Chuck,
I have a small house in NC that can go a few months at a time
unoccupied. I have a neighbor who keeps a car in my garage so he keeps
an eye on the place. I have a couple of lights on timers that come on
at different times and they also have a built in randomizer (sic) that
will vary the on/off time by as much as 45 minutes. I use LED bulbs in
these fixtures so they use very little electricity ( about $1/ year)
and they run very cool.
For the plumbing, I simply turn off the main valve at the street.
You can by the T-wrench at Lowes/ Home Depot for about $15. I then
drain the lines after opening all the house faucets. Lastly dump a bit
of antifreeze in the toilet bowls & tanks. That's it. Oh, one other
thing, I got a few extra decals from the people who do our home
security in Charleston and put them in conspicuous places.
Charlie
On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 9:53 AM, Chuck Norcutt
<chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Sorry for breaking the flurry of on-topic OM-D traffic but I have some
> home automation/security questions for which I know someone here has the
> answers.
>
> I have two (I think modest) goals I'd like to achieve for when I leave
> the house in the winter for warmer climes.
>
> 1) Right now I have a simple set of timers that turn a few lights on and
> off that simulate the activity in the house when it's occupied. Some of
> these timers have a battery backup so they can survive power outages.
> However, by the time I return in the spring, sunset and sunrise are
> radically different than when I left. Also, daylight savings time has
> gone into effect further throwing the timers off. Also, one of the
> lights I'd like to control (but don't now) is operated by a wall switch
> where control is not amenable to a simple plug-in timer.
>
> I think I can solve these lighting problems with fairly simple Insteon,
> Z-Wave (or similar) devices. But I don't know all the ins/outs of these
> things and what's best or worse. Nor do I completely understand the
> need for or how to completely cover communicating over both phases of
> the AC power lines of the house. That leads to a question of should I
> use radio transmission devices only?
>
> Whatever the solution here it probably gets complicated (cost wise) by
> goal #2...
>
> 2) When I leave the house for the winter I have the plumbing winterized
> with anti-freeze by a plumber right after I leave and de-winterized just
> before I return. I also have the town turn my water off outside the
> house just in case my own inside shut-off valve should start leaking.
> The town turns the water off for free but the winterizing/de-winterizing
> costs me $200/year. What I'd like to do is get rid of the precautionary
> anti-freeze requirement for the plumbing. But that requires that I keep
> a close watch on the temperature of the house in the event the furnace
> should fail. Right now I have a simple temperature sensor that turns on
> a red light in the window to warn the neighbors if the temperature drops
> to 40F. But if they don't notice or don't respond the antifreeze in the
> pipes will protect the plumbing. With no anti-freeze in the pipes I
> don't dare count on the neighbors noticing that all is not well with the
> furnace.
>
> If I want to spend lots of money and use a smartphone (not!) I can get
> instant alerts via smartphone on some systems. But I don't want to go
> there. I normally have my internet/cable/phone shut off when I'm gone
> but can leave internet only communications running for about the same
> amount of money that it costs me for winterizing/de-winterizing. That
> allows for a freeze/temperature sensor communicate with me via the net
> but I don't know exactly how to do that at modest cost. A warning
> e-mail would be best but even having to log-on daily for a status check
> would be OK if it's the only way to do it cheaply.
>
> These are the functions I'm after. The questions are how to do it
> cheaply but also reliably. If there's no built-in freeze protection the
> system has to work. Probably best to take the answers to this off-list.
>
> Thanks much,
> Chuck Norcutt
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