FIRMS TO OFFER LONG-DISTANCE CONTROL OF APPLIANCES.Byline: Hillary Chura Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. It's a sweltering swel·ter·ing adj. 1. Oppressively hot and humid; sultry. 2. Suffering from oppressive heat. swel summer day, and your house will be an oven by the time you get home from work. Now, imagine turning on your air conditioner with just a telephone call from the office. The idea isn't far-fetched. Ameritech Corp. and Commonwealth Edison This article is about ComEd in Illinois. For ConEd in New York, see Consolidated Edison. Commonwealth Edison (or "ComEd"), owned by Exelon Corporation, is the largest electric utility in Illinois, serving the Chicago and Northern Illinois area. last week announced a ``smart home'' test program that will allow Chicago-area customers to use the phone to turn on - or off - an air conditioner, a heater or even a washing machine (storage) washing machine - An old-style 14-inch hard disk in a floor-standing cabinet. So called because of the size of the cabinet and the "top-loading" access to the media packs - and, of course, they were always set on "spin cycle". . The service will be available to 2,000 homes in the Chicago area before 1997. Ameritech and Wisconsin Energy Corp. will also offer the feature to at least 200 homes in southeastern Wisconsin. Five or six major appliances A major appliance is usually defined as a large machine which accomplishes some routine housekeeping task, which includes purposes such as cooking, food preservation, or cleaning, whether in a household, institutional, commercial or industrial setting. and the thermostat thermostat, automatic device that regulates temperature in an enclosed area by controlling heating or refrigerating systems. It is commonly connected to one of these systems, turning it on or off in order to maintain a predetermined temperature. in each household will be wired in so that a homeowner can call home and punch in a code to turn something on or off. During the experimental stage - it's not clear how long that will last - the service will be free. The price after that has not been determined. Home automation has come a long way from items such as the Clapper. Appliances already can be controlled from one console and operated by telephone. But such systems can cost $5,000 to $1 million per home. The new service would save a lot of work for Karen Bloom's neighbor. The Chicago recruiting executive occasionally calls him to turn on her air conditioner on hot days. Flipping the switch automatically by telephone would be much more attractive, Bloom said. ``As long as nothing blew up when I wasn't home,'' she said, ``that would be great.'' |
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