Smart Home - the New Home?

[OLLIE 26]

Hey guys please help me out with my research by filling in a quick survey.

the survey is only 30 questions, (mostly yes/no questions) and is very quick to complete, please click on the following link.

Smarthome Survey

thank you in advance for participating in this project, the results will be posted up here when complete and will make for an interesting read and discussion.

Edited May 28, 2006 by OLLIE

[dave 2]

done.. i want a gps tag for my cat...

[*sic 1]

done

[bravo 35]

Done - interested in the results as my father's company installs this stuff. He is getting the family home converted quite soon. WIll be interesting to see what it is like.

Edited May 28, 2006 by bravomikewhiskey

[bumpstop325 0]

done

[Jazzbass 1]

"

[325GRANT 0]

done

[martyyn 2]

Me too.

Some interesting questions, a straight yes/no is sometimes very difficult to answer, so having text boxes is always useful.

For me it comes down to what the person wants to use it for. Thinking positivley I think this sort of thing can be great, I already use a pc to control all my tv recording (think mysky), my music, my dvd's, my photos etc so why wouldnt I want to control everything from whereever I am ?

The one major worry would be how secure it was when it goes mobile.

[E30-323ti 66]

done

[Gus 5]

done

f**k that im living in a cave...how much tech do we really need?

[Mavrick 0]

Done

Reminds me a little of the simpsons episode where there house ended up getting taken over by the smart computer.

[DCEIVN 0]

on that last question where it says how much would you expect to pay - do you mean what my expectation is that smarthomes will be priced at or what I would want to pay for a smart home. I understand what it means (1st understanding) but was wondering what YOU meant by the question.

Also what do you define as basic smart home technology? Where do you draw the limit? New technology like this usually guarentees extremely high introductory prices doesn't it? Like when plasma screen TVs came out and improved quality and space usage - they were priced quite high and have come down remarkably.

btw - done your survey obviously

[westy 614]

done

f**k that im living in a cave...how much tech do we really need?

True story.

[OLLIE 26]

Great feedback thanks guys! keep it coming

[alex 0]

Done.

Interesting and educational survey actually.

[OLLIE 26]

on that last question where it says how much would you expect to pay - do you mean what my expectation is that smarthomes will be priced at or what I would want to pay for a smart home. I understand what it means (1st understanding) but was wondering what YOU meant by the question.

Also what do you define as basic smart home technology? Where do you draw the limit? New technology like this usually guarentees extremely high introductory prices doesn't it? Like when plasma screen TVs came out and improved quality and space usage - they were priced quite high and have come down remarkably.

btw - done your survey obviously

it means exactly what it says, what you'd expect to have to pay for it.

and basic smarthome technology was roughly mentioned in brackets as the following:

(lighting, heating, security,home entertainment)

thanks for taking time to do the survey, have been looking at responses and there are some really usefull comments.

The research is the start of a product development project and as i produce ideas and concepts i will put up another survey with pictures and explanations of the concepts and ask for your rating and opinions, hopefully this will be of interest to you all.

[OLLIE 26]

bump - anyone who hasn't done they survey yet, please take a minute to do it, you may find it very interesting.

[Guest Spargo]

Done

[Neal 544]

Done

[cainchapman 0]

http://www.control4.com/

And the latest one in the market.

[OLLIE 26]

http://www.control4.com/

And the latest one in the market.

read the viva in wednesdays herald did ya?

very cool hah.

survey results indicate that users still prefer wall switch units in each room. pretty interesting one that one.

[bravo 35]

That's because we're all sick of losing the damn remote!

[Jazzbass 1]

I'm an electrician (although I haven't worked as one since 1980) and in the '70s I installed latching detectors in my home to replace the light switches. It was cool for a while, but like your survey results show, Ollie - we went back to good old fashioned switches.

[Carl 3]

No wonder people are so obese

[bravo 35]

In my parents home (the one due to have some smart wiring installed) there are touch-sensitive light switches with infra-red remotes. This is a good idea as you can switch or dim the lights from your bed without installing separate switches, and the brass touch panel near the door looks cool in a star-trek kind of way.

All the remotes are interchangeable and have a range of around 10m. As kids we used to sneak into the hall and "zap" each other's lights on by remote in the middle of the night and be well back in bed before the poor bugger who copped it was awake enough to discover who'd done it. The only downside (as my younger brother found out) was that repetitive shooting of the touch panel with a BB gun eventually kills the panel.

As far as smart wiring goes I'd imagine that a central control panel with individual switches in each room to control lights and say a main remote would be the go. This means that no matter what you can still go back to the main control panel to change settings, you don't have to always carry a remote just to go to the bathroom to turn the light on, and you can still control everything from the couch/bed/wherever if you want by the main remote. Plus internet access so if for instance your alarm goes off - you'll get a txt on your mobile. You go to the nearest internet terminal, log-in to your house and you can see live feeds from your cameras, lock doors, control lights, close gates, whatever. Or you can spy on your kids and make sure they are behaving, or you can cancel the oven from switching the chicken on automatically at 4pm because you've just been invited to dinner with friends and don't want to have to rush home and switch it off. etc etc.

Edited June 6, 2006 by bravomikewhiskey