Modern Home

An estimated 15% of the homes built in 2005 had, as a standard feature or add-on, cable that transmits audio, video and data throughout the house. More and more new gadgets are coming up to transform our homes into an world of automation and to keep it connected to the world of information and entertainment all the time. So, if you are just arriving home from work, as you get into the driveway, you can roll up the garage door, turn on the inside lights, TV and laptop, instruct the furnace to notch up the heat a few degrees and open the curtains, all from inside your car.

In the next few months, a new wave of products that can be managed and operated by remote control, from inside or outside the house will be arriving on the market. These include garage doors, light switches, thermostats, alarms, appliances and home entertainment centers. These new wave of gadgets will work under the Z-Wave open standard, a radio frequency-based technology that allows users to create a 2-way wireless, mesh network within a house.

So, it'll be lot easier to transform your old house into a modern place without digging into the walls or scattering wires everywhere. Up to 232 devices can be installed in a single network, and a single home can have multiple networks. So, the system is feasible for any home, regardless of size.

For more information on this, visit Z-Wave Alliance, a consortium of some hitherto-competing manufacturers that includes Intermatic (security alarms and electric timers), Leviton (lighting), Wayne-Dalton (garage doors) and Techniku (window coverings).