An ActiveHome’s Active Vacation

July 27, 2001 - Summer is in full force, and that means vacations. It’s time to load up the family into the SUV, and hit the road, an American tradition that goes back to the days of the covered wagons. But getting everything ready to head out is almost a fulltime job in and of itself.

Phillip Martin found that X10 made it easier for him and his family to be away from home! "When we travel out of town we take our three children" he said, "but we leave our fish, cats, birds and sea monkeys." So even while the Martins are away, the pets still need to be cared for. So Phillip enlisted the help of one of the neighborhood pre-teens to keep an eye on the pets and make sure they had plenty to eat.

But then there was the matter of the empty house. "I didn't like the house being empty all the time" Phillip said, "and ActiveHome made our trip so much more convenient. First, the fish are fed by multi-day dissolving tablets, but they only eat when there's light." So Phillip set up an appliance module to control the fluorescent light so that the fish would get 12 hours of light each day, "just like if we were home."

Another issue was that they lived in an area of the country where it gets hot in the summer. So to get ready for the trip Phillip used a computer module and Thermostat Setback Control to cool the place down from time to time, and to make sure that it had "dropped back down to a comfortable 75 on the evening of our arrival." But as vacations sometimes do, there’s always the chance they could get home early. It’s okay; Philip has that under control too. "If we wind up coming home early, I will use our Telephone Interface to call ahead and drop the thermostat back a couple of hours before we arrive!"

And thanks to all the ActiveHome modules and macros turning on and off the lights at various intervals, "The house still looks lived-in while we're gone." The only thing Phillip has to worry about, as he put it, is that "someone may come to the house while we’re gone and be insulted that we ’ignored’ them."

And finally, when they get back home from that vacation, it’s usually late at night. So when they get within range, Phillip hits the "Welcome Home" button on his keychain remote and the sidewalk lights come on, the foyer lights come to full brightness, and the kitchen fluorescents all come on "so I can drop off the mail and check the answering machine." If the kids fell asleep in the car, then Phillip is going to have to carry them into the house and put them to bed. That means that he isn’t going to have a free hand to fumble with light switches and the like getting the kids to their rooms. "I simply press the bedtime button and the upstairs hall lights come up to 25% dim so I can carry the sleeping kids to bed; at the same time my bedroom lights come full on awaiting my arrival with a warm glow."

Ah, at last they’re home. The bags are all inside, the mail is piled neatly on the table where it can be read a little later, and the family is exhausted. The last thing Phillip wants to do is go through the house and turn off all the lights. As it turns out, he won’t have to. "10 minutes later the downstairs lights go off automatically, the foyer lights go back to 25% and the hall lights dim out slowly to off."

And the vacation is over. Everything will go back to normal. The kids will go back to school; the parents back to work, and summer will slowly fade into fall. And all the while, Phillip and his family sleep well. Whether they’re at home or away. As Phillip put it, "Someday when I get all the windows and doors wired for security checks I'll be programming the alarms into the bedtime schedule. For now I just pet the cat and rest easy. All in all, X10 takes a lot of the hassle out of traveling."

So in reality, X10 works great for Philip’s family even when they’re not home.

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