so from hereon out, everything i'll say is theoretical, as i'm looking to get into this in a few months. I know some folks who use the same software I do are doing all this, you could ask over on those forums (
http://www.charmedquark.com/vb_forum/index.php ). There's several UK/european folks who could give you better guidance as to what's available where, how much, etc.
There's 2 primary options: zWave and RadioRA. RadioRA is more expensive, but much more reliable.
You need
- physical switches [ie those that go into the wall in place of your current switches]
- computer interface controller
- potentially a "master" controller (not sure if the computer controller can be the one you use to initially set it all up, or if you need a seperate one)
- software to control
Now for software, you have a few options. I'll give you the full theoretical list that I know of, along with my commentary. Also, prices are in US$, I prefer not to think about how cheap this is in Euro's as it'll remind me that i won't be able to travel there anytime soon.
- HomeSeer. ~$200. I don't think this supports RadioRA, pretty sure there's a zWave module. But, there's been a TON of angst about HomeSeer lately, my entirely personal opinion is that it's an older architecture and more of a "hack" product.
- Cinemar. $200-$1400. More of a front-end product, but as of their last version a few weeks ago, there's some limited Home Automation. Definitely does not support RadioRA, may do zWave. Price is deceptively low - they follow a "pay for every little thing" price model, where you'll end up paying a ton of $$ over time. Your entry price would probably be around $200, and quickly quickly rise as you want to do more. Plus, they don't really support that many devices, not a true home automation solution.
- Charmed Quark [CQC -
www.charmedquark.com]. - $495 full license(now until V2.0 is released, then it goes up to $495 base, $895 full license). This is a professional level product that's "DIY-friendly". Clearly the most robust and highest quality product, all drivers are free, true client/server networked product.
I'm sure there's more options, but in my entirely personal opinion, HA is a slippery slope. Once you start with something small, you're going to want to have a system that grows with you, so I just bought CQC and was done with it.
Check out the site in my sig if you want to see everything that I'm currently controlling.