Patent ID: 8872625

Claim:
A system comprising: a security system within a secured area, said security system having a wireless transmitter transmitting wireless status messages including at least a first encrypted message indicating that the security system is armed and a second encrypted message indicating that the security system is disarmed wherein the first encrypted message further comprises an armed status message and the second encrypted message further comprises a disarmed status message; an appliance control device provided as a separate control module, the appliance control device has a wireless receiver and a decryption unit, the wireless receiver continuously monitors a transmission spectrum of the security system for the wireless status messages, the appliance control device receiving any of the first and second encrypted messages, the decryption unit decrypting the first encrypted message to recover the armed status message and decrypting the second encrypted message to recover the disarmed status message; and an appliance associated with the secured area and controlled by the appliance control device, the appliance entering a relatively low energy consuming mode in response to the appliance control device receiving the armed status message and the appliance entering a relatively high energy consuming mode in response to the appliance control device receiving the disarmed status message, wherein the appliance control device causes the appliance to: enter the relatively low energy consuming mode upon receipt of any transmitted first encrypted message from the security system and recovering the armed status message indicating that the security system is armed, and to enter the relatively high energy consuming mode upon receipt of any transmitted second encrypted message from the security system and recovering the disarmed status message indicating that the security system is disarmed.