the Networked HOME - Technology Information

Home Office Computing, Dec, 2000 by Bonny L. Georgia

Costs for these systems vary based on the product and installation, how large your home is, the complexity of the controls installed, and how much wire you run. In many cases, the cost is tacked on to the mortgage of your new home. A complete Home Director setup with home automation controller, smart outlets, and switches costs an average of $8,000 to $10,000 installed. Customized Echelon systems can run $15,000 to $20,000.

If you're taking the plunge on structured wiring or a major retrofit wiring job, find an authorized installer and don't pinch pennies, says Leo Soderman, director of marketing at Smart Home. If possible, "overwire and leave wall plates blank, so when you want to move something, all you have to do is wire a jack," he suggests.

"At a minimum, every room should have two runs of RJ-6 quad-shield coax cable and two runs of Category 5 twisted-pair wiring," Soderman says. "I recommend wiring jacks no more than 12 feet apart. Most cable costs 10 to 12 cents per foot, so for an extra mile of cable, you're talking about $600, which is good insurance and will get absorbed into the cost of your project."

ON THE HORIZON

Two up-and-coming home automation technologies to watch for are residential gateways and the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) initiative.

A residential gateway is a network appliance that connects to an external service provider, such as a local ISP or gas or electric company via the Internet in order to monitor appliances or deliver services to your home. Some gateways will be marketed to end users (like other do-it-yourself home automation tools), while others will be installed and maintained by third-party service providers, rather like today's cable boxes.

One such gateway is Coactive Networks' (www.coactive.com) Coactive Connector 3000. Say you're at the office and it begins to rain. Using Coactive's Web interface, you could connect to your house via your office Web browser, access your lawn sprinkler system, and switch it off.

Several subscription-based emergency monitoring services are also being tested that alert users to heating or cooling failures, water leaks, and security breaches Coactive was to have rolled out services in select areas this fall; expect to see competing offerings from Sage Systems Inc. (www.sagesys.com) and other gateway providers soon.

Unlike residential gateways that use broadband to bring services into the home, UPnP and its sister technology, Simple Control Protocol (SCP), are designed to extend home networking beyond computers to lights, home security devices, home automation appliances, and all other domestic gadgets.

In theory, anything that supports SCP or has an embedded UPnP chip will share information dynamically and interact with every other compatible device in the household, without the need for new wires or a central PC or server. For instance, if you were catching up a business associate on the phone while printing and collating a presentation document, you might hear a quiet message in the phone receiver that your printer's finished the job. Microsoft, Intel, and appliance manufacturers including Maytag, General Electric, Sony, Mitsubishi Electronic, and Philips Electronics are behind this futuristic "smart appliance" initiative, but don't look for much in the way of products for at least a few years. To read more about who's developing UPnP devices, pay a visit to the Universal Plug and Play forum at www.upnp.org or www.microsoft.com/homenet/upnp.htm.>