I had lunch with a friend this afternoon and I told him about my plans for the home automation system I'm building. He suggested I start a new blog along the same lines as my other blog: http://building-the-new-house.blogspot.com. I thought that was a great idea, so here goes....

Here's a list of the features I'd like the system to handle:

• home security including door and window contacts, motion detectors, water detectors, heat and smoke detectors
• security cameras
• front door bell and camera
• IP phone system
• lighting control
  
• irrigation control
• thermostats
• A/V distribution and control
• other features?
  

After doing a bunch of research several months ago, I settled on a product called CQC from Charmed Quark Systems, and I purchased a license for the software back in December. It runs on a Windows PC and will serve as the control system for the house.

On the hardware side, I chose the M1Gold controller from Elk Products as the backbone of the home security and home automation system. For lighting control, I'm using UPB products from Simply Automated. And for thermostats, I chose Aprilaire. I purchased most of the hardware components several months ago on eBay and from various other online stores including SmartHomeUSA.com:

• Elk-M1G controller
• Elk-M1DBH - data bus hub
• Elk-M1XIN - 16 zone input expander
• Elk-M1XSP - lighting expander & serial/thermostat interface
• Aprilaire 8811 protocol adapter
• Aprilaire 8818 distribution panel
• Aprilaire 8870 communicating thermostat
• Simply Automated Advanced Starter Package

Well, yesterday I got started and installed and tested the first piece of the hardware -- the Elk-M1G controller. It powers up okay and talks to the keypad. That's one small step...