The future in housing has arrived in Chicago.
At least that`s what the developers of the area`s first fully operational ”Smart House” say about their product, which will be open to the public starting Saturday at Fieldcrest Farms in northwest suburban Algonquin.
This is the eighth in a series of Concept Homes developed since 1982 by the not-for-profit Greater Chicagoland Housing Foundation to demonstrate new technology, design and products.
Co-sponsored by Northern Illinois Gas Co., the Smart House was built by Downers Grove-based Burnside Construction Co., which is developing the 147-home Fieldcrest Farms. It will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 15. There`s no admission charge.
Although prototypes have been built elsewhere in the United States under the auspices of the National Association of Home Builders, this is the first time a Smart House has been built in the Chicago area.
The home`s ”brain” is a built-in intelligence system that David E. Link, the housing foundation`s executive vice president, describes as ”user- friendly.”
”It is one of the boldest new breakthroughs in housing technology in the last half-century,” he said.
The house demonstrates an automated management system that links security, safety, energy management, entertainment, lighting, communications and appliances.
Its conveniences include:
– Lighting sensors that turn lights on and off when you enter or leave a room.
– Motorized blinds that are programmed to open and close automatically at preset times.
– Security cameras inside and/or outside the home that allow you to monitor those areas on any TV. All TV sets can tune into the tape playing from a single VCR.
– A system that each weekday morning turns up the heat, turns the bedroom and bathroom lights on, adjusts the shower to a preset temperature and starts to brew the coffee.
– A gas fireplace that can be turned on or off by remote control or programmed to turn on automatically.
– A water heater that turns itself down or off for the period when hot water isn`t needed.
– A Touch-Tone phone-activated voice menu that homeowners can communicate with from the office, car or hundreds of miles away, allowing them, for example, to start the water for a whirlpool bath from the car phone on the way home from work.
– An enhanced telephone system that also can act as a built-in intercom to let homeowners use their voice phone to communicate from one room to another.
Link said the key to the network is its system controller, or ”brain,”
and three cables.
”The cables interconnect the home`s products and appliances and the
`brain` supplies the electronic intelligence,” he said. ”The cables distribute electric power, telecommunication, audio, video and control signals throughout the house.”
In addition to the automated home management system, the Smart House demonstrates energy conservation and recycling technology, Link said.
Insulation is a sprayed-on cellulose produced from recycled newspaper. The Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources, which served as special energy and recycling consultant for the house, said the product offers exceptionally high R-value and a tight weather seal. The walls, for example, are R-20 compared to standard R-11 to -13.
The department also oversaw the installation of a photovoltaic energy collector that turns the sun`s energy into stored electricity that can then be used for emergency backup electrical power.
Other conservation products include high energy-conserving windows and a no-maintenance deck made of recycled plastic milk cartons.
Link said the Smart House also features new product innovations involving natural gas energy, including semi-rigid gas piping that can be easily routed under floors and through walls. The system replaces the iron pipe found in conventional homes.
”The new piping system makes it very economical to provide gas service to more locations throughout the house,” said Terry Brennan, assistant vice president of marketing for Northern Illinois Gas Co. ”Because Smart House features easy-to-connect gas outlets, such natural gas appliances as barbecue grills, space heaters and countertop cookers now can be portable.
”Homeowners will be able to plug in and unplug a gas appliance like another appliance.”
Each appliance is connected not only to a gas line but to the home`s control/communication link.
”This technology offers a new approach to the way energy and communications are distributed, used and controlled in homes,” Brennan said. ”Imagine calling ahead during the drive home to tell your house to turn up the thermostat, preheat the oven or fill the tub with water at just the right temperature.”
But the Smart House`s innovation extends beyond the bells and whistles.
”This is the first time such technology has been applied to a reasonably priced production house,” Link said. ”All other Smart Houses are custom or higher-bracket homes.”
George ”Bud” Arquilla, president of Burnside Construction, said the design and floor plan – in other words, the structure without the Smart House technology – will be priced at ”around $200,000” and available at Fieldcrest Farms.
The two-story, 2,417-square-foot model has four bedrooms and represents the Chicago-area`s first production house with a first-floor master suite.
”The plan also is flexible enough to allow conversion to five bedrooms with an in-law suite on the first floor and the full master suite moved to the second floor,” Arquilla said, adding that 25 percent of his buyers at Fieldcrest Farms plan to have a parent live with them.
The home`s first floor has nine-foot ceilings, a living/dining area divided by columns, an open kitchen-breakfast nook-family room, a powder room and a volume ceiling in the master bedroom and bath. There is a three-car garage and a full basement.
The second floor has a balcony open to the living room, three bedrooms and a full bath.
”Once we were selected as the Smart House builder, we began working to create a new, innovative floor plan that would appeal to upscale home buyers in the 1990s,” Arquilla said.
The design challenge was assigned to Downers Grove-based architects The Linden Group.
”We spent 1 1/2 years studying how we as a production builder could develop a two-story home of this size and price range with a first-floor master suite,” Arquilla said.
”The problem was to do it efficiently and cost-effectively, and that meant incorporating the suite in a rectangle without adding a lot of projections or wings,” he said. ”It also had to be situated to afford privacy.”
Arquilla said the Smart House also seeks to give municipal officials an opportunity to see and study new housing technology, and he praised Algonquin officials for providing the ”open-minded” regulatory environment that permitted the introduction of new products.
He said Village President Donald Brewer and Algonquin trustees agreed to waive some of their current building code provisions to permit construction of the demonstration home and its system.
Because it is relatively new, the Smart House technology system only recently was accepted as meeting the approved standards of the National Electrical Code and the Building Officials Conference of America standard building code. As a result, some municipalities have not yet updated their codes to specifically include the Smart House system.
To visit the Smart House, drive west on Algonquin Road (Illinois Highway 62) from Illinois Highway 31 in downtown Algonquin to Hanson Road, then south on Hanson to the entrance of Fieldcrest Farms.
