X10
is
a communications "language" that allows compatible products
to talk to each other using the existing electrical wiring in
the home. Most X10 compatible products are very affordable and
the fact that they talk over existing wires in your home means
that no costly rewiring is necessary. Installation is simple,
a transmitter plugs (or wires) in at one location in the home
and sends its control signal (on, off, dim, bright, etc.) to a
receiver which plugs (or wires) into another location in the home.
It is estimated
that X10 compatible products can be found in over 10 million American
homes. This is because it has so many advantages over other types
of remote control products and systems:
- Inexpensive
- No new
wiring is required -- perfect for retrofit
- Simple
to install
- 100's of
compatible products
- Contol
up to 256 lights and appliances
- Time proven
-- it has been around for over 20 years
Most of the time, X10
products work without any problems. However, because X10 products
talk over your home's electrical wires they may have difficulties
in two situations. The first is when there is an appliance running
that generates "noise" onto the powerline. Appliances
that may cause problems are motors (e.g. dryer, treadmill, vacuum
cleaner, etc.) and advanced electronics (e.g. switching power
supplies on some laptops, some big screen TV's, etc.). The good
news is that all you need to do is plug the appliance into a noise
filter such as FilterLinc.
The second
"issue" with X10 is when your X10 transmitter is on
one "side" (phase) of your home's electrical wiring
and the receiver is on the other "side". Many times
the signal either bridges the two phases at the transformer at
the street or via some 220V appliance in the home. When this doesn't
happen, a simple plug-in phase coupler called SignaLinc will solve
this challenge.
|
