Brilliant! a look inside a smart home with Real Brains!

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Pull into the broad entry plaza of this Wakefield home, and what you see is a gracious Georgian manse, with soaring columns and elegant symmetry in its lines and scale. What you don't see, or don't realize you are seeing, is a home that, thanks to cutting-edge technology, operates with the precision of the finest German automobile. This is one smart house. And not just because it utilizes some of the most high-tech systems available, but also because homeowners Suzanne and Joseph Forbes were very careful to make design choices not simply for the hottest new thing, but because they would actually perform to create a harmony with their lifestyle. “All of this technology should manage the house,” says Joseph, “not the house manage us.”

Indeed, controlling the environment of this 12,400 square-foot home including the temperature, humidity levels, air quality, lighting, sound, audio and security, could drive a homeowner to the point of exhaustion, and could also produce utility bills nothing short of staggering. As a telecommunications venture capitalist, Joseph Forbes was well aware of the cutting edge systems available for today's homeowner to make the home a more comfortable, safe and economical place to live.

Setting the Mood

The basic idea of smart-home technology is to automate the various systems that control the climate and security of the house. A complex network of sensors monitor everything from motion to temperature to humidity to power usage and crunch all of that data into instructions for the home's myriad mechanical systems to most efficiently produce the desired environment.

The Forbes' home employs a sophisticated Lutron lighting system.  Houston architect and lighting designer Michael J. Smith  placed nearly 600 computer-controlled lights throughout the home. He worked closely with the Forbes to devise numerous lighting scenarios such as the “wake up” scene, which turns lights on at low levels at key locations, bedrooms, baths and corridors. “Good morning” brightens lights and illuminates the kitchen. There are also mood settings for dinner parties, family time, and leaving the home. One of Joseph's favorites, and a prime example of truly intelligent use of this smart technology, is the “time-for-bed” setting. With a click of a button, the kitchen and hearth room lights dim, de-emphasizing this space, while lighting up the stairs as well as the children's bathrooms, beckoning little ones to bath time.

All of these lighting scenarios, as well as individual room lighting, can be controlled from four main touch screens. Nearly two dozen inconspicuous touchpads throughout the home offer complete lighting control from virtually anywhere. But lights are just one part of the picture. Sound and video are also controlled via central control terminals. Audio Advice worked with the Forbes to design a sound system every bit as fine-tuned to their lifestyle as their lighting scheme. In the control room downstairs, a Sony 400 disk changer can be accessed independently from throughout the house. A dedicated satellite radio receiver and separate MP3 player provide an infinite variety of music at the touch of a button, and, like the lighting system, certain themes have been preprogrammed to play music to suit specific situations at the touch of a button. B&W speakers were placed carefully throughout rooms to create individual sound zones.

Video is likewise controlled through the same system, though the Forbes are scant TV watchers. Downstairs, the home theater is an amazing replica of Atlanta's fabulous Fox Theatre, with its over-the-top mosque-like décor. There is even a ticket booth with opulent trompe l'oeil finish.

Like the rest of this home, the theater's elegant exteriors are complemented with behind-the-scenes technology that makes for flawless performance. Here also, Joseph made careful, informed decisions about where to economize and where to splurge. The Sharp DLP projector is by no means the most expensive on the market, but offers a perfectly bright vivid picture on the 110-inch screen. A twelve-speaker system, including four subwoofers, two forward-firing center channels and directional B&W side and rear speakers will, as Joseph states, “rock the room.”

The Comfort Zone

When it comes to heating and cooling this six-bedroom home, the Forbes began from the ground up constructing an energy conserving building envelope with insulation values in exterior walls of at least R-50 and top-of-the-line windows throughout. Seven Trane HVAC units distribute the heating and cooling load. The Forbes chose heat pumps for top floors as these spaces benefit from heat convection from the home's lower levels.

