For anyone interested, or better, passionate about home automation, then read on. There have been a few homes in the media recently, including one in our very own London West End that have been making headlines and winning awards for their home automation innovations. And although the chances of you owning a home like these are at best ambitious, there’s no reason why you can’t aspire to have something similar.
From Rags to Riches
The first is the silver winner in the 2014 Electronic House Home of the Year Awards. And this house in Irvine, California is a superb example of a before and after project. It took nine months to convert the garage into a playroom for the kids, turn a guest room into a home theatre, change traditional to modern and install an automation system to manage all of the home’s electronics.
So now there are no light switches within eyesight, instead keypads take their place: as with the security system, surveillance camera, electronic door lock and thermostat, the lights can be operated with a mobile app on an iPad and iPhone.
Then an 8-by-10-foot space (formerly the guest bedroom) was transformed into a home cinema. With surround sound speakers in the ceiling and the projector in the garage, the house is now fully automated and the 60 light switches removed from the walls are simply a memory of an apartment that once was!
The overall Gold Winner of the 2014 House of the Year is what we all aspire to. It is simply the house I want. Now! Not content with just living in Hawaii, the owners of this house decided to creat a mini holiday resort! They have installed a 20-mile network of high-grade, low-voltage cabling internally to cope with the automation demands, which includes a two-tier swimming pool complex complete with diving cliff, underground water slide and grotto. Get this, one single APP on the iPad operates the swimming pool system, outdoor audio/video components, coloured LED landscape light fixtures and a sophisticated outdoor security system.
What Can Be Done
Finally we come to the Cornflake show apartment in Oxford Street, www.cornflake.co.uk which, although having been opened now for just over a year, is attracting more and more visitors.
The apartment is complete with living areas; kitchen, games room, den, cinema, all controlled by an iPad or should the customer want, an Android app. The Cornflake philosophy is all about combining technology and design “to create the best user experience possible”. The company can do this for you, and currently have nearly 50 live projects all over the world.
These projects show what can be done and what will be normal within the home automation industry within five to ten years. You might not aspire to a two tiered, Hawaiian-themed swimming pool but control at your fingertips, energy saving devices and a smart home are good places to start.
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