Smart Lighting & Appliance Control; Smart Lighting & Appliance Automation:

• INSTEON, the GOLD Standard of home automation technology. is our best-selling home automation technology. INSTEON products provide remote control and automation to lighting, appliance and home control applications of all types. It allows you to manage your home the way you want. Easy to install and set up, INSTEON offers the flexibility and dependability to make your life more convenient, safe and fun.


• INSTEON, is the first "dual-mesh" network that combines power line (ie., your home's existing electrical wiring) signals with wireless radio frequency (RF).


• INSTEON confirms every message to insure that messages are received error-free, automatically retransmitting corrupted messages to be sure that your commands are obeyed. In addition, every INSTEON device acts as a two-way repeater, so an INSTEON network actually becomes stronger and more reliable as more products are added.


• INSTEON stands on its own, but can also bridge to other networks, such as WiFi LANs, the Internet, telephony, and entertainment distribution systems. Such bridging allows INSTEON to be part of very sophisticated integrated home control environments.


• If you are interested in the technical details of INSTEON technology, click: Here.

Getting Started with INSTEON products

The INSTEON Lighting control/automation product line consists of:

• Dimmers,
• Switches,
• Wire-in & plug-in Outlet modules,
• Timers,
• Hand-held Remotes,
• Keypads, and
• Access Points (a.k.a. Bridges)

The Dimmers, Switches, and the wire-in Outlet modules are wired-in replace your current switches, dimmers and outlets. If you have basic electrical skills, you can install these yourself. Before starting work on the replacement(s) make sure that you turn OFF the appropriate circuit breaker(s). If you are NOT comfortable to safely work with electrical outlets, call a licensed electrician. The Dimmers and Switches can, of course, control the lights that are directly connected to them. However, most people want to go beyond this and control multiple lights and appliances. To do so, you'll need to install additional devices, such as two (2) Access Points, Keypads, and Remotes. Once you have installed these, you've set up a lighting control NETWORK.

Lighting and Appliance CONTROL: Application Example

You desire a Dimmer in the Master bedroom and a Dimmer in the Living Room. In addition to dimming the bedroom lights when you are in the bedroom or, the living room lights from the living room, you also want to be able to turn ON/OFF/DIM your bedroom and living room lights from the Bedroom and the Foyer. In order to do so, you'll need to purchase and install 6 devices, namely, two (2) Access Points, two (2) SwitchLinc Dimmers, one (1) KeypadLinc Dimmer, and one (1) RemoteLinc hand-held Remote, as shown in the picture below..

Installation: One SwitchLink Dimmer replaces the light switch in the bedroom, the other SwitchLink Dimmer replaces the light switch in the living room. The KeypadLinc Dimmer replaces the light switch in the foyer. You'll put the RemoteLinc on your night table. Finally, the two (2) Access Points plug directly into existing 120V wall outlets (Note: one of the Access Points plugs into a "Phase A" 120V wall outlet, the other Access Point plugs into a "Phase B" 120V wall outlet. (The easiest way to find an outlet that is associated with Phase A and Phase B is to open your home's electrical Breaker Panel. You'll find two columns of circuit breakers. Find a 120V wall outlet that is controlled by a 120V circuit breaker in the LEFT column. Plug one Access Point into the 120V wall outlet. Find another 120V wall outlet controlled by any 120V circuit breaker in the RIGHT column of breakers.) Plug the second Access Point into the wall outlet.

The diagram below shows the network diagram of this installation. You can add additional Dimmers, Keypads, and Outlet Modules (e.g., for appliance control). NO additional Access Points are required.

The INSTEON Dimmers, Switches, and Outlet modules communicate with each other via the powerline (i.e., your house electrical wiring.) Remote hand-held Controllers communicate with the devices they control via RF (i.e., radio frequency wireless) communications. The function of the two (2) plug-in Access Points (a.k.a. as "bridges") is two-fold, namely, 1) the Access Points bridge, i.e., translate the RF signals into powerline signals, and 2) they "couple" the 2 powerline "phases". So, the bottom line is: You'll ALWAYS need to install two (2) Access Points if you want whole-house Lighting & Appliance control.

Brief primer on Electrical Power Distribution in the USA
Electrical power is most commonly distributed to homes in North America as "splitphase" 220-volt alternating current (220 VAC). At the main electrical junction box to the home, the single three-wire 220 VAC powerline is split into a pair of two-wire 110 VAC powerlines, known as Phase A and Phase B. Phase A wiring usually powers half the circuits in the home, and Phase B powers the other half.

For INSTEON signalling to work properly, one Access Point must be plugged into an 110V outlet controlled by a Phase A circuit; the second Access Point must be plugged into an 110V outlet controlled by a Phase B circuit -- as shown in the above diagram. [As mentioned before, the easiest way to find an outlet that is associated with Phase A and Phase B is to open your home's electrical Breaker Panel. You'll find two columns of circuit breakers. Find a 120V wall outlet that is controlled by a 120V circuit breaker in the LEFT column. Plug one Access Point into the 120V wall outlet. Find another 120V wall outlet controlled by any 120V circuit breaker in the RIGHT column of breakers.]

For the Application Example described above, you'll need to purchase two (2) Access Points, two (2) SwitchLinc Dimmers, one (1) KeypadLinc Dimmer, and one (1) RemoteLinc hand-held Remote, as shown in the picture above.

Lighting and Appliance AUTOMATION: Application Example

Now, you've decided, that for the sake of security, you'd like to turn the foyer and bedroom lights on at dusk. All you'd have to do is to purchase a TimerLinc Plug-In Timer. It can set On and Off times for INSTEON controlled lights and appliances without the need for a computer or software. It is packed with features such as 28 independent programs, daily, weekly and weekend settings, and a random timer variance for security. The Timer can be also be remotely controlled by other INSTEON devices.

After you've programmed the Timer, simply plug it into any available outlet. The picture below shows the network diagram of this installation.