Now might be time for the ‘smart’ home
When you think “dream home,” what comes to mind? A grand estate on acres of land? An ornate Victorian?
For the baby boomer generation, it’s “The Jetsons,” the ‘60s futuristic cartoon equivalent of “The Flintstones.” The cartoon family’s automated, robotically enhanced home environment was the ultimate prototype for what is known today as a “smart home.”
The idea of a “smart,” or automated, home where functions including lights, security, climate, irrigation and home entertainment automatically adjust to your needs, has been around for decades, but never took off. A big reason was cost: Automation required a lot of expensive wiring for the ability to network functions.
Now the smart home’s time finally might have arrived, thanks to a convergence of factors, including advances in technology, declining cost and the “Jetsons” generation coming into enough money to outfit their houses the way they want.
“You can program your thermostat, most people have automated sprinklers, and a lot of lights have a setting function. A lot of people have those things,” says Andy Sperry of iTouch, a manufacturer of home automation systems.
“Now we’re talking about, ‘How do I take all my various subsystems, throw audio/video control on top of that, and have one button to press that’s going to arm my security system, water my lawn, turn my audio gear on or off, set my lights and close or open my garage doors.’
“That’s what home automation truly is, integrating all those things into one central command system.”
ITouch’s system starts at around $14,000 and goes up from there. It’s not cheap, but it’s accessible for many buyers, especially if the cost is tacked onto a new home mortgage.
Sperry says young professionals are the primary targets for his product and high-end builders say that’s who’s asking for automation on the front end.
“You’ve got young adults in their late 20s and early 30s buying $1 million homes that are not scared of technology,” says Travis Hulen, vice president of a home building company in Nashville, Tenn.
His company — Hulen Homes — routinely supplies low-voltage systems, central vacuuming and security, plus wiring all its homes for speakers throughout the house. It has put a full automation system in one home and is doing the same for a $3 million, 16,000-square-foot home in the same subdivision. The system cost $20,000. Hulen has also retrofitted some homes with touch pads.
ITouch is on the more affordable end of home automation systems, along with products from Control 4 of Salt Lake City. But Gerry King, president of Matrix Installations, says his company has installed high-end systems from manufacturers such as Crestron Electronics Inc. and AMX that cost from $250,000 to $750,000 for the system alone.
“There aren’t many of those,” he says. “As you move up in price, there are fewer potential customers for a Mercedes than a Buick or a Ford. It all depends on what capabilities you want. The bells and whistles are what make the difference to our high-end customer.”
That’s not the market iTouch is going for. The company is developing a system that can be sold at the $2,500 price point for use in smaller homes.
“The holy grail of home automation is not a great big house,” Sperry says. “It’s Everyman’s house, and there’s a whole lot more 2,000-square-footers out there than 10,000-square-footers.”
It may not have all the extras, but the iTouch system has plenty of cool factor and a ‘once you’ve got it, can’t live without it’ functionality, as Sperry demonstrates at the home of his business partner Doug Hill.