Home automation is something we frequently hear about, and frequently see in movies or TV shows. Usually its some super-rich home where everything can be controlled with the touch of a button. It also usually seems a little unrealistic. Well, while some of the automation in movies may be ridiculous, most of it is also entirely possible, and you don’t have to be a millionaire to have it.
Home Automation with the Elk M1
This is where the Elk M1 comes in to play. Its a home security and automation system designed to protect your home and loved ones while also giving you amazing capabilities to automate almost everything you can imagine. And its designed for normal home owners.
That’s not to say its cheap. It isn’t. It will cost you to have a home security and automation system that does everything you may want it to do. But it is worth it for what you get. Lets take a moment and think up just a few of the scenarios for which you may want to use the Elk M1:
1. We’ll start simple: Lets say you get up every morning at 6:00 AM. Well, you can have the light automatically turn on at 6:00 AM every morning as part of your wake-up routine. Or, to give a more practical example, lets say that you are on vacation. You want to give the impression to would-be intruders that someone is still there. Simply set your system to turn on a few determined lights every evening at 7:30 PM and turn them off (perhaps at varying times) at 10:00 PM. This would give the impression that people are home and make it less inviting to burglars.
2. Lets move to something a little more interesting/fun: I heard a story yesterday about how one customer uses this system. He put two driveway alarms along the edge of his driveway. Alarm A is closer to the road and Alarm B is closer to the house. This homeowner wanted the lights to turn on in his home when he or his wife arrived after dark. So, he set his system to turn on the front porch lights and the lights in his front two rooms whenever a car passed Alarm A and then Alarm B and it was after 8:30 PM. That way, if he was leaving and passed Alarm B and then Alarm A, nothing would happen. Or if he came home for lunch, since it wasn’t after 8:30 PM, nothing would happen. Pretty amazing stuff, huh?
3. Now a more practical, but still very neat application: If you’re like many homeowners, or if you have children and they are like most children, lights are frequently left on in your home. You move from room to room without turning off the lights, perhaps not to return to some of those rooms until you are ready to go to bed. And whats the end result of this? You waste money! So, how can the Elk M1 help you with this? If you have a motion detector in a room, you can set your system to automatically shut off the lights in that room if the motion detector goes for a certain period of time (1 min., 2 min., 5 min, whatever you want) without detecting any motion. And the end result of that? Less frustration with the kids and yourself and….more money saved!
There are hundreds and hundreds of other things that you can do with your system. I’ll just leave you with this. If you are interested in home automation and home security, you want the Elk M1. It may cost you a little, but it pays for itself in the long run.


