Unlock the front door using your thumb. Control the home’s appliances and lights via the Internet or your cell phone. Want more? How about heated tiled floors, windows that tint automatically, a pantry that generates shopping lists, a water heater powered by the sun, and toilets that glow in the dark?
Sound like a sci-fi movie? Not anymore. High-tech homes are quickly moving beyond only being for the ultra-rich.
“As consumer demand grows, prices will go down and more people will jump in,” says Meghan Henning, spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association, an electronics industry trade group.
More builders are offering tech features such as energy management and security systems. Outlets are being placed higher on walls to accommodate mounted plasma or LCD TVs. Structured wiring, which includes outlets in three or more rooms tied into a central distribution box, are giving homes the technology backbone needed to one day practically run themselves.
“Buyers need to take into account what the future holds five to 10 years down the road as new technology is incorporated into homes, because you don’t want your home to be behind the times,” says Stephen Melman, National Association of Home Builders’ director of economic services.
Experts predict the average home in the next 10 years will include structured wiring systems, multizone controlled heating and air conditioning, and, in many, a remote-controlled fireplace, according to a 2007 NAHB survey of 60 architects, designers, and housing experts. Homes of more than 4,000 square feet likely will have even more: voice-operated thermostats, whole home control automation systems, automatic blinds, sensor-operated faucets, and burglar, fire, and toxic gas monitors.
The features offering the highest profit potentials when selling a high-tech home are multiroom audio systems and automated lighting controls, according to a CEA study. Indeed, home owners expect multiroom audio systems to net more than a 100 percent return when they sell, the study finds.
The well-connected home is also driving new-home design as builders include places to hold all these tech gadgets. Home offices and media rooms are growing in popularity, as are nooks off kitchens or bedrooms to hold gear.
