Whole House Integration - Home Automation

The May 2 DACS General Meeting featured a presentation on “Whole House Integration,” or as we would say, home automation. Our presenter for the evening was David Freda, Vice President, Audio Visual Systems.

The featured session started with a 45 minute prepared presentation on what whole house integration is, what tools and software are used and a display of some of the houses, components used, and multimedia rooms that David’s company has worked on along with a scenario of house automation in action. This was followed by a 30 minute question and answer session that brought out many other interesting points.

From the areas discussed and the pictures shown it became apparent that the amount of money that can be spent on a project of this type can go from the hundreds of dollars to the infinite.

David’s company started years ago focusing on home audio/visual installations, and has adapted over time to handling all aspects of home automation, from audio/visual, security, heating and cooling, lighting, computer networking, and even fountain and fireplace control.

Today the lighting control systems make up a major component of his business. He demonstrated how house lighting, mood lighting and exterior lighting can be controlled from a central location. In an age of energy conservation it was interesting to see how, from one location, you can see what lights are on and turn them off to save electricity.

House sizes that David’s company has worked on go from a small 7,000 square foot house up to the 50,000 square foot range. Just like the houses we all own.

As you would imagine, the fundamental components of the automation are computers, electronic circuits, and specialized equipment not found in ordinary stores. In order to make all these things work together and make it easy for the homeowner to understand, his company uses a lot of customized programming to design the user interface. Control panels are specifically designed for the project, and security is built-in.

One other aspect is to be able to manage and control the house remotely.

The question and answer portion of his presentation brought up many considerations that were not covered in the formal part of the evening. Questions were asked about use of solar energy, power backup systems, geo-thermal heating, failure rates and diagnostic tools. It was apparent that David’s company has run across each of these issues in some of their projects and had excellent information to impart.

This was a fascinating presentation and covered many of the considerations necessary for a successful project. One of the key points that he made was that it is better to include the requirements for automation in new construction than to retrofit an existing structure. He also pointed out that wired connections are still preferred over wireless when it comes to minimizing interference, security, and speed.

I’m sure our club members and guests thoroughly enjoyed the evening and came away with useful information and food for thought.

Thank you, David.