My dear ole' mum is well becoming less able to do things and I'm trying to make her home a little easier to live in like remote control lights, the snag with these is she is dead seat on having only energy saving bulbs as the blurb everywhere says the are a miracle, although I could may be convince her to use a standard bulb in the name of diy :) .. if that fails its a clip round the ear and it will be 1960 all over again for me lol
Also with her arthritis griping is a bit of a problem so I though remote control curtains or blinds ? might be the way forward any thoughs on this or systems I can get and put up myself, or kits that eneable me to convert existing stuff for this.
Why don't you ask Age Concern or Age UK as they are now called. They have a website at
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where I think you'll find your local branch. Really good helpful people. They should have information about what hardware is available and who are the trustworthy suppliers. They will also know people who can help your mum manage her finances if she needs that too.
Consider occupancy sensors - no remote control needed, and most will switch CFLs (but do check). If designing a scheme from scratch, you always make sure the sensor drives more than one lamp (either multiple lights, or a multi-lamp light), so that failure of a single lamp doesn't leave an area unlit, but when retrofitting, you might have to compromise here. They have drawbacks too - lights might go off if you sit still in front of the TV (just wave a hand), and they won't go off for the timer period after you leave a room, which might worry an elderly person.
Can also avoid a problem where some elderly people will try and creep through the house in the dark to the loo, and then fall over something they didn't see.
If you want to go for a more advanced centrally controlled home automation system, you can have it do things like call you if your mum hasn't started moving around the house by 9am, kids haven't got home from school by 5:30pm, and other things like that. (Mine calls me if the boiler locks out, so I find out long before the house goes cold.) However, this is significantly more expense and effort, including programming the system.
page is a decent enough starting point, but bear in mind that X10 is an old slow protocol. The up side is that there are a number of devices and software that you can use to mix and match (including curtain controllers).
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an on-line store that I have bought many bits from. Never had a problem with them (as a store).
I guess the main thing is to be very clear about what you're trying to achieve.
So far as remote control curtains go, I fitted some in my house about 15 years ago. Apart from some early failures (smoothing capacitor in the control unit, fatigue in some plastic components - replaced by metal bits) they're fine. The biggest benefits are that they open/close at set times and can be overridden by a RC and that they provide the illusion of occupancy when we're away (coupled to lights on timers). I wouldn't use them with heavy, full-length curtains though.
However, Gliss/Autoglide don't appear to offer a DIY solution any more. When we looked into getting more of the same, the only route now seems to get one of their people to come in, measure, plan and fit it all - at many times the cost of the £200 DIY system I got from B & Q in the 90's.
Are you aware of the likes of these remote socket adapters?:
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sure how far you want to take the automation bit, but these are dead simple to fit and use, and I'd have thought potentially quite useful for people with limited mobility etc, provided the buttons are big enough.
Eg, we routinely light our living room with two or three plug-in table lamps rather than the central ceiling light (all of which have CFLs), and the table lamps are all controlled via a remote which is blu-tacked to the wall next to the light switch (somewhat perverse, you might say, but at least it doesn't get lost!)
Find a nice sturdy masonry wall (preferably clay wall units). Position yourself about 300mm away, and bring your forehead into rapid contact with the wall. Continue to do this until your desire to help your mother goes away.
A few light switches went to toggles rather than rockers (ugly fake brass ones admittedly). These could be worked by hitting them up & down with a hand or stick, rather than pressing. Lose the original rotating knob dimmers, as they needed grip.
Lots of new table & floor lamps, mostly on timers. This included the hallway, to light the bedroom / toilet route.
CFLs for the main area lights and timered lights. Halogens (the "energy efficient" sort in a BC fitting) for "task lights" like the standard lamp near the chair used for reading. You can show here the box and see how "eco" they are, even though they're not CFLs.
Fan heaters etc. on single button immersion heater "boost" controllers (wired into boxes in the cable), so that they switch themselves off automatically.
Oil panel radiators on timers & thermostats for some background heat.
Cover boxes over the freezer socket etc. Black & yellow hazard tape. Dire warnings to the "carers" (sic) not to mess with the electrics.
Horrible reliability IMHE
What worked for us was good quality corded pulls, with a weight on each cord rather than a loop. You also need to adjust the cord lengths carefully to site the ends conveniently. These had two advantages over plain curtains: you could work the curtain by walking to one place, standing still and pullling. There was no longer a need to walk whilst pulling a curtain. Secondly the weighted end cords make for a fair handle to crasp hold of, even with poor grip.
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