The TecHaus system takes the automated house to a new level, offering easy control without the atmospheric price. Adam Tinworth took a tour
A house nearing completion in Shiplake, near Henley-on-Thames, is a little special.
It looks much like any of the other expensive executive homes in this affluent part of the world, but there’s one crucial difference: it has a cutting-edge home automation system wired into its structure.
When people start talking about wired houses, you know that the phrase “internet fridge” is going to turn up. The fridge which tells you when you’ve run out of milk and orders it for you over the internet has become the poster child for hi-tech houses.
Unusually, TecHaus, the company behind the Shiplake system, rejects this idea, opting for a combination of hi-tech and simplicity. Its core philosophy is that there isn’t a computer at the heart of its systems.
The reasoning, as the firm’s James Misselbrook explains, is that computers crash and you don’t want your home security system going down when that happens.
There is a computer hooked into the system, but it’s just one player in the system, and far from a critical one.
Integration of discrete systems
Instead, the system is based around a series of discrete systems, all controllable from wall panels around the house. From any panel you can change the lighting in any room, or change the view of the security cameras.
The output of the cameras can be routed into the TV or your computer – even if you’re at work.
It’s this integration that is key to the system. For example, if you put on a DVD in the living room, the lights automatically dim.
If there’s movement on one of the security cameras, the TV switches to that view. Even the entry com system on the front gate can be routed through to your mobile phone while you are out.
The house can also be controlled from a handheld device that also serves as a remote control for the TV, video, DVD and stereo.
Oh, and music from the stereo can be played in any room of the house and the signal from the TV transferred to the bedroom, so you can watch the end of the movie in bed.
Not your normal internet fridge
The internet fridge? This is easily replaced by a cheap barcode scanner, which you can use to scan goods as you use them. The scanner then hooks up to the computer and downloads the products you need. Tesco Online is busy implementing a service that allows direct ordering by barcode, too.
TecHaus managing director Chris Parker explains that installation of the system costs from thousands of pounds upwards. He is not aiming for the upper end of the market.
Rather, he wants to drive down prices as volumes increase, and start getting the technology into mid- to lower-range properties.
“A downturn in the housing market might actually be good for us,” he says. “When houses sell quickly, developers don’t feel the needs for marketing advantages. When the market changes, they’ll see the benefit of technology like this. At the moment, developers are approaching us because their customers are starting to ask about it.”
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