Smart Homes

PICTURE THIS: you and your family are heading home from a two week vacation. The house has been empty, but you're not worried – you know the lights have been turning on and off at scheduled times every day, and you checked the cameras online once or twice. Besides, your security system would send you a text message if anything happened. As you're picking up your car at the airport, you connect to your home and turn on the heat since you were really getting used to that tropical climate. While you're at it you switch on the coffee machine and order up a pot, then pull out of the parking lot and head home to receive your warm welcome.

It might sound like something in between Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and The Jetsons, but fully automated homes – smart homes, as they are commonly dubbed – are no longer unattainable luxuries. The technology is all out there, readily available and reasonably priced, but it is often spread among several industries: security, A/V, lighting, heating and cooling and computers all play their role and must be properly integrated if one is to have the true smart home experience. It is a true modern luxury that most predict will be the future of home design, and local professionals are now bringing their different areas of expertise together to meet the growing demand.

Industry collaboration is so important because the full potential of technology to make our lives easier can only be met by bringing things together into comprehensive solutions. We live in a world inundated with computerized devices, and though it once made sense for these devices to be standalone units, modern trends are all turning towards amalgamation. This is most obvious with cellphones, which today serve as cameras, music players, word processors, web browsers and e-mail clients for countless people. The smart home is no different from the smart phone: it aims to bring what were once separate devices – digital thermostats, lighting controls, security systems, home theaters and more – together in one centralized system.

When you think about it, the vacation scenario isn't all that amazing: programmable lights, thermostats and coffee makers are all old news. The only thing that is new is the ability to communicate with all these things from your Blackberry or laptop, and control them through one easy-to-use interface – but the addition of that simple unifying feature greatly increased the value and convenience of the whole system.

Unified systems have other advantages too. By installing all your electronic systems at once, you can minimize the necessary wiring, getting the simplest, least invasive installation possible. Many systems can be linked to the same central computer, which can then be set up with any number of inputs and outputs, from touch screens and keypads inside the home to cellphone and web interfaces for when you're on the go. By bringing everything together you make it as convenient as possible – like the well-designed home theatre with one sleek control pad, instead of the complicated mish-mash of four black boxes and five different remotes.

Home theaters, in fact, can be a fun and enjoyable part of a smart home, whether you're a movie buff or just enjoy music in the evening. It's one thing to have a screen in the family room, a separate theatre room, and speakers mounted throughout the house, but consider the potential when they become part of an integrated system. You start a movie and the lights dim, the speakers in the family room adjust to your preferred level, the fireplace springs to life; or you're hosting a party so you select the appropriate home setting: the driveway lights come on and your predesigned playlist springs from speakers throughout the house, while the kids use the touch screen in the theatre room to choose from a list of movies.

Even with a less extravagant array of equipment, integration and automation take everything to the next level. The thing to remember about automation and the smart home is that it's all about doing it right, not spending more money. If you're already investing in a security system, central lighting controls and a programmable thermostat, you can seek out suppliers with the necessary professional contacts to combine the jobs and offer you greater convenience. Performing this kind of modern upgrade on your home is a renovation on par with a new bathroom or kitchen – the home of the future is available today.

Resource materials & photos provided by:
Station Earth, Fergus
Planet CPU, Elora
Protector Security Systems, Guelph
techs go, Fergus