After reading a great post by Shimmer I was inspired to try something similar and begin automating a few bits and pieces in my home. I already had a Raspberry Pi so the first thing I did was buy a PiFace extension board and use it to control my underfloor heat pump using some basic scripts. This was 6 months ago, and since then I have become addicted!

Similar to Shimmers post I am keen to create a forum for sharing ideas and technologies that people have come across and/or are using in their homes for smart automation. I have found that it is only half the battle to actually automate devices, the really clever bit is how you link devices together and use them to make your home 'smart' rather than just 'automatic'.

For example, I have the following things 'automated' in my house;

1. 80% of lights (everything exception bedroom, office and bathroom lights are controlled by ZWave in-wall micro relays)
2. Garage door opener
3. Underfloor heat pump
4. Alarm system
5. Irrigation system
6. Coffee machine
7. Squeezeboxes in living room, kitchen, master and outdoors
8. All AV equipment including TV, Receiver, Sky, BluRay (via Redeye IR blaster)
9. XBMC media players in living room and master (Raspberry Pis running Raspbmc)
10. Computers (via WOL and shutdown RPC calls)

And can monitor (i.e. view the state but not necessarily 'control);

1. Presence detection using mobile phone WIFI status, and GPS geofences
2. Front/garage door sensors
3. Living room IP camera
4. Energy monitoring via Owl CM160
5. Weather temp/rain monitoring via outdoor weather station
6. Weather forecasting and sunrise/sunset via Wunderground API
7. Temperature in living room, master, garage, outdoors

The next bit is what I am most interested in, how do you 'connect' your automated devices together to make your house 'smart'? 

Currently I have the following;

1. Arm the alarm when no one is at home (and check there are no open doors)
2. Disarm the alarm when a 'known' person comes home
3. Turn on/off lighting based on presence detection and time of day (i.e. sunset)
4. Disable irrigation if there has been any rainfall in the last 24 hours or rain is forecast
5. Boost underfloor heating if the forecast is for a very cold day
6. Various scenes - i.e. Watch Movie turns off all living room lights, turns on TV/Receiver/BluRay player
7. Turn on coffee machine in the morning, turn on lights if sun hasn't risen, and fire up my work PC if a weekday
8. Shut the coffee machine off after an hour (and send a notification to my phone 10mins after turning it on to remind me it is ready!)
9. Various notifications displayed on TVs via XBMC and sent to mobiles via NotifyMyAndroid and Prowl
10. 'Bedtime' action which checks all doors are closed, then turns off all appliances (i.e. coffee machine), AV gear, lights and optionally sets the alarm if 'secure' mode is chosen. This gives the wife piece of mind if I am away that she can go to bed and feel safe that everything is secure.
11. Rules to check that sensors are delivering data regularly and that their batteries are not too low
12. Recently added the ability to send audio notifications via my Squeezeboxes - still playing with this.

On the TODO list...

1. I really would like a ZWave enabled door lock for the front door. So I can check if the front door is locked when away from the house, and automatically lock/unlock when the alarm is armed/disarmed. Also means I can leave the house with just my phone and be able to secure it completely, and get back in, without having to take my keys - i.e. when going for a walk.
2. Add an external IP camera at the front door and send images to the XBMC devices when someone arrives.
3. Monitor my solar hot water heating system and HWC temps

That is enough from me! Looking forward to hearing what others have configured!!

Regards,
Ben