I guess we'll see - we will have a reasonable amount of smart home features - several temp sensors that go back to the load balancing / flappers for the HVAC, motion sensors in the bathrooms for lights and fans, humidity sensors in the bathrooms to have the fan run long enough to remove moisture, distributed audio and video, video down to the gate, probably automation for the pool cover, etc. All the lighting will go though the central lighting controller.

Either I'll love it or I'll hate it. The good news is, I won't be leaving lights on all over. :-)

That link was posted on 3 different forums at the same time today by a new member Ip1071. Be skeptical of it.

I am not into "smart" anything, and I agree with All Wet that much of this stuff is just "party tricks" to show off ... and then forget. Also, this type of thing costs a good bit ...and becomes obsolete quickly.

However, a number of the things mentioned here can be done without "smart" items. For example, I have automatic lights in my pantry/laundry -- love them -- without "smart". In fact, you can have a lot of the lighting items mentioned here with old technology: 3-way switches can mean you never need to enter a dark house (of course, we have a few lamps in strategic places that are just never, ever turned off), and dimmers are old technology. Likewise, I totally agree with running TV/cable wires everywhere while the walls are still open ... but that isn't necessarily a "smart" item; rather, that's an idea that's been around a long, long time. I'm not interested in running any of these things from my phone or a remote control.

I'm not concerned about leaving the lights on. Maybe because my husband is a nuclear engineer, and his job is keeping the lights on -- LED lights cost so very little that we just don't fuss over lights ... except when they create a glare on the TV or shine onto the bed at night while we're trying to sleep.

I'm also not interested in security systems to let you know someone's broken into your house ... but he will be gone before you or the police can do anything about it. I'd rather put the money into stronger doors and locks to keep him from breaking in.

So put me in the category of "just not interested". Incidentally, my super-geeky engineer husband, who is in love with all things high-tech, feels the same way about "smart homes".

That link was posted on 3 different forums at the same time today by a new member Ip1071. Be skeptical of it.

It's also poorly written. Perhaps it was an attempt to make the four areas "match", but I don't see how making your family more comfortable fits into entertainment. And none of us really need to reduce our energy consumption in terms of energy; TVs, radios, computers ... they're "electricity sippers". If you want to reduce energy consumption, look at your hot water heater and your dryer; things that create heat cost real money.

It seems to be one of those cool-looking info-graphics that substitutes in nice graphics for real, factual information.

Actually, my feeling is a lot like All Wet and mrspete. I don't understand the appeal of being able to tell an Echo to decrease the house temp by 2 degrees. I can walk over and do it myself. Same thing about buttons setting up different 'light scenes'. Light switches are easy to operate. But, there are lots of things I didn't think I needed that I now love having, so it could be that I'd love some of these things if I had them--but for now, they seem unnecessary.

We like having the thermostat we can operate from cellphones because we always forget to put it on 'away' when we go on vacation :-) but that's pretty minor. The Homelink outside lights I use several times a week--but it isn't smart enough to turn on if I drive up the street--I have to press a button (oh, poor me)

Have a garage door or front door I can control better without a key (cleaning service, etc) would be nice.

I truthfully can't think of anything else that really matters--so much of it seems pretty gimmicky rather than things I'll really use. (sort of like my Sleep Number bed's sleep tracking tracks my sleep and does a report--it sounded cool--but as far as I'm concerned, it was a waste of $300)

I put in a automated light system (Lutron Radio Ra2) when we recently renovated. The 'mood' or 'activity' scenes are nice, but what I appreciate the most are the scenes which allow me to control lights that are far away - so an 'all off' button, or a 'kids rooms off' button, or the 'home' button for when I first walk in the house. Obviously one doesn't need any of this, but it's nice to not have to walk around the house to make sure the lights are off. We also use the timer function extensively for religious reasons, which is obviously something not germane for most.

We have a z-wave door lock which hooks into the alarm system. I love not needing keys, and each of the kids and frequent visitors has their own code, and I can get a notification text for when they've arrived. I love this - not needing keys to get in is awesome, and though rarely used, being able to let someone in remotely is handy.

I don't know if things like distributed audio and security cameras are 'smart', but they are nice to have - my kids love it, especially being able to control music through Alexa. We aren't big TV people, so I don't have a fancy theater system, but the $100 Harmony remote makes it easy to keep all the equipment hidden away from the living area so the only thing to see is the TV.

And of course we have some automated thermostats, which automatically kick into a setback mode when we press the lighting 'leave' button and leave the house empty.

Again, this is all automating what could be done manually, so it's not revolutionary but it makes things a little easier - like a kitchen appliance.

