on what you actually want to do.

Deciding what you want will go a long way in determining your budget, your method, and how much time you’ll be investing setting things up. With the right level of ingenuity, the sky’s the limit on things you can automate in your home, but here are a few basic categories of tasks that you can pursue:

• Automate your lights to turn on and off on a schedule, remotely, or when certain conditions are triggered.
• Set your air conditioner to keep the house temperate when you’re home and save energy while you’re away.
• Open your blinds during the day and shut them at night (or when it’s particularly hot).
• Feed your pets on a schedule and with pre-determined amounts of food.
• Open your garage door with voice commands.
• Set your coffee maker to have a fresh pot ready as soon as you wake up.
• Create an emergency party button that goes from one to funky in seconds.

This is, of course, just a sample. To put it very simply, if you do something repeatedly, you can probably automate it one way or another. Just about everything that runs on electricity, and several things that aren’t can be made smarter and possibly even hooked in to a central system.

What kind of system should that be, though? Well, there are a few approaches you can take. Let’s begin at the beginning.

Automate the Easy Way with Specialized Boxes

The most dead-simple way to get started with simple home automation tasks is to buy tools that are specialized for certain tasks. For some things, you can use simple timers and sensors to turn the ordinary devices you already have into smart robots from the future. As an example, in the video above, a simple Christmas light timer is used to automatically turn on a coffee pot so that it’s already brewing when you wake up. A lot of coffee pots even have this built in.

In the same vein, there are very simple remote control outlet units that allow you to press a single button anywhere in the house and turn anything connected to a power outlet on and off. Of course, this isn’t “automation,” strictly speaking. If you want to get a bit more advanced, you can use a device like the Belkin WeMo.

The WeMo is a simple, self-contained wireless automation unit that plugs in to your power outlet. It connects directly to your WiFi and can be controlled with an iOS device (an Android app is currently in beta, aimed at a fully supported release this summer). This gives you a bit more flexibility than simple timers, allowing you to activate switches manually, set schedules, and monitor their status remotely. You can even hook it up to the webapp-automating IFTTTfor some really cool stuff. It’s a great device for beginners to start automating stuff.

Smart thermostats are a similar category of dedicated units that function a single automation purpose, rather than attempting to be a complete solution. They can be used to remotely control temperature, learn your preferences, and even intelligently disable your heat/AC while you’re out and reactivate it before you get home so it never feels uncomfortable. In addition to being convenient, these can help save a lot of money on your utility bills, depending on your situation.

This certainly isn’t a comprehensive list of all the specialized automation boxes you can find. If you want to bring your home into the 21st century with as little heavy-duty setup and installation as possible, these are a few good ways to get your feet wet for very little cost.

Step Up Your Game with a Central Protocol

A $50 power outlet plugin is neat, but it’s hardly a complete home automation system. If you want to get into some more advanced systems, you’re going to need to start choosing a network protocol that allows your various peripherals to communicate with a central device.

There are a number of standards out there that you can choose for your devices, and if you decide to go this route, the bulk of your time will probably be spent deciding which one to go with. Here are a few of the bigger protocols in the home automation world today:

• Z-Wave – Check out this quick start guide to get familiar.
• Insteon – Here’s a fine collection of guides.
• Zigbee – This is a nice primer on the protocol.
• X10 – See this introduction page, with links to a broader knowledge base.

Debates can go on and on over which standard is best (and many of our commenters have plenty of advice on the subject). Picking a protocol for your needs is beyond the scope of this article, but your best bet is to map out exactly what you want in your system first, then choose a standard that will accommodate your immediate needs and allow you to upgrade as you deem necessary. Remember as you do your research that the best solution is the one that works for you.

Once you’ve picked your standard, you need three things:

• Software: Whether you’ll be controlling your system via your desktop, smartphone, or tablet, you’ll need software to run the system. You can get much of this for free either by buying dedicated devices or using open source software, however some solutions offer subscription packages that can range up to $99/year.
• A transceiver/coordinator: Your commands are useless if your master control software can’t talk to your peripherals. A transceiver or coordinator device is a box (or set of devices) that issues wireless commands to your network. Devices like the Veralite ($180) are simple, self-contained units that even come with some software. You can scrape the cost of the coordinator down to $40-50 if you need to, but be careful as many cheaper, USB devices don’t come with software or require that dreaded subscription.
• Sensors, switches, and peripherals: Something has to carry out your commands. Depending on what you want to automate, you may need to install wall switches, replace a door lock, or do other light maintenance. Peripheral devices can be as cheap as $40-50 per unit, but can get as pricey as a few hundred bucks.

You don’t have to stick with the basic software, either. While you have one device that acts as the master control program for your network, there are always neat ways to extend your setup. As you see in the video above, one Veralite user built on top of his setup with Tasker and AutoVoice to make a completely voice-controlled system.

Altogether, depending on how elaborate you want to get, you should expect to spend anywhere from a couple hundred bucks at minimum, though more elaborate systems could easily reach up to $1000 if you have a lot of hardware to install and don’t shoot for the cheapest units you can get. Putting in a smart switch in three bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen can be $200-250 by itself, and that assumes a fairly spartan set up and excludes any power outlet installations. Be sure to tally up all of the parts you’ll need before you start buying anything.

Get Crazy with Arduino and Raspberry Pi

Buying a box to control your home automation setup is for wimps who can’t tell a BIOS from Bio-Dome, starring Pauly Shore. Real hackers build their own automated systems from scratch. Platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi offer the dedicated developer the ability to build customized solutions for unique situations.

Okay, but what are these things anyway? To put it overly simply, an Arduino or Raspberry Pi is a small, programmable mini-computer. You can attach sensors, motors, switches, and all manner of fun stuff to it. Because it’s so small and so modular, you can use it to build specialized electronic devices.

As an example, in the video above, an Arduino is used to build a light-sensitive automated blind system. For another example, a Raspberry Pi board can be used to create an automated pet-feeding dispenser. How about another? Our own Whitson Gordon shows off how to build aportable XBMC media center in under thirty minutes or your pizza’s free (offer void everywhere). The versatility of these little devices is incredible.

With added versatility, however, comes added complexity. If you want to get started with any kind of Arduino/Raspberry Pi project, you should probably have a bit of programming background, some familiarity with electronics, and some time set aside to design your system. There’s a lot more creative and engineering work involved here than there is in something like the Veralite.

You don’t necessarily need to be intimidated by projects like these, however, if you want to build a really badass automation rig. Here are a few resources you should check out if you want to get started:

• Start by picking the right board for your project.
• Get familiar with your new Raspberry Pi or Arduino.
• Find some inspiration from those that have come before you.

Many DIYers are really good about documenting their projects, so with a little effort, there are a wide number of projects you should be able to recreate or build on top of. If you don’t have any programming or electronics experience, it can be intimidating at first, but don’t let that stop you.

Home automation is still one of those areas that’s very new and the big platform companies haven’t quite nailed down how to target yet. A couple years ago, Google tried to launch a servicecalled Android@Home that didn’t really go anywhere. Microsoft’s biggest play in your living room is the new Kinect (just don’t let it watch a live stream of an Xbox keynote), while Apple hasn’t done much outside your TV. Right now there just aren’t that many heavyweights pushing any particular platform or features over any other. The good news is that you have a lot of options. The difficult news is that you’ll have to do a bit of work to get any kind of impressive setup going. Then again, if you had a problem with that, you wouldn’t be reading Lifehacker, now would you?

Sincerely,
Lifehacker