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| EMagazine Volume 6 Issue 1 Feb / Mar 2001 |
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Securing a Home's
Future Oscar is being displayed in a novel house being built by the Copper Development Centre at Homeworld, a display home showcase in the Sydney suburb of Kellyville. Called, the Smart Wired house, it will stand alongside three other 'green smart' homes featuring environmental technologies, and will incorporate a technology-independent wiring structure for the home suiting requirements for security, communications, lighting, audio and garden irrigation. |
The security, communications, lighting and entertainment functions of home automation systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated and will become even more so in future. That's why smart builders and designers should consider future-proofing or pre-wiring the homes they build, writes.Dael Climo. |
In today's wired world, the home is now becoming the arena for converged technologies that make life more seamless, more secure and far better lit. In its simplest form this means that home automation systems are being installed that can automatically control functions such as security, lighting, communications and audio.
For example, heating and lighting might be dynamically adjusted in every room and appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers loaded and left to switch themselves on when electricity is at off-peak rates (while not yet available in Australia, Italian company Merloni Elettrodometici produces this types of appliance).
To improve home security, motion detectors can be used as intruder deterrents, or in more sophisticated systems security status messages can be transmitted to security companies and equipment such as outside video cameras can superimpose messages on television screens.
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"Home automation is currently seen as a luxury but we are trying to change this perception so it is seen as an integrated part of the house," says Yudowksi. He says that if a house is pre-wired when it is built it will be "future proofed" from the home automation point of view. "In order to avoid the house becoming obsolete we would advise pre-wiring for lighting control, video, audio and security - because once a house is built it is prohibitively expensive to retrofit."
Yudowski puts the cost of pre-wiring a new home at around 0.5 percent of the cost of the dwelling, emphasising that "the only time this work can be done at this low cost is during construction." He believes pre-wiring should be the norm with new homes, and that if clients aren't asking for it, it is probably because the builder has not pointed out its benefits. Advances in technology will see the next generation of home automation systems homes, and eventually communities, interconnected, he says. "The intranet will be implemented as a community network, adding value and enhancing the quality of life in a connected community."
As an example, homes in a community will all have integrated security systems, delivering increased security functionality and with it greater peace of mind for residents. At present three Australian companies have developed home automation systems. They are HPM which calls its system Oscar, Clipsal with Minder and Lighting Control with Dynalite. Other systems are available from the local subsidiaries of Lutron, AMX and Creston Electronics.
Getting started
Oscar is being displayed in a novel house being built by the Copper Development Centre at Homeworld, a display home showcase in the Sydney suburb of Kellyville. Called, the Smart Wired house, it will stand alongside three other 'green smart' homes featuring environmental technologies, and will incorporate a technology-independent wiring structure for the home suiting requirements for security, communications, lighting, audio and garden irrigation.
John Fennell, CEO of the Copper Development Centre and developers of the Smart Wired concept, says that Smart Wired houses are a technology evolution that will enable new homebuilders to "future proof their homes." By pre-wiring homes during construction builders will save thousands of dollars, he says. "Our aim is to keep the cost of pre-wiring a new home to a minimum and the final cost will be very low when compared to retro-fitting an existing home."
Homebuyers will be able to add the cost of smart wiring to their mortgage, and those that don't want the entire package will be able to select from each of five pre-wired options - telecommunications, security, audio, lighting and garden irrigation.
Courses have been developed by the Copper Development Corporation in conjunction with the Housing Industry Association (HIA) and National Electrical Contractors Association to train electricians in installing the necessary cabling for Smart Wired homes. Fennell says around 16,000 electricians are being trained nationally.
The HIA is also incorporating the Smart Wiring package and options in their standard housing contract. Visitors to the Kellyville display home will be able to see the smart wiring as the house will have interior walls made with perspex cutaway sections.
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Smart living is coming to a home near you Keeping up with the Joneses isn't as easy as it used to be. Forget that waterfront villa, two-car garage and sets of German wheels, to be in the running you now need to live in an internet-enabled home. In layman's parlance, that means a home that uses the technology of the internet to smooth just above every aspect of domestic life. That means a world where appliances can book themselves in for a service - before they break down - and homes can be remotely unlocked to enable the groceries ordered online earlier in the day to be delivered right to the kitchen table. The prototype for this home, called i-home is being built by Lend Lease in conjunction with Cisco Systems at the Jackson's Landing development in Sydney's Pyrmont, and will open for visits from November. "People will be able to observe the i-home and understand how the internet can their living environment - making their home a more secure, functional, accessible, convenient and entertaining place to live," says Terry Walsh, Cisco's managing director, Australia and New Zealand. The i-home will showcase a range of internet-enabled household technologies including smart appliances, lighting and utilities, home entertainment, communication and security solutions, all of which will be connected to and controlled using Clipsal C-Bus and the Crestron wireless touch panel. When not at home, family members will be able to communicate with their i-home via the internet to control all systems and appliances. |
