"What can I do in my new home?"

In an effort to more clearly understand your wants and needs for your new home, we have put together this checklist. If you are considering installing a Home Automation System, you should seriously consider how you live now and what you would like to improve about that.
The following list is intended to help you do just that. By presenting multiple options and possibilities, it is hoped that you will consider each option and give us an idea of not only how to design your system but later how to program it to meet all your expectations.

Please print out and put a check next to the items that interest you:

Security Integration:
The benefits of integrating a security system with the other systems in your home can be tremendous. With a little thought and effort you can begin enjoying these benefits in your new home:
When we leave the house we hit the "AWAY" button and the house goes into a sleep mode automatically turning down all the thermostats and shutting off any Audio / Video gear and shutting off all common area lights.
When we arrive at home we hit the code to disarm the security system and automatically a pathway of lights turn on at night and our favorite CD plays in the common areas.
When we arrive at home the gate opens as each car in the family is recognized wirelessly and the appropriate garage door is opened and a pathway of lights is turned on and all outside lights go from a low level to a brighter level returning again after a predetermined amount of time.
q If we are away and a water leak is detected underneath the refrigerator or a toilet or air conditioner you are notified through the security monitoring company.
If we are away and a fire breaks out the fire department is automatically dispatched when the system detects either excess heat from a mechanical subsystem or smoke inside the house.
As we move throughout the house or go into a particular room the lights are turned on automatically and turned off again after a predetermined amount of time.
If you are asleep and hear a noise that wakes you, you can turn on all of the lights in the house with a single touch of a button.
If you are at the entry to the house and someone attacks you, you can set off an alarm by a single push of a button.
If a fire alarm goes off the lights on the front of the house are programmed to automatically flash to allow the fire department to find your house quicker.
When someone approaches the rear of the house at night a motion sensor automatcially detects the presence and plays a wave file of dogs barking and turns on the outside lights.
When someone approaches the rear of the house a motion sensor detects the motion and automatically turns on specific televisions in the house and puts the televisions on the right channel to allow you to see the camera picture.
When someone approaches the house and you are "AWAY" the system automatically turns on a 24 hour VCR and records the motion for up to 10 minutes. Letting you know when you arrive that some motion was detected. You can then view the tape at your leisure.
When you are home you can have cameras move and up, down, left and right at your command from any touchpad or remote in the house. Allowing you to look at different areas.
When you are away a camera can automatically move around in a predetermined sweep to record any motion in its field of view. If it detects anything in its field of view it starts a 24 hour VCR to record the action.
You can view up to four cameras at once on any one channel in the house.
When any door is opened the security system will beep to acknowledge its opening. This feature is good for small children.
When the front door is opened the system will automatically switch any television currently in use to the front door camera for a predetermined amount of time and then switch back to what you were watching before.
All gates have voice access. When someone arrives they push a call button and you can answer back through any telephone in the house.
When any gate call button is pushed the camera for that gate is brought up on any television of your choosing automatically.
You can choose to have an emergency phone jack wired into your closet in case of an intrusion you can have a place to retreat to.
You can choose to have a panic button installed into the closet that can trigger the alarm and set off flashing lights throughout the house.

Audio Video:
At Dyer, one of our number priorities is making sure that you can operate whatever Audio / Video system you decide to purchase. This may at a glance seem like an easy task, when in fact with a bigger system this could be very difficult. Take a moment to consider how you intend to live and play in your new home and ask yourself "do I really want eight remotes on my coffee table?"
We would like to have a system that allows for multiple sources (VCR , DSS, CD 1, CD2, AM, FM etc. ) from in any room our any groups of room at any time. This allows for more than one person to listen to different things in different parts of the house.
We would like our control panel to have video capabilities. This would allow us to have picture outside a picture in our Theater or Family Room. q We would like a whole house DVD storage system that could be accessed from all major television locations.
We would like to be able to play two different CD's in different parts of the house or the same CD in different parts of the house at the same time from the same CD library instead of two or three different libraries. This requires a hard drive system for storing CD's. This system allows for instant access to CD's instead of the usual change times associated with CD changers and multiple people can listen in multiple areas to different CD's on the same hard drive at the same time.
We would like to have a complete dedicated home theater with full audio video control. A single touchpad or remote can coordinate all of the activities in the Theater. This touchpad can with one button drop the lights, start the movie, drop the screen, turn on all the components, and close the drapes. It can even lower the temperature and start the ceiling fans.
You can have Audio Scene Presets that with a single touch from any keypad or remote can cause any grouping of speakers you choose throughout the house come on at preset volumes and play CD's or the Radio.
You can have any musical selection play through the speakers when the doorbell button is pushed.
You can have a "Party Scene" which turns on all of the speakers to a higher level and presets all the lights to your predetermined level and lowers the temperature to a more suitable party level.
You can have any television of your choosing turn on and go to the camera picture the moment someone enters the driveway or pushes the doorbell button.
You can send the audio from a movie in the theater to the kitchen while you go for snacks.
You can have a multiple smaller televisions located throughout the house that can cycle through various camera pictures on their own.
You can have any television of your choosing turn on and go to the camera picture the moment someone enters the driveway or pushes the doorbell button.
You can have the camera picture from the front doorbell pop up on the touchpad when someone rings the doorbell and flash the lights to alert you to their presence.
You can create a custom schedule of recordings of your favorite shows and watch them when you return up to 10 hours worth without the hassle of a videotape.
We would like Satellite music channel presets on all wired touch-panels throughout the house.
We would like Tuner Preset buttons on all the touch-panels throughout the house.

