©ISTOCK.COM/FOTOSIPSAK
©ISTOCK.COM/CHANDLERPHOTO
©ISTOCK.COM/SYKONO
A large driver of the rise in home automation solutions has been the trend toward green building, energy efficiency and generally doing more with less. Home automation can control lighting, reducing electrical consumption. A homeowner can know by looking at a single screen if a light has been unnecessarily left on in any part of the house. At the same time, programmable thermostats can be set to “away” mode, heating or cooling a house to a lesser degree when no one is home. One step further, the convenience factor comes into play with systems that allow a homeowner to turn on lights remotely before starting for home, ensuring that they will not return to a dark house. Audio can be activated, with music filling the home. A temperature probe can sense if heating and air systems are not working properly, and a water meter detects flooding in a basement, sending an e-mail alert to the homeowner. Not necessarily a safety or security issue, or even convenience, a certain level of cool comes into play as well. A homeowner can program a system to turn on an espresso machine at a certain time each morning. The coffee will be ready when they step out of the shower. The possibilities with the technology are limitless. For a few hundred dollars worth of wiring, a homeowner can lay the groundwork for as basic or elaborate a home automation system as they like, which can be customized over time. “In new construction, with just a little bit of extra wiring, the home can be automation-ready,” Cox says. “It doesn’t have to be done all at once. But after the wires are in place, we can add the lighting or thermostat or audio controls whenever the homeowner wants. People like the flexibility of it, so it’s ready when they are.” Touch screens and control panels are still popular, but in the last few years, with the explosion of smart phone usage, a homeowner can now manage their home from wherever they may be. A simple, user-friendly phone app allows even more flexibility. “You can control your system from anywhere you have an Internet connection,” Cox says. “Any smart phone, any web browser… as long as you’re online, you can control it from anywhere in the world.” Home automation is no longer the realm of $20 million mansions. Digital Future Home Automation has installed systems in homes as small as 2,000 square feet. Systems are tailored to individual needs, wants and budgets. For the busy, often chaotic, occasionally frantic lifestyles of today, home automation technology offers homeowners a bit of control over their environment, a way to remain effective and organized in an ever-changing – and rather messy – world.
Tidbit
Speaking of possibilities in extra convenience: homes can even be set up so that you can perform functions like controlling the lights, raising or lowering the thermostat and activating the security system via voice commands, in person or over the phone. No word yet on whether your house will agree to open the pod bay doors.
november 2010 | slice
135