Seven things you need to know about home automation   |  February 12, 2010  

You’re connected, so why is your house still so darned dumb?

By Trevor Marshall

Your life is made a whole lot easier because you’re surrounded by technology. Your computer, your mobile phone, your vehicle, your home appliances—all are stuffed with microprocessors. But chances are there’s one important area of your life in which computing power does not play a huge role. And remarkably, it’s the biggest, most expensive thing most of us will ever own.

That’s right: Your house is dumb.

Sure, smart devices are everywhere at home, from the kitchen to the den to the furnace nook. But consider this:

• you invest in a state-of-the-art computer system and then plug it into house wiring that hasn’t really evolved since your grandparents’ era
• your DVDs and CDs are scattered through several rooms, prompting a scavenger hunt every time you want to watch or listen to something
• you spend hundreds of dollars every summer to run an air conditioner that cannot take steps to prevent heat from entering your home in the first place.

The good news is that home automation can address all of these problems, and many more. By adding sensors and controllers to the home it’s possible to connect various components—entertainment centres, HVAC and other mechanical systems, lighting, motorized drapes, telecommunications, security alarms, etc.—across your home. A central brain can then act as a combination multimedia server and controller, managing systems accessed through wall-mounted touchpads or screens, hand-held remotes or even a PDA or smartphone. Homeowners can program systems to work together to maximize comfort and convenience, and even reduce operating costs. For example:

• set the alarm as you leave and the house locks the doors and dials down the furnace a couple of degrees. If sensors indicate it’s dark outside, the house also turns on lights in various sequences so it appears occupied while you’re away.
• when you unlock the door, the hall light comes on, as does your favourite radio station
• going to be working late? Adjust the start time for that roast in the oven, via your computer at work
• call up any movie, music, Web site or other media, in any room, and even create moods with lighting and music with a single touch.

Sound good? Here are seven things you need to know about making your house smarter.

1 People want it
In 2008, an IDC Canada survey asked Canadians what types of services they’d be willing to pay their broadband Internet supplier to receive. The top answer, at 17 per cent, was the ability to control home utilities and other types of services from a PC or wireless phone. It’s a small but significant number that could translate into hundreds of thousands of smart houses across the country. “The amount of time we are outside the house is significant these days, whether it’s for short periods of time during the day or longer periods like the Snowbirds who go to Florida for five months of the year,” said Tony Olvet, vice-president, research domains at IDC Canada. “Being able to have a little more control and a better sense of security around what’s happening at home while we’re away is interesting to people.”

2 It’s more affordable than ever
Home automation has been around for decades but it was so expensive that only the very rich could afford to live in smart houses. For the rest of us, home automation was a Jetsons-like fantasy. That’s changing now thanks to advances in technology. “The biggest contributing factor is Internet Protocol enabling this in an open environment,” said Peter Bates, vice-president consumer operations at Cisco Canada. “Traditionally, what we’ve seen is high-cost proprietary systems. Through IP and networking we’ll be able to open up the home environment.”

3 It’s easier to use
Open standards also mean the controls are getting easier to program, which reduces set-up costs. And the systems are more intuitive to use. An example is Savant, a home-automation solution out of the U.S. that has just launched in Canada. Users can interact with Savant through a photo of each room in the house, displayed on a touchscreen panel. Want to dim the lights? Touch and hold the lights in the photo of the room you want to dim. Savant can also be controlled via an iPhone application. “Home automation has been very expensive up to this point and the user interface has not been that easy to program,” said Brad Middleton, Savant brand manager at Evolution Home in Toronto. “Up until now nobody has given the homeowner a simple way to interact with the system. It’s always been a $50,000 automation system with a big panel. Now it can be done from a $300 iPhone.”

4 It might make your house greener
People generally invest in home automation because the technology wows them and enhances their lifestyle, but it can also make a house more environmentally responsible. “I think it’s going to come through growing awareness in the market, with more people wanting to address their environmental footprint, and I think it’s going to come through legislation,” said Marilyn Sanford, who leads the Green Task Force at the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA), a Chicago-based industry group with members across Canada and the United States. “Right now, people aren’t too sure how they can manage the different elements of being more sensitive to the environment. What’s very cool about the home automation technology out there right now is we can do a lot of this stuff automatically.”

As an example, Sanford said a smart home can track the sun’s travel and automatically draw the drapes to keep sunlight from heating up rooms in the summer. That means the air conditioner doesn’t have to work as hard.

5 Standards are coming (eventually)
The Canadian Standards Association (CSA)has already created energy-use standards for almost 75 items found in homes, from lighting to appliances. Tying them together is the next logical step. To start, the CSA is working on a guideline for automation systems that covers lighting and HVAC applications in commercial buildings. It’s expected this will be published in 2012.

While standards for residential automation systems are not on the drawing board in the near term, the CSA’s director of electrotechnical, Stephen Brown, predicts it’s only a matter of time. “Doing this on the commercial side—and addressing the complexities on the commercial side—will certainly give us all the information we need to move forward on the residential side.”

6 You can plan for it
Maybe you’re not ready for home automation today. What about five years from now?

Dave Pedigo, senior director of technology at CEDIA, said even familiar appliances are evolving. In just a couple of years the standard TV will be a media centre with a built-in hard drive, and it’s going to need an Internet connection. Pedigo said there are things we can do right now to future-proof our homes.

“If it’s a new building or a remodel, put conduit to several locations in the home so that if later on you need to pull another cable, you have a nice little path: you don’t need to dig through walls or cut anything up,” he said. “We can never pull too many wires.”

7 It’s a step toward a connected world
It’s not just about your house. A smart home will be able to connect to all the services members of modern societies require.

“As we’ve seen the relevance of the network grow so fast and the number of points of connection increase from 300 million six years ago to more than 14 billion in the next two years…we’re looking at the ability to increase the value of systems and applications and that’s where our connected communities come in,” said Rick Huijbregts, vice-president vertical industries at Cisco Canada. “We’re starting to bundle our existing efforts in health care, energy, education and smart buildings, and really look at how one network starts to enable community and business transformation.”

SIDEBAR

Getting started

Home automation may seem big and complex, but there’s a lot you can do to get started. CEDIA has several tips for savvy homeowners at www.cedia.net. Here are a few:

Step 1: Insist on integrated systems: Make sure the electronic equipment you are buying can be hooked together and operated with one easy-to-use control system.

Step 2: Think with your wallet, but lead with your head: Quality and long-term dependability are the most cost-effective attributes you can build into a home.

Step 3: Ensure the experts work together for you: Maximize your home’s electronic capabilities by having your architect, builder or remodeller, and interior designer collaborate and partner with an electronic systems contractor from the beginning of the planning process.

Step 4: Consult a professional: Having a long-term relationship with one professional will maximize the reliability and enjoyment of your home’s electronic systems. Homeowners can use the search function on CEDIA’s Web site to find association members in their community.