A two-stage Trane Perfect Fit whole-house filtration system employs a high-efficiency media filter for trapping large particulate, followed by an

electrostatic precipitator, which attracts and captures microscopic airborne contaminants. Up to 98% of allergens such as pollen, dust, pet dander, as well as lint, smoke and cooking grease are collected, making for not only a healthier breathing environment, but also cleaner more dust-free surfaces and a more efficient HVAC system.

The Forbes chose to use programmable thermostats for controlling the heating and air conditioning, rather than controlling these systems through the home's central computer. Because of the extremely efficient construction, temperatures throughout the home remain relatively stable, requiring little manipulation. Indeed, Joseph states his average electric bill is less than $500 a month and less than $200 a month for natural gas, which is an amazingly low energy usage for such a large home.

A natural-gas generator with a 45-kilowatt automatic transfer switch senses when electricity is interrupted and seamlessly provides generator power to the home's key systems.

A commercial-grade Culligan two-stage whole house system filters water to all faucets, and a reverse osmosis purifier further filters water at strategic drinking stations including the wet bar, the refrigerator water and ice dispensers. Restaurant-quality quick-recovery gas hot water heaters feature two recirculating pumps to ensure ample hot water without any wait.

Safe and Sound

Perhaps the most cutting edge of all this home's technology is its complex security system. The Apex system includes motion and temperature sensors, along with 14 discretely placed cameras for comprehensive monitoring of the home inside and out. In certain strategic locations, such as the service entrance, infrared cameras provide clear night vision, and some cameras are capable of remote-control 360-degree rotation and zooming. These digital cameras constantly record, storing up to 30 days of video, any segment of which can be quickly and easily saved in MPEG format for viewing and emailing.

Views from all of the cameras can be dialed up on any of the home's video screens and can be accessed and controlled remotely via the Internet. “If someone is delivering a package, they can call me, and I can access their image at the door from anywhere,” says Joseph. “I can then issue them a temporary code to open the door and leave the package, and I can watch them the entire time.” The video is also recorded, if the need for a record should ever arise.

Suzanne Forbes especially appreciates the cameras that allow her to monitor her young children from any TV screen in the house while they play on their playground or out in the yard. As an added security measure, all cables coming into the house, phone, data and electrical, are enclosed in metal conduit.

A key system intercom allows the family to easily keep in communication in this very large space. “We even used the intercom as our nursery monitor (along with the security camera) when our son was a baby,” says Suzanne.

Orchestrating the Symphony

The hub of all these different lighting, audio, video and security systems is the Crestron Total Home Technology solution. This innovative computer system enables coordination of all the different components in the smart home. Homeowners can preprogram settings to instantly dial up a given lighting scene, start the desired music, or even raise or lower the blinds, all with the touch of a button, or to occur automatically at a preset time.

But does a home this smart require its homeowners to be computer whizzes, techno-geeks? “Definitely not!” says Suzanne Forbes. “I am the typical

consumer and I am not technically savvy. The whole idea is for this to make life simpler, not more stressful, and really, I just had to be shown which button to press for what and I was there.” The Forbes didn't always choose the highest tech solution for every situation. Joseph points out that he opted for old-fashioned attic fans to help keep the attic space cooler, reducing the load on HVAC systems. An electrical engineering graduate of N.C. State University, he remembered how effective the attic fans at his (un-air conditioned) frat house were and decided that was just the technology this home called for.

Likewise, in the wine cellar, Joseph chose an inexpensive self-contained cooling unit, rather than the far more costly option of tying the room into the homes main HVAC system. And when the estimate for outdoor lighting seemed awfully pricey, especially in relation to its utility to his family, Joseph opted for standard line voltage with temporary cable and 60-watt bulbs, a $300 solution that he believes delivers just what he needs.

This one-of-a-kind Wakefield estate is a prime example of what it truly means to be a smart house, not just a collection of the latest expensive gadgetry, but a home that lives and works in the most comfortable, safe and efficient way for the people who live there. “We really can and do use every one of these features,” says Joseph Forbes. That sounds pretty smart.

Kelly McCall Branson is a Freelance Writer