Another tutorial showing you how you can turn your lights and appliances on and off with your iPhone. The two main companies that make these devices are x10 and insteon. You’ll probably get the best price on whichever you want by searching ebay for x10 or insteon The insteon devices are a bit more expensive but the way I understand it is each module rebroadcasts your requests so you won’t have to buy as many transceivers if you go that route, but if you live in a little apartment like me you’re probably best off going with the cheaper x10. I bought my starter kit off x10.com It’s pretty much the worst laid out and confusing website in the world, but if you spend enough time on there you should eventually be able to figure out what you want.
Here’s a diagram showing the set up and two different ways I demo turning the lights on and off.
As I mention in the video, you can not use a lamp module with a CFL light bulb, so if you want dimming capabilities you will have to go back to incandescent bulbs, otherwise I recommend the appliance modules. You do not need to buy any software if you are reasonably technical you can use the free webserver software located here: http://www.iphonehomecontroller.com/tag/x10/