I love technology when it saves me a hassle. I tend to be an early adopter. But even I have my limits and this "smart home" nonsense is where I cross the line.

I have a small device in every single closet in my 1948 house that turns on the light when I open the door. It's a little button up at the top that is wired so that when the button pops up, the light comes on. Who knew 1948 was so "high tech"! I had these installed in more closets when we remodeled - can't remember the cost but it was minimal.

I'm a great believer in times on lamps in particular rooms. That way, if one leaves when it is light outside and comes home in the dark, the lamps will have come on. They're pretty darned cheap, last forever and need no special installation.

I HATE "smart thermostats"! They're not as "smart" as I am to know when I want heat/ac turned up or down which is hardly an onerous task. Most of us live in a house with a forced air HVAC system, and it really doesn't take all that long to make a change in the temp.

Ethernet? Did that once! Bluetooth wireless arrived 1 year later! Total waste of money.

My alarm company is notified if there is a break-in and they notify the police if I don't call them or they can't reach me very quickly. Works for me!

Remotely lock and unlock doors? First of all, the locks are really ugly. Second of all, I can hide a key if I know someone will be needing to get into my house or I can give them one. Third, shame on me for forgetting to lock up before leaving the house!

I do like the button in my car that opens and closes the garage door. I hate remotes - always ending up under the seat or the batteries are dead. I have a wireless outside keypad as well so yardman can get into my garage when I'm not home and he's working.

We will have a few different things, a few due to the work I do and others for additional safety. Apart from the usual security system with countless cameras both in and out, remote appliance controls for ones that have internet connectivity, whole home fiber optic cables for data and streaming since I have several data and application servers and this is going to be a long home where Cat6 or 7 won't do but fiber will handle the bandwidth we need, remote controls for water valves due to planned fire sprinkler setup and although valves open if there is a fire, they don't automatically close; cameras will provide indication if it's safe to turn the valves off else summon the fire dept. No electronic door locks.

We are not into whole house music because everyone would become deaf; I listen to deafening music in my media room completely at the opposite end of the master, my kids think I'm nuts, I agree.

not interested in security systems to let you know someone's
broken into your house ... but he will be gone before you or the police
can do anything about it.

In fact, sometimes the culprits have been found on-site or the remote homeowner was able to act proactively.

But more germane, of the many homes I knew about burgled in our last neighbourhood here in Racoon City, the worst case was when the bipedal thieves left the backdoor ajar, leaving the premises open to a weekend occupation by the city mascots. Not nice at all!

This is a new concept to me that I just started exploring not long ago, but I would build a low voltage grid into my house before putting an ipad on the wall. A) lots of electronics run off low voltage, infact, anything that has a plug in converter (cell phone, computer, security cameras etc) can run off low voltage - even LED lights can run on low voltage. B) if the grid is in place, you could change any sort of technology on the 'end' of it out as needed C) I know wi-fi is the way of the future, but a low voltage system would prevent the need for having thousands of wifi products in the home. I love wifi and use it regularly and wouldn't give it up, but that doesn't mean there isn't a small part of me that is a little skeptical as in, we never know for sure that radio waves don't cause xyz, maybe it wouldn't hurt to get rid of a few unnecessary ones. D) if you ever intend to install any solar or renewable energy sources in your home, you'll get alot more 'bang for your buck' since the power doesn't have to be converted to ac [uses energy] only to be converted back to dc [uses energy] for your cell phone to charge.

It's not something I'm set on doing, I have a couple years to research but it's at least caught my attention.

I'm a big Ethernet fan. Yes everything is wifi capable, but you can't beat a hardwired connection.

The few times my internet cuts, sometimes my wireless router needs to be reset manually...

Wifi signal can be spotty at different points in the house, hard to determine until you try it

You can get some badass routers now, but you never know when you'll have 3 TV's trying to stream Netflix, a kid on Xbox Live, and a bunch of phones trying to scan facebook lol.

I wouldn't do any hardwired sound, personally. We are big fans of the Sonos systems, they are simple to set up and the app is so user-friendly. We also went with smart fans, the Big Ass Isis systems allow you to use an app (weird and useless for some, very cool to me!)

@kirbyyy86, I have my eyes on those smart fans, how are you liking them?

I'm a big fan of Sonos as well, but it has it's limitations vs. a hardwired system. A big one is that there are no Sonos in-wall (or ceiling) speakers. There are no outdoor rated Sonos speakers. Now, as I did, you can tie those types of speakers into a Sonos system using a Connect:Amp or a Connect with a regular amp. And for in-wall or in-ceiling speakers where you are mostly about decent, not audiophile quality sound, the speakers are fairly inexpensive (<$100) and if doing construction, the costs for laying speaker wire is pretty inexpensive as well). And of course down the road if you want to change systems you can always connect to a different system. With Sonos you are tied into Sonos.

