HOMES THAT JUST CLICKHigh-tech houses let you run things by remote

Etan Horowitz, Sentinel Staff Writer

Imagine pre-heating the oven from a cell phone. Or getting an e-mail when your teenager's bedroom window opens after hours. Or having the DVD you are watching automatically pause when the doorbell rings so you can see live video of the person standing at your front door.

At this week's International Builders' Show, several companies are pushing home-automation technology that lets users control virtually everything in the house by pushing a button on a remote or touching a screen with a finger.

Home-automation technology has been around for several years, but it has historically been offered mostly in new homes. With the soft real-estate market preventing a lot of people from selling their homes and buying new ones, technology companies are now aggressively marketing home automation as a retrofit or remodeling option.

"Retrofitting is huge," said Mike Seamons, the vice president of marketing for Lifeware, a home-automation software company exhibiting at the show. "People are staying in their homes a lot longer."

The most visible display of home technology at the builders' show is a 2,700-square-foot home called the "NextGen Home" that was built in the convention-center parking lot. Besides showing off the Lifeware home-automation technology, the home also was built to withstand natural disasters, to be energy efficient and to have a minimal impact on the environment.

Inside many of the rooms in the house, there is a TV, computer or small touch-screen running the Lifeware software, which controls the entertainment, security and many of the utilities in the house. Lifeware works with the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system and allows consumers to access all of their recorded TV shows, movies, music and photos from any room in the house.

"You don't have to remember where content is, content is everywhere in your home," Lifeware's Jason Leonardelli said during a tour of the home this week. "It's your content, you own it, you've recorded it, you've made it. If you want to enjoy it in your master bedroom, your living room, your kitchen or your office, it really is irrelevant."

Lifeware lets users set "lifescenes" which are pre-planned settings for different components of the home. For instance, whenever the alarm system is disarmed, the lights slowly come up and a song starts playing. Or whenever a movie begins to play, the blinds are automatically drawn, the lights go down and the speakers switch to surround sound.

If you are not at home, the technology also lets you remotely control your house from a laptop or cell phone so you can turn off the oven, close the blinds or turn the lights on.

Lifeware announced Wednesday that it is partnering with Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and homebuilder Taylor Morrison to build a new "House of the Future" at Disneyland's "Tomorrowland" in California.

Meghan Henning, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association, who is attending the builders' show, said that home automation has moved beyond just a high-tech option for rich people.

"Initially, a lot of home automation was the 'cool factor,' " Henning said. "But now it's for more than that, like energy management. If you leave your light on in your house now, it runs all day long until you come home. With the different automations, you can have your lights turn on at 6 p.m. and off at 10 p.m."

Control4, another home-automation company exhibiting at the builders' show, was touting its system as a way to keep tabs on your kids.

"If the Xbox goes on between the hours of 2 and 6 on a school day, I get an e-mail notification. It's totally terrifying," a representative of Control4 said while demonstrating the technology on the show floor this week. "And as adults, you want every bloody edge you can get."

Besides keeping kids in check, Control4's software can also come in handy if you are on vacation. For instance, the system can e-mail you if the temperature in your home drops below a certain point. At that point, you could call a neighbor to have them check on your house and remotely disarm the alarm system and unlock the door by logging on to a Web site.

To set up a home automation system, a technician generally has to install "smart" devices, such as light switches, cameras or security system. These devices are connected to a home computer network, just like a computer or video game console.

Lifeware's Seamons said many of these devices have wireless chips, so there's no need to run new wires in the home. That makes it easier to install a home automation system in an older house, he said. There are about 170 light switches and other devices that are certified to work with the Lifeware system.

The costs of having a home automation system put in your home can vary, but all of the automation technology in the NextGen home costs about $30,000.