Cosy Cottage
The ultimate Cosy Cottage..
Thursday 3 January 2008, 11:20 PM
Homebrew Cosy Cottage - A High Tech Old House
Our little cottage in the Black Mountains is nestled in the middle of nowhere, down a long, winding, single track lane. One of the wonderful things about living in the middle of nowhere is the inky darkness of the sky at night and the lovely views of the stars.
When we're driving home in the darkness though the single track lane can be difficult to navigate and occasionally when we least expect to see anything, a fox or a rabbit likes to wander across our path.
What we’d like to do is to install some lights raised above the ground along the lane that can be controlled remotely, so we can switch them on just as we’re approaching the lane by sending an email from a mobile phone.
A row of lights will run alongside the lane, controlled by an ePower switch (http://www.epowerswitch.com/uk/index.htm) that enables remote control of the devices through the internet or over a LAN. The lights will be capable of being switched on independently.
We'll be installing an internet system connected to a standalone server residing in the cottage. An email program will receive the code from the mobile phone to activate the lights. A simple executable file will periodically scan the header and subject line of the email for the current date and the activation code. If it finds it then the exe will communicate with the ePower switches and turn the lights on. With this method we could switch some lights on, all lights on, or gradually strobe the lights like the lights on an airport runway to guide us home.
Alternatively it will be possible to login to the ePower switches directly and control the lights through a user interface via a laptop or PC. This would be used if we were expecting guests and wanted to switch the lights on. The beauty of this remote system is that it could be used to remotely control any electrical appliance in the house, such as the kettle..... mmmmmmmmm..........
PreviousComments on this post
"One of the wonderful things about living in the middle of nowhere is the inky darkness of the sky at night and the lovely views of the stars."....
"What we’d like to do is to install some lights raised above the ground along the lane"
How crass.
I like this idea. It has a "just in time" and "customization" quality about it that I find esthetically interesting.
The fact that you do not needlessly illuminate the entire road all night, reduces your carbon footprint and optimizes a personal navigation system on demand. I suppose, depending on terrain, it might reciprocally alert vehicles travelling in opposite directions as they see lights come on in the distance ahead.
Your system also has the added benefit of providing assistance in conditions of reduced visibility such as: heavy fog, rain, and snow. I have thought about this before, but scaled up to a Provincial Highway Project for Route 4 on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. We have the additional problem of black ice.
Perhaps down the road (no pun intended :) ) you could operate the system passively with a sensor detecting the presence of a vehicle, thus negating the requirement for onboard computing and telemetry.
All the best.
Drew MacDonakd
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