Sam built other convenient home improvements, such as a system that wakes you up, gives you weather information for the day ahead, and alerts you of incoming email. In addition, his system lets him stream music into any room, turn on appliances, and dim lights. Sam used his old Mac Mini as a command system for his setup.The Mac Mini controls all of the home automation systems, and Sam can access it from anywhere in the house using his iPhone and , an off-the-shelf Web-based RFID system.

"RFID is one area that I've worked hard on. It works in such a way that my home knows who's in and can adjust any settings such as the type of music being played or optimum light level accordingly."

Using apps such as , Sam can use his iPhone to control switches from anywhere in the house, as well as stream live footage from the webcams.

Sam adds: "Many home automation systems communicate through X10, this one's slightly different. The system I use is called HomeEasy, which is a wireless (433MHz) interface. Singles are generated from an RFXCom Ethernet transmitter. Using Ethernet means that requests like turning your washing machine on can be sent from anywhere in the world."

One of the biggest challenges of setting up home automation is coding all the appliances to work together, and Sam's project is no different. Sam learned how to code everything as he went along, using other people's AppleScript for similar projects, then adjusting them accordingly.