I'm curious, do home users go for automated blinds, room lighting, or TV controls?
I'm curious, do home users go for automated blinds, room lighting, or TV controls?
The one time I thought about controls was when I had to replace a leaking skylight in a cathedral ceiling. I could do it myself for $300-400 or I could get one with electrical controls plus a carpenter plus an electrician for $1500-2000. I went with DYI and a long pole to open and close it.
The problem comes from trying to integrate the 3 things you mentioned, as an example.
If I am going to watch a movie on TV, I probably want to control the blinds and turn the lights down or off. If your blinds are IR controlled, instead of a keypad and/or RF control, you have a decent probability of being able to turn on the TV and close the blinds, as long as the IR target for the blinds is close enough to the TV so that the user holding the remote control doesn't have to wave it around the room.
But, there really aren't any lighting controls with direct IR interfaces, and very very few multi-remotes have IR libraries for automation devices. So, you need to install the room lighting, setup an IR interface, most likely either program the remote or the IR interface so that one can interact with the other, and then setup a macro on the TV remote.
Most people would rather just do things manually.