Keychain Remote Turns on House Lights as You Drive Up

Returning home to a dark house can be kind of creepy, especially if you live alone. And if you've got a house that's set back a ways from the street and doesn't get a lot of ambient light, it can even be dangerous if you didn't remember to leave an outside light on (whoops, didn't mean to drive over that mailbox...).

With today's technology, you can get a remote control unit that lets you turn on the house lights as you pull up to the house. The small unit is designed to hang on your key chain, so you'll never be without it if you're in your car. You just press a button, and the remote sends a signal to a transceiver located in the house. The transceiver has to be hooked up to an appliance, lamp module, wall switch module, or some kind of light automation system (if you don't have something set up already for automated lights, it's not that hard to get started). Everything is wireless, so the installation should be pretty simple.

The key chain system will cost you $25 and is available from X10: Keychain Remote Control System