What is an Environmental Control Unit?
Before I go into what a environmental control unit is, I want to put out a few thoughts:
1. You need to know up front that environmental control units can be expensive. A typical fully functional ECU with installation and training can range in cost from $2000 to $20,000. You also have to consider possible maintenance and hidden costs such as UPS back ups, electrical costs, or necessary structural improvements. Your environmental control unit is going to need repair. Either the parts of the system that are mounted on your wheelchair are going to get snagged on something or your nursing assistant is going to be too rough on things and break a wire. Something will happen that will need to be replaced.
2. Forget what you see in the movies. You are not going to be able to talk out loud in any room in your house, saying whatever you want to some invisible smart home computer with its own personality who will be able to correctly interpret, understand, and perform any task you want. Please, please, please wipe that image from your brain. It just doesn't exist.
3. Environmental control units require a lot of work on your part. Yes, you have to work to make the experience successful. You have to learn how to talk to the unit, you have to learn all the commands, you have to learn the command menus and submenus, and you have to know how to handle the equipment and more importantly how to tell your assistants how to handle the equipment.
An environmental control unit (ECU) is a piece of assistive technology that allows a person who is physically disabled to control their living environment. Since a person with a physical disability cannot always pick up the telephone receiver, flick on the light switch, or press the keys on the remote control, an environmental control unit is the technological bridge that allows that to happen. Each particular environmental control unit has its own features but the typical environmental control unit allows the person who is physically disabled the ability to independently control such things as:
* operate their hospital bed
* turn on/off lights and small appliances
* answer and make telephone calls
* control the TV, stereo, DVD player, etc.
* open doors
* control the heating and air conditioning
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