Untangling Home Automation – Entry Lock Integration

You are now entering through the doorstep, into an era of home automation without needing to install wires or cut holes in your living room wall. Imagine controlling all of the important parts of your house from your smart phone or laptop, while eating lunch at work. The days of expensive systems, clunky stationary desktop and wall control panels are over. Simply, decide which parts of your home you would like to control or monitor, set up the wireless system access point and add other parts to this system later, as your family’s needs change and grow. This discussion, with others to follow later, will highlight on different parts of the house you can easily control and monitor, remotely and wireless.

Schlage Link offers entry lock-sets without keys. These keypad lock-sets can be connected to a Z-Wave wireless access point and can be monitored, locked and unlocked from your laptop or smart phone. Simple 4 digit different numeric codes can be given to your kids, cleaning company, spouse, etc. for access to the entries of your home, without having to pass out several sets of house keys. Ninety day reports or text message alerts are a few of the options to use to determine who is entering your home and at what time.

How does this lock work without wires, you ask? A small battery with a 3 year lifespan operates the lock and keypad. The wireless connection communicates with your front door via your established secure encrypted access point. Battery life and the status of the entry lock (locked or unlocked) can be monitored online from a desktop, laptop, or with your smart phone. Schlage also offers the option to actually lock or unlock the door remotely via your smart phone. For example, if a guest arrives to your home early while you are not home, unlock the door and let them in! Apps are currently available for one touch access from your I-phone.

This Z-Wave system is the base-point for connecting these various wireless components of your house and allows a wide variety of remote control options for other parts of your home via your laptop or smart phone. Lighting switches, shades, garage doors, thermostats and sprinkler irrigation are just a few options that are compatible for this wireless system. Once this system is in place at your residence, these options can be added at anytime later. Stay tuned for future discussions outlining the functionality of each of these systems.

Next month’s home automation discussion will focus on controlling and integrating your thermostat. To subscribe to this blog feed, click on the RSS icon on our Blog Tab at http://chicagoconstructionworks.com/id2.html