Better light switches for Dilbert 14 Feb 2008

After noticing that the only person interested in turning off the lights when leaving a room is the person who pays the energy bills, Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) proposes two inventions to close the gap:

"The first invention is the Whole House Light Switch. It's located by the inner door to the garage. When you are heading toward the car with the rest of the family, and they have left on every light in every room in which they have entered in the past 24 hours, you just flip the one switch and all the lights in the house go dark. I suppose you could designate one light to be the exception, so it looks like you are home when you are away.

"My other invention involves each family member wearing a ring with an RFID sensor, so the lights only stay on if at least one ring is in the room. As you enter the room, and pass near the sensor, the lights come on by themselves. The light switch would need three settings in this case: 1) On, 2) Off, and 3) Sensor. If you have house guests, they simply use the on/off part of the switch. When only the family is there, everything is on auto."

Nice ideas but do they hold up to scrutiny? We don't think so.

While useful, "The Whole Light Switch" presents a bit of a security issue. Imagine a burglar (deviant, whatever) being able to plunge your entire house into darkness at the push of a button. Think of the scope for practical jokes too! (That said, some hotels use this type of system and it works well - but then again, these switches only control the lighting in a single room, not the entire hotel!).

The "RFID Rings" idea is also flawed. Firstly, it requires all members of your family to wear a ring at all times while in the house. What if they don't want to wear one? And what about visitors? It doesn't scale. Surely, motion (or even heat) detection would be better.