Understanding Home Automation Systems
The idea of this chapter is to present what a home automation system is by giving a brief history and background of how it started and how it evolved over the years. Here, we will highlight and discuss the benefits of having an automated home. We will also get an overview of the main components used in the system, and discuss the role of each one of them so that you can understand how a home automation system is structured.
Real examples of home automation will be provided in this chapter, and you will learn about my experiences over the years with different home automation systems and how they were implemented. I will conclude the chapter by detailing how my home is configured nowadays and ideas about the cost and materials used on it. This will help you to think about what you will need and how much it will cost to implement your system.
In this chapter, we will cover the following main topics:
- Overview of home automation systems
- Benefits of having an automated home
- Home automation structure
- Example of a real home automation system