While I love the idea of wireless speakers, Sonos is very expensive. Another option is Yamaha MusicCast or Denon Heos. We are going with the Yamaha system and will have two receivers each with multiple zones. We'll hardware most speakers in and if we want to expand later, we can utilize the wireless speakers. We can add up to 10 areas and group certain areas or the whole system.

When we built our current house in 1989 we included a bit of automation with a Stargate automation controller as the core.

Installed lighting is all on central dimmers (and many plug in lamps were on X10 dimmers). Not having to run around turning lights off every night was alone worth the money for us. Some lights come on at certain times, others are part of scenes. Overall it works quite well and we'll do something similar in our new house.

We've since added a Control4 system for AV, Thermostats, Security system access, garage door (open/close/status), backdoor lock, etc. (Stargate is great but getting old.) The features are useful (like being able to check that doors are locked, garage door closed, and thermostats turned down from iPhone). We'll not use Control4 again though. It's quite antiquated, buggy, and requires a tech to do even the slightest change. Just now starting to research alternatives.

Be very careful about wireless anything. Hardwired is more secure, reliable and faster than wireless for computers, security devices/cameras, and other stuff. And wireless is getting increasingly problematic as more of our neighbors add wireless stuff and radio interference increases. You don't need to terminate everything now if you're trying to save money but do run lots of cables and take photos of where they are in the walls for future use. And yes, ethernet to every TV and AV cabinet.

Plan for future expansion with a bunch of empty conduits. From wherever your central rack is to; attic, garage, any open spaces in the basement. This will make adding stuff in the future much easier.

Automation done well is very useful, automation done poorly is just about useless.

Wireless is getting better, not worse, all the time - it's faster, the devices are smaller and use less power. For internet access almost everyone now uses portable devices - being tied down to an ethernet cable is archaic - perhaps in a dedicated office space it makes sense, but that's about it. Conduit and/or multiple Cat 6 cables to AV areas I can understand - HDMI is getting long in the tooth and I would expect to see a new standard during the life of most homes being built now, but that's about it.

Central wired lighting makes sense for very high end (>2mm) builds, but you are locking yourself into a proprietary system that will EOL during the useful life of the structure. For everyone else, if you want automated lighting, choose a system that uses standard electrical layout and then add the 'smarts' through wireless switches/dimmers/keypads. Yes, that technology will EOL as well, but it's easy and relatively cheap to replace those switches and the brains.

While I love the thought of a "smart house" and love the tech, and yes we have TWO Sonos systems... when it comes to a "smart houses"... we will pass. Tech changes too fast. Need an example? How many different iPhone models have come out in the past 3 years? Today's latest and greatest is outdated by the time you install it. In time, no support and it has been replaced by the latest and greatest. I had a LONG discussion with an engineer who designs the stuff, bottom line was he said "well, I can't argue the facts and you are right"..

I've got another friend who did the whole smart house thing, high dollar house. He's got a LOT of $$ and he spends a LOT of it on constant service calls because nothing works properly. One component is outdated, they replace it with the "resigned component"... guess what, now you've got to replace other additional components because the OLD stuff that still works, won't with with the part he just installed! I'll be sure we have a good alarm system and if that goes out and we get intruders, I've got 3 Glocks and 4 Remington 870 Police Shotguns all 12 gauge, and 2 AR15 Assault Rifles. No one is leaving unless they're in a body bag.

Wireless technology is improving, but so is its use which causes interference problem. It is also much slower than hardwire, is easily degraded by solid objects, is not as secure as hardwire, and is susceptible to jamming.

WiFi is quite good for most laptop and phone use though Ethernet is still faster if you're downloading a movie. An STB will download movies and other material much faster and more reliably if it's hardwired than over WiFi. If you want reliability and security from your security cameras (or anything in your security system) you want it to be hardwired.

There's nothing like the anquish of one day discovering that a year after you'd put a new system in you suddenly have difficulty accessing thermostats, door locks, or other wireless stuff. A frequency scan then turns up the news that a neighbor installed something that's causing interference.

Wireless should only be used for things that absolutely cannot be hardwired.

Bingo and exactly why I would NEVER install a wireless alarm system or wireless security cameras. POE or nothing.

@jimpats, we sure like the looks of the Big Ass fans! Don't know about how they work, we are in the midst of the world's slowest build.

FWIW, we are planning to use a Savant system. I know quite a few people who have it and love it. A consultant we are using also recommended it. We aren't going to make the house fully smart, but I like that it's a flexible system and isn't too specific.