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Title: Smart Homes For Dummies (For Dummies (Home & Garden))
ISBN: 0470165677
Author:
Danny Briere
Pat Hurley
Publicate Date: 2007-07-23
Publish: 2007-07-23
List Price: $21.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.25
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $3.87
Amazon Merchant Price: $14.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Not as informative as I hoped it would be
I assumed this book would be about home automation, but it only briefly touches on that. It is mostly about wiring of distributed audio and video, which I didn't find very interesting.
The book does contain some interesting and useful information, but it could probably all be squeezed into about 30 pages.
The reader is directed to an an accompanying web site for up-to-date information, but the web site was last updated three years before the latest edition of the book was published.
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2: Where's the beef
A good introductory book for understanding the options but not enough examples of how to use the technology in real life.
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3: An excellent orientation; a mediocre how-to
This book was very useful in providing an organized and cross-referenced overview of all the systems and sub-systems and technologies that can be utilized in constructing a smart home. The best thing about it is that the authors manage to maintain good objectivity - it's not a glorified sales pitch for any particular manufacturer. The book is very useful for making decisions about what technologies to incorporate in your home. Audio and video may be a given, but the authors also address phone systems, home security, computer network (wireless and cabled), voice control systems, video cameras, lighting, and more.
The principal weakness is that the book doesn't really tell you how to create a smart home plan. It is weak on examples. If you're sitting down with a set of blueprints and this book, there are a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle (placement and types of outlets and switchplates, dedicated circuitry for the media room, in-wall or in-ceiling speaker placement for audio or surround sound setups, conduit layout, drawing and notating plans for the electrician, and so on).
It's very well written, with a personal and humorous touch from the authors and you can easily sit down and read it cover to cover in one day. But it's rich in information, so I'd suggest reading it with a highlighter handy for the things that grab your attention.
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4: Good Guidance
Lots of info for x10 systems but not leaning to any particular vendor. Very much like that they wrote from personal experience. I did wish they were a bit more clear in regards to whole house audio, but the section on impedance was adequate.
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5: Food for thought.
My husband and I are in the midst of a major remodel/expansion of our 1968 tract home so we have read pretty much every remodeling book we could find. This book offers a lot of information and food for thought on how to bring an outdated home into the technology age. Our budget is not unlimited and this book helped us decide which features were essential to add now and what could be added later (and how to add the foundation work while the walls were stripped to the studs for those future improvements to save us money in the long run). This book does not give reviews on specific products, that is not it's purpose. Technology is changing so fast, that any product reviews would have been obsolete by the time the book hit the shelves. I recommend you use this book to plan out the framework for your smart house and use magazines like THE PERFECT VISION, HOME THEATER, etc. to fill in the blanks. My husband subscribed to both magazines through Amazon (very inexpensively) for 2 years and did a lot of research on the Internet before making his preliminary choices. Since we aren't at the "fun stage" of our remodel yet, where we get to go buy all the equipment, those choices might still change because prices our dropping and items that were out of our price range 2 years ago are now more affordable. The bottom line is this book is the BEST for helping you plan your smart house because it is easy to understand by even those of us who are not tech savy (like me) and it shows you options that you may have never even thought of before. And believe me, in a remodel the time for thought, planning and innovation is before you put the drywall back up!
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