Using Insteon Home Automation for your Christmas Lights

For a few years now I’ve been wanting to tie our Christmas lights into my Insteon Home Automation, but I haven’t had any of the Insteon hardware/software hooked up due to various houses we were in. This year is different, this year my Christmas lights are hooked up to my home automation system!

Doing so is exceptionally easy. If you already have an Insteon Hub hooked up, you simply need to get the Insteon On/Off Outdoor Module, available for $49.99. It is that simple. Once you’ve set that up in you Insteon App, you can setup a schedule using the build in scheduling functionality for the Hub. Here’s a screenshot of my scheduling setup.

I also picked up an Insteon Mini-Remote to use with some of our devices. Since I hooked up the lamp modules to the floor lamps in our Living Room, my wife hasn’t been happy about not being able to easily turn the lamps on, as the switches on the lamps themselves no longer do anything. I figure this remote should make that process easier, negating the need for having the app installed on her phone (only a matter of time) and also making it so you don’t have to bend over to access the lamp modules on the wall outlets.