Smart Homes (From The Oxford Times)

Smart Homes

8:50am Thursday 15th July 2010 in

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Back in the 1980s, the film Blade Runner offered what seemed an impossible vision of the future. This was a world of technology, audio-visual wizardry and surveillance that was so far-fetched that we all just went back to calling our friends on our brick-sized telephones about the new Frankie Goes to Hollywood album we had just bought on cassette.

But now technology has caught up and overtaken the Blade Runner vision. Films can be watched in devices that fit into the palm of your hand, while video telephone calls are commonplace. And new advances are being made virtually every day The possibilities are endless, which is a point taken up by Justin Rhodes, director of Lewis Building Technology, a new arm of Cowley-based Chris Lewis Fire and Security.

The company has been set up to provide cutting-edge equipment and installations to homes and businesses which cover security, communication and environment.

A quick look at the company brochure reveals a scenario where you drive up to your property, the gates open electronically, the blinds in the living room descend, the lights and heating in the pool come on and a movie pre-selected by you loads into the entertainment system.

The lawn sprinkler system then checks tomorrow’s weather and adjusts its settings accordingly.

“And that’s just the start,” the brochure adds.

I understood what it meant when I visited the company’s Oxford showhome, which demonstrates every conceivable application of new technology in a domestic setting.

Although the property looks essentially normal, there are control panels on the wall which can be detached and used to operate the televisions and audio visual systems.

Heating and lighting are similarly controlled to provide the optimum environment, and if the door bell rings, you can check on the monitor who is calling and speak to them without opening the door.

Uncannily, this operation is just as easy if you are sitting by a pool in Barbados as it is if you are busy cooking in the kitchen, as it can be accessed by an iphone or, most recently, an ipad computer. And the caller would be none the wiser.

While to many this sounds like a technological tour de force, Mr Rhodes saw it as a natural extension to to the Chris Lewis business.

He said: “I have been involved with integrated security for some time, and we saw an opportunity to integrate it with heating and lighting to make it more of an overall proposition for a ‘smart home’.

“We recognised it was a big investment in time and learning, but we aim to set up Lewis Building Technology as a separate company as soon as we have the opportunity to do it.

“We pick the best technologies and make them talk to each other as one system.”

While the residential market is an obvious target, Mr Rhodes sees the commercial sector as being just as much of an opportunity.

As well as having a smart security system, he believes significant savings can be made on heating and lighting for firms with the application of the latest technology.

“In an office, people don’t take responsibility for their environment and lights and computers are left on. With a smart system you can take away the onus on the individual to care.”

He quotes the example of a council building which may be half empty but is currently heated/cooled and lit as if it is fully occupied.

But by issuing the employee with a special access card or PIN number, one individual area can be lit, while the heating and air conditioning adjusts accordingly. As a result, the system intelligently adapts to the number of people in the room and shuts down automatically to a security setting when the last person keys themselves out of the building.

The costs, of course, can be considerable but Mr Rhodes argues the savings can be tangible. And to a large degree the system is ‘future proof’ as it operates on data cabling with TVs or other hardware simply plugged in. Similarly, the system can be adapted to existing technology as a retro-fit.

The most fascinating part of the system in the show home is how it links to the Internet, enabling a user to pre-set the heating for the following day, having analysed the weather forecast. Soon, it will be possible to download films to view in the ‘cinema room’ direct from the Internet and then store them digitally for future use.

And if you leave the house, a motion detector will record this and the settings will also be adjusted automatically, while intelligent theromstats will learn how long it takes to heat a room, so excess energy is not required.

On sunny days an application (downloadable to the iphone) called Lutron dims the lights, reducing energy consumption and increasing the life of light bulbs, which can mean a significant saving in an office environment or a hotel, perhaps.

All of this is masterminded by a central systems hub located in an upstairs room in the house.

But what happens when it goes wrong? The answer is that remote access can be given to the manufacturer, who can then diagnose faults.

Bewildered? You have a right to be, which is where Lewis Building Technology comes in. It is holding education seminars at its Cowley headquarters for businesses looking to reap the benefits of these high-tech systems.

Mr Rhodes explained: “We listen to what the customer is trying to achieve, based on their budget, but the scope is so large.”

o Contact: Lewis Building Technology, 01865 782424 Web: www.lewisbt.co.uk