When you hear the term “high-tech home,” you probably have visions of The Jetsons or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Well today, thanks to major advancements in technology, that once-fictional future is now a reality. Technology is creeping into every room of the home, from the kitchen to the den to the home theater and everything in between.

So what makes a home high-tech? In short, it’s a combination of electronic gadgets and gizmos that make living easier. Whether it’s cutting-edge electronic equipment, state-of-the-art appliances, complex programmable security systems or even automated lighting and HVAC systems, the sky is the limit when it comes to making things faster and easier with the flip of a switch.

Getting the look down
Perhaps the best part of having highly technical equipment in the home is that it is concealed. “In nicer custom homes, a bunch of wires and speakers just aren’t a good look,” says Eddie Landry, vice president of sales for Home Waves. “People want speakers and other audio components to be unperceivable and they want to be able to control their television or music or whatever from one keypad.” Often, custom built cabinetry houses all the technical components of the home theater or stereo system.

“In one of the rooms [that Home Waves designed on Page 101], you walk in and don’t see anything but a beautiful painting above the fireplace,” Landry says. “Press a button, though, and the artwork scrolls up into a frame and exposes a plasma screen with HDTV. The speakers give off a beautiful rich sound and are painted to match the decor of the room.”

It’s a power thing
Most of the automation trends right now involve integrating light, sound, audio visual equipment and security systems. But the investment can be for naught if a home isn’t equipped with adequate power and electricity, says Ray Esperolini of RayMark Engineering. Depending on a home’s size and type of electronics, a homeowner can invest as little as $1,000 or as much as $30,000 on a power system.

“Power quality changes by hour,” Esperolini says. “For example, the lights dim when the air conditioning kicks on. So what we try to do is make sure the power coming into a home is stable and reliable. If your home is automated and you don’t have the right kind of power, the entire house won’t work.” Once you’ve taken care of the power, then you can start implementing the kind of electronics and automation you want.

At the touch of your finger
And speaking of automation, more and more homeowners are ditching tangled wires and multiple remote controls for centralized touch screens that automate everything from the gadgets in their media room to the lighting throughout their home. Without a doubt, home automation is a major investment often found in larger homes. Home IQ Technology’s Fabian Leroo says most of the homes he automates are at least 7,000 square feet, adding that it doesn’t make sense to invest heavily in an automation system if your home is less than half that size.

If your budget is limited, Leroo says it’s best to focus on automating lighting because that’s what gets used most. “The first thing you do when you walk in your house is switch on the lights,” Leroo says. “Lights give a completely different look to your home. You can program your automation system so that different rooms are lit differently, giving off a certain mood. You can also save a lot of time by controlling your home’s lights from one location because you don’t have to go room to room to turn off your lights.”

Sensory Solutions’ president Vince Sanders says one of his projects involved a light-activated timer that was triggered as soon as a garage door opened in the evening. The timer was programmed to switch on certain lights in the home so that someone coming home from work wouldn’t have to go room to room switching on lights.

Similarly, Leroo says one of his projects made it easier for a bachelor to call into his home automation system, turn on the fireplace, regulate the thermostat, dim the lights and play romantic music anytime he brought a date back to his place. Another system he installed regulates when teens in the house can use the phone, he says.

And what about home theaters?
Home theaters are one of the most obvious places to look for high-tech gear. “We have seen pricing for systems go up dramatically over the past few years,” says Brian Bergherm, president of Georgia Home Theater. “Our average project now runs around $40,000 for a complete home theater system, and we do a few systems each year that are well over $100,000 per project.” He feels that it’s difficult to integrate a home theater for anything less than $10,000.

Bergherm adds that a few years ago most of the home theater systems installed included a big-screen TV as their main video monitor, but a big-screen TV can “only get so large.” He found that clients wanted a movie-house experience with a screen as big as can fit in the designated theater room. As a result, more people have moved towards front projection to get that desired effect. “We had thought by now that with plasma TVs growing popularity our clients would be using more of them in a home theater system,” he says. “Not so, since plasma TVs only get as large as 61-inches and cost around $25,000.” Instead, people are buying a 12-foot screen and projector for the same amount, keeping plasmas as the video option for master bedrooms and living rooms.

Bring in the noise, bring in da funk
And let’s not forget about the sound systems. Today’s high-tech homes have come a long way from the days of the turntable and boom box. For instance, at a home in the St. Ives neighborhood, Home Waves designed three home theaters that are connected with a digital music server. This allows the homeowners to play perfect digital copies of songs over a whole-house audio system anywhere in the home, Landry says. Other home automation projects integrate sound in ways that allow a family to listen to nice music through a whole-house audio system while they’re eating dinner, answer a ringing telephone and page someone in another part of the house to come to the phone.

Other uses
Other home automation projects involve integrating security camera access so that a homeowner can monitor anything from the baby to the backyard from a plasma screen in the kitchen, Sanders says. Some systems even allow homeowners to check on their homes from a fixed Internet address, Leroo says.

And speaking of the Internet, let’s not forget the need to stay connected at home. Tom Stelling, director of sales for Automated PC says many homeowners are getting wireless networking systems, especially because more people are telecommuting and the cost of the networks has become much more affordable.

“Many people want to be on the Internet, but they want to do it in a way where they don’t have to wire their entire house,” Stelling says. “With a wireless network, you can surf the Internet from a laptop or PC anywhere in your house, as long as you have a wireless access point or wireless LAN card.” Stelling says the best wireless systems can cost between $300 and $750.

The kitchen and laundry room
Some major appliance manufacturers have seen the demand for automation and have introduced several new appliances designed to make cooking and cleaning easier. The GE Profile Harmony™ Clothes Care System, for example, is the first washing machine that communicates electronic-ally to the dryer, automatically determining which settings will deliver the best results for drying.

And the Whirlpool Polara™ Refrigerated Range allows you to program meals 24 hours in advance. Just put your casserole in the refrigerated oven and tell the oven when you want it to begin cooking, and you’ve got a home-cooked dinner ready to serve when you come home from work. The Polara will even turn itself back to the refrigeration mode if you don’t get home within an hour of the programmed shut off. It’s hard to get much more high tech than that.
At some point, Sanders says home automation systems will include more major appliances. For now, he says, the systems focus on making things faster and easier. What you are seeing now is just the tip of the iceburg. Soon Rosie, the Jetson’s maid, won’t seem so much like a futuristic cartoon robot.