"Smart" Home Improvements Require Smarter Home Owners by Broderick Perkins Creating a home with brains not only makes your home more efficient now, but also more valuable when it's time to sell, provided you have the technological aptitude to do the work or are smart enough to know when to call in a pro. As many as 10 million home owners will attempt digital remodeling by 2003, according to the Yankee Group, a Boston-based technology research firm. Digital remodeling includes technology-based home improvements designed to transform a house into a "smart home". "Smart" homes contain electronic devices and appliances preprogrammed to automatically perform tasks once triggered by a range of actions including motion, sound, time, touch or temperature. The dishwasher calls for maintenance and the refrigerator orders more eggs and ham at preset intervals, for instance. Lights switch on when a sensor registers your presence, much as a security system sounds an alarm or calls the police when it detects an intruder. The home theater screen dims or brightens to compensate for changes in lighting, much as the thermostat turns up the heat when the room chills. Finding good help Unless you are a cross between an electronics technician and an architectural designer, consider hiring what's called an electronic architect or someone otherwise certified. He or she should be able to analyze your digital needs, determine your home's ability to cope with a digital remodeling job, draw up the blueprints for your work and then install it. Technocopia.com offers a series of questions you can ask contractors to determine their level of expertise. You'll also want to see work-in-progress, examine completed work and talk with recent customers. "This industry is one of the fastest growing. There are a lot of trunk slammers. It's kind of like the aluminum siding salesmen of the 1950s trying to take advantage," said Steve Hayes, president of the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association (CEDIA) and owner of Custom Electronics, in Falmouth, ME. You'll also likely need professional help if you have a masonry home without an attic or basement where the installer can run lines. If the walls are masonry, special drilling will be necessary to run the lines. One option is an unsightly one -- laying the lines across the floor. "It's not impossible to wire a masonry home, just really difficult and more costly," Hayes said. Wiring or not A common mistake among do-it-yourselfers who insist on giving their home brains, is running phone, cable or electrical extensions instead of building a structured wired system. The recommended Category 5 class of wiring will transmit digitized data at maximum broadband speeds only when it's installed as part of a structured wired system -- outlets, ports or jacks each receive a dedicated line back to a service box. Spliced, extended and otherwise shared lines siphon speed. X-10 digital remodeling technology, popular among do-it-yourselfers, allows you to use existing power lines in your home to convey automated commands, but set up can be tricky and the systems can require filters and amplifiers for peak performance. Wireless systems also tempt do-it-yourselfers with "fast and cheap" promises, but existing interference in your home can create chaos instead of automation. Used more and more often in new construction, steel framing can block radio frequencies. Refrigerators and baby monitors emit the same frequency as high-end cordless phones and, along with fluorescent lighting, the interference overload can disrupt even the "smartest" wireless systems. Likewise, sunlight can blanket infrared frequencies and disrupt infrared-powered devices. "Yes, it may cost more to retrofit a wired system, but do it because it works," said Hayes. | 
