Real Estate Lifestyle �
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Raising the IQ of
Smart Homes
Smart homes are getting smarter
For Jay Anand, a currency trader in London and owner of two multimillion-pound homes here, remote access has made his hectic life more convenient.
" I am able to access the home cinema or switch the lights of another room without having to be there," he says. " We also make sure we are using the energy in the best way we can without wasting natural resources."
Mr. Anand just upgraded to an Apple operating system. " I used to have one panel in the kitchen to control the lighting and heating, then we moved to having access through the 13 TVs in the house," he recalls. " But with this latest technology, I am able to access my audio, lighting, heating, alarm— even the CCTV— through my iPad or laptops."
Nicholas Creswell ' s high-tech home cinema entertainment system in his London apartment.
Tech-savvy home owners are using now ubiquitous handheld devices, from Google ' s Android phone to Apple ' s iPad, to control virtually every corner of the house, from the lighting and heating systems to the über-trendy media rooms.
" Consumers now have the power in their hands to control and monitor their homes from anywhere in the world," says Nicholas Ayre, director of London-based buying agent Home Fusion.
Mr. Ayre says the advent of web-enabled gadgets has given home technology an increasing mass-market appeal. " Using a smartphone or any Internet-enabled device, consumers can manage energy consumption and even home security, whether it ' s switching your boiler off remotely or watching your CCTV," he explains, adding that applications " have moved on considerably from multimedia rooms or plasma screens that come out of your bed to exciting new applications such as intelligent energy management."
Here is a guide to some of the top trends in home technology.
Taking control
Just as the remote control changed the way we watch television, new technology in the home that allows owners to customize control of their property, often through a single click, is changing the way we live.
A Teletask energy-monitoring and control display on a touch screen.
As technology has advanced, so have demands for what it can do. Home Fusion ' s Mr. Ayre says people increasingly want systems that enable them to control their
People have moved from analog to much more intelligent devices
property with the precision of a Swiss watch, from the curtains down to the underfloor heating.
" People have moved from analog to much more intelligent devices," Mr. Ayre says.
" Many of my clients are concerned about keeping the climate of certain rooms at the right temperature to preserve their expensive art and fabrics on the walls," he says. " The current technology allows you to monitor and control the humidity constantly from your own phone if you wanted to," including
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