Universal remote that controls lights?

Question

i'm new to universal remotes, and I would like to buy one preferably under $200 and a touchscreen would be nice ( which might be hard to find in that price range) but most importantly I would like to control my lights and even air conditioner with it. I don't think I have infared lights, so if you have any suggestions on what to buy to get that please answer this question, and if you could could you get me an estimate of what were looking at money wise.

Answer 1

OK. Yes and No. You can buy a remote control that will learn any IR codes imitted from another remote. And you can even get one with an LCD screen (althogh a touchscreen is not available at that price but isn't needed anyway) The problem is that whatever you want to control needs to be controllable with an IR remote. Do your lights have IR remotes with them? If so then you can teach the IR codes to a Universal Remote and even build them into macros (like push play for the DVD and the lights dim). The problem is that each light switch leg you want to control costs at least $120+. This might be fine if all the lights in the room are on 1 switch then the price is not to bad but some rooms have up to 4-6 light switches in a single wall plate. In these cases the $120 light switches aren't good enough and you need to get a kit or a master controller that costs $800+. Expensive. There are new controllers including a $500 one from Monster that directly controlls Z-Wave light switches from Monster and other manufacturers. Other devices like ceiling fans, air conditioner and more could theoretically be controlled but it has to be able to pick up infra-red signals. Some ceiling fans have remotes but they are RF in most cases so can't be controlled by a universal remote (even an RF remote. RF remotes still controll devices using IR.)

Everything you want to do is possible and even routine. Just much more expensive than you are thinking.

For a good remote and easy to program check out a harmony if you have a more or less straight forward system. If it is a little more complex you may want a Universal Remote Control.