I'd like to discuss/describe ideas to save money with x10 home automation products...

Things have been a little crazy for me lately, so I haven't been able to post. I've been burdened with grading duties at school as well as preparing a paper for the Southwest Region of the Evangelical Theological Society. The paper will be presented on Saturday March 27th, "Recycling as an Act of Worship: An Argument from Old Testament Theology". More on that later...

Now, back to business. I've been reading about the x10 home automation family of products/systems. I will allow you to do everything from controlling temperature in certain zones of your home (http://www.smarthome.com/howto11.html) to having the garage door open and lights come on in the entryway when your vehicle pulls into the driveway (with an RF system on your vehicle - http://www.hometoys.com/x10info.htm).

I'll be in the market for a home soon, and the thought crossed my mind that a little home automation could knock down my energy use. I could cut off all power when I go to bed (not just turn off everything, but actually eliminate phantom power). I can have incredible control over my heating/cooling system. All kinds of wonderful options... I can even control it all with linux (here).

I know what you're thinking - using a computer to do this and leaving it on 24/7 would cost tons of money!! But not if I used this great computer, called a fit-pc. I think I'll save the computer discussion for later.... But I have solved the problem of power-hungry pc's with that idea.

Now I just have to find cheap parts to do all this with - Ebay here I come!!