David Formilan learned his lesson about the television, and now he’s making sure his kids learn the same lessons. He uses ActiveHome to control how much television his kids watch, and how much time they spend playing video games. It’s really quite ingenious how he does it. "I use one appliance module for each device to be controlled. Each controlled device (a TV for example) needs an appliance module, a small box (large enough to house the module) and a power cord."

From there, he plugged the television into the Lamp Module, and plugged that into the power cord. Then he "placed all that securely into the box," using strain relievers to protect the wires entering and exiting the box. Then he locked up the box nice and tight so that no one else could open it.

"I programmed the TV to be off when the kids should be doing their homework, or chores," David said. "And by using different module codes, I programmed earlier and/or later starting and ending times for the different devices." This also includes giving the kids an extra hour of TV time as a reward or taking away an hour because of other things that kids do.

That’s it. With just some simple instructions, David can allow his kids to watch a little TV, play some video games, but he also makes sure that they get their work done, and that they don’t spend too much time in front of the tube "rotting their brains."

This may even work for us adults who seem to have the same problem as David’s kids. Perhaps we could all benefit from this trick. As David said at the end of his story... "Maybe X10 could add a lockable box to their product line."

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