K.I.S.S. – don’t automate what you don’t have to

The K.I.S.S. Principle is pretty straightforward: Keep it simple, stupid.

While it may be tempting to completely automate everything in your home, sometimes keeping it simple just makes more sense. For example, we’ve covered the $30 Insteon 8-watt light bulb, but for $14 you could get a Light-Sensing Socket Adapter to simply power a regular, $2 incandescent bulb whenever it’s dark outside. Of course, this means your not-very-efficient light would just run all night rather than just a couple of hours after sunset, which can be done with the Insteon bulb. And in addition to using many times more energy, you’d be replacing that incandescent light about 40 times more often than you would be an LED bulb. Still, the simplicity of having a regular photo-sensitive light has its advantages.

Another example is in the bathroom; rather than getting a motion sensor and Insteon Switch for over $100, you could go with a $7 motion activated night light:

The point is that you may not even need to completely integrate a specific device with your Insteon system; with a little digging you may be able to get the “automated” results you’re looking for. On the other hand, i can’t turn on my bathroom night light from another country via my iPhone, so, you know, where’s the fun in that?