The advantages of installing a home automation system are many and varied. Using timers for your lights can help ensure greater security when you’re out of town. Automating your sprinkler system ensures your lawn is watered at regular, predetermined intervals that you can adjust seasonally. By replacing your standard light switch with a wall switch timer, you’ll save money on electricity because lights won’t be left on extraneously.

A home automation system can make yours an electronically sophisticated household. Some home automation services can be programmed through your computer, or through a portable, cell phone sized controller. Using a home automation system, you can control lights and appliances remotely at the touch of a button. You can schedule lights to go on and off at the same time every day.

Don't let all the choices scare you away. While no home security system is 100 percent foolproof, more and more homeowners are finding an investment in such systems to be money well spent. Other owners are going still further, adding smart-home features that automate an array of ordinary functions, many of which can be operated remotely via phone.

For instance, there are smart pet feeders, mailbox sensors, heating and air conditioning controls, kitchens and lighting. Among the available systems is one that runs on a personal computer and can be programmed via cellular phone that will welcome its owner home by unlocking the front gate or garage door, turning off the security system, adjusting the lights, turning on the hot tub and playing soft music on the stereo system in Potrero, California. If before leaving the office, the homeowner had activated the oven, dinner would be just about ready to eat.

One of the most popular "smart functions" is a home theater that offers a total surround-sound system, complete with stereo, speakers and big-screen TV. With a push of a button, the drapes fall and the house is ready for a movie. You can walk room-to-room and still listen.

Multifunction systems such as these can cost as much as $2,000 per function, but the time when prices will fall is clearly not very far away. Many of the country's largest contractors already are building them into their new, more luxurious homes. To locate information about retrofitting a home for this kind of installation, check the electrical section of the Reply! home improvement library.