Lighting Control:
Perhaps the area you will get the most bang for the buck is in lighting control. This one area is a great area to be creative and really think about what it is you would like to do. From controlling landscape lighting, to setting levels for your art lights, we have a solution.
You can have multiple different lighting scenes available at the touch of a button. These can include everything from "all on" to "panic" or "Party" These scenes can enhance your safety as well as comfort.
You can have the lights on the front of the house automatically flash during a fire alarm to aid the fire department in finding your home.
You can have the lights in your room turn on slowly in the morning for your alarm clock. In addition to the lighting it could be setup to play your favorite radio station or turn on the television to you favorite station.
When you arrive home and disarm the security system after dark the system can turn on a pathway of lights for you safety.
You can call home to check and see what lights if any were left on and or turn them all off if you wish.
You can have a vacation mode that randomly turns on and off lights while you are gone.
You can have the landscape lighting turn on and off at a predetermined schedule or on a light sensitive timer.
You can have the outside flood lights come on on motion detectors and notify the system that someone or something is outside and turn on any camera and recording equipment in the vicinity while at the same time turn on the rest of the outside lights.
You can have the lighting in the Media room or Theater automatically controlled from a remote or touchpad at your chair.
You can have art lights automatically come on and setup the perfect level when you choose.
We would like to turn off all common area lights in the house and turn on all common lights in the house from one button push by your bedside.
Lights can be rearranged or grouped together so that any switch can work any light.
We would like lighting scenes such as "Day" "Night" and "Evening" that turn on a group of lights at a preset time based upon the time of day. This would work in the back ground so you would not have to go around continually turning on and off lights. It would gradually turn more lights on and brighten them up as it gets darker outside and then turn them all off late at night for bedtime.
We would like to use a lighting control system to allow us to remove groups of light switches from the walls and improve the appearance of our home. In this way we can have more wall space with less clutter and a cleaner appearance but still control all lights in any given space with ease.
We would like to have our landscape lighting split into zones and controllable either by timers or by a keypad press.

Heating and Air Conditiong:
Heating and Air conditioning when done right really add to the overall enjoyment of an automation system. By working quietly and in the background the automation system can make managing the temperature settings in a large home easy and trouble free.
We would like our thermostats to all run on a multi setting timer that will for instance turn the temperature up while your are at work to save energy, then when you come home turn it down to a comfortable level and at night lower the temperature further for sleeping.
We would like to have all thermostats available for control from any remote wall keypad. This will allow us to see what the current temperature is in any area and adjust accordingly. For instance a pool house a long walk away could easily be controlled without having to walk down there.
We would like the Thermostat controls with status available from the Family Room Audio Video system remote.
We would like the Thermostat controls with status available from the Theater remote.
We would like the Thermostats all reduce to a lower temperature when you hit the "Party" scene to prepare for all the people coming.
We would like the thermostats to automatically lower when we hit the "Bedtime" button that also turns off all the lights.
We would like smaller temperature sensors in place of the larger thermostats in areas to reduce wall clutter.
We would like the thermostats to reduce the temperature automatically from any keypad when we put the house in "Vacation" mode.

Specialty Items:
Many of the items we do, do not fit into certain categories and thus the end up here.
We would like to know the temperature, rainfall and general local weather information on our keypads and touchpanels throughout our home.
We would like to have a car motion detection system on the main driveway. This would detect incoming cars and play a wave file or illicit other actions to let us know someone is coming down the driveway.
We would like a local weather station for a greenhouse or other location.
We would like Internet access from the touch-panel and keypads within our new home.
We would like to be able to access our home from a website built to control our home and view status of thermostats, audio video gear, lighting and security system.
We would like caller id information appear on all controllers and remotes throughout the home.
We would like to have caller id information appear on all major televisions.
We would like to control our garage doors from our master bedroom keypad or other keypads around our home with full open and closed status.
We would like to have our piano play throughout the whole house speakers.
We would like the ability to play MP-3's throughout our home.
We would like to have our ceiling fans controlled via keypads throughout the home.

Networking and Internet Access:
Dyer Electronics can setup and install your entire home network and even setup the software on your computer to suit you.
We would like a firewall for Internet access installed.
We would like our e-mail accounts and networking set up on all our computers within our home.
We will have a cable modem for our Internet access
We will have a DSL modem for our Internet access
We will use dial up for our Internet access.
We will need to be able to print from multiple locations to one printer within the home.
We would like to have access to our sprinkler system from our desktop computer.
We would like to have access to our weather station from our desktop computer.

By no means is this a complete listing of all the things you can do with your home automation system. These are just a few of the most common. If you have an idea that is not listed here then by all means write it down and fax it to us. As you can see just about anything is possible.

Copyright: Dyer Electronics 2001