Smart Home Technology

Some of our favorite attractions at the Builders’ Show were the “smart” home displays.  The capabilities they promise cause me to envision a house that the Jetson’s would be at home in – integrated control of lighting, heating, sound, security, etc.  Add to that what the future will bring in terms of smart grid technology and green automation capabilities and the possibilities are dazzling.

Although we’ve installed various levels of these systems in our custom homes, I am excited about the opportunity to do it in our own.  In order to get a handle on what we want and what we can afford, we created (yet another) wish list.  (There are far more options available; these are just the ones we selected.) –

•    HVAC

•     Turn off girls’ wing when they’re not home
•     Temperature control to minimize usage

•    Lighting

•     Scene-setting dimmers in living area and master bedroom
•     Light driveway when someone is expected
•     Light gazebo path

•    Security

•     Automatically lock all doors when leaving the house
•     Doorbell rings in office, master bath, entryway

•    Audio and video

•     Sound systems – playing music throughout the house
•     Networking capabilities to share video and DVDs
•     Speakers on porch and patio, surround sound in living room

•    Intercoms

•     Intercom to girls’ wing and office area

•    Integrated systems

•     Total home control systems integrating the above; i. e., an LCD console user interface in the kitchen, which functions as an intercom station, gives you full control of the music in your home, allows you to set various scenes (dimmer for a dinner party, brighter for preparing meals or cleaning up) setting lighting and music volume levels. You can even operate it from your smart phone inside or outside your home.

 

The next consideration is whether to go wired or wireless.  Although wireless appears to be the wave of the future and is less expensive, it’s not yet very common in the U.S., especially in residential use.  (It is a good option for home renovation, however.)  We’re opting for the tried-and-true hard-wire systems.  Although they cost more up front, we’ll always have the fallback.  Wire is cheap and easy to install in a home under construction.  At the show, we especially liked Legrand and Lutron.  They both have excellent sites if you're interested in all that this technology has to offer.  But we’ll also talk to our own subcontractors who have installed similar systems in most of our custom homes.

The bottom line is, as with our other wish lists, to prepare for the future as much as our crystal ball allows. In addition to wiring whatever we can think of, we’ll install conduit wherever we can imagine a future need.  We’ll start gradually on our wish list and add options as they become available or affordable.

I’m ready to kick back with Jane Jetson and let my house do all the work!  We’ll see how much makes the final budget cut.