The Smart House

Home Owners: @automatedhome

This contemporary home was built on an infill plot between two other houses, looking out on the hills of County Down. The new build is on the highest part of the site with the front of the house approximately 75m from the road. 

When the owners purchased the site, it had planning permission for a traditional style home, however, they had a different design in mind and set about changing that. Their concept was to build a form that they loved, but also one that satisfied all the functional requirements. 

The owners decided that the wanted a low energy, contemporary south facing house with an open plan kitchen/dining/living area. They decided on three bedrooms, with the master on the ground floor, high and vaulted ceilings, solid floors upstairs, solid walls throughout, concrete stairs and a ground mount location for PV panels to generate electricity from the sun. They also wanted an integrated garage so they could head straight inside after being out on a cold and wet day.

One of the best things about building your own home is creating a custom layout, a bespoke design unique to you, although it can be difficult and the owners believe getting the floor plan right can be extremely hard. This is because every change has a knock-on effect, which becomes more complicated the more you go on. In this case, the owners ended up with an extra bedroom because there was no other way to lose space without changing the rest of the layout. Extra space is a better complaint to have than lack of space, of course!

The architects for this build decided to split the structure into two buildings in their design. There is a single storey barn with an open plan area consisting of a utility room and pantry, with the garage behind that.

With the second building, the occupants worked from the inside out. Learning from their previous self build, they decided on few bedrooms, a smaller utility and a larger walk in wardrobe with a proper dressing room. They say that the proportions are pretty fixed for some areas, like the shape of a double garage. Others are pretty flexible, for example, a bedroom could be 3.5m x 4.0m or 5.5m x 2.5m, so it’s the area that’s more important in that case. 

The design underwent plenty of cost engineering tweaks, including removing stonework above the flat roof, between the two barns. They made sure to retain the main design elements while keeping it all within our budget. 

The owners had a smart home set up in their previous house but some of the systems did not work together and required a lot of maintenance. The aim for the new house was to have a setup that was fully integrated, and they made the decision early on that they would invest in a professional system. All of their data is stored in the house, so there are no privacy concerns and they aren’t reliant on Cloud servers. 

Each room has a presence sensor mounted in the ceiling to turn lighting on and off automatically as people enters or leaves a room. There are coloured scenes available at a touch of a button, which creates a dramatic look, even in the smaller rooms.

Ceiling speakers are fitted in most rooms and there are concealed speakers in the vaulted ceiling, completely hidden with plastering and paint. There's a tablet as one central point in the open plan area to control everything, including the CCTV and security, lighting & heating, blinds and music. 

The house can be controlled via smart phone/watch but most functions are automated. For example, if the barn overheats, the roof opens, when it starts to rain it closes. There is a connected weather station to help with the decision making of this system.

There is also electronic keypads to open the front and back doors; it allows you to set up codes for people to come into the house at specific times. The occupants have a radio frequency identification keyfob and a sticker in their phone cases, meaning carrying keys for the car or house is no longer required. 

Even during the build they used tech, installing a Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) camera next door, where they were staying during the build. They had access to superfast FTTP broadband and could watch the build journey, even when they weren't home. 

As for the cost of all this, automation depends on the size of your home and the featured installed. In general, it would cost between 2 and 6 per cent of the property's value for a professional smart home installation, which would be about the same amount you would spend on a kitchen, and the system is added to your property's value. It also cuts out costs such as the electrical and heating budgeting, wiring for lighting and a security alarm.

The owners cut out all consumption of fossil fuels, installing an air source heat pump instead of burning oil and stopped using gas and wood. Removing two chimneys saved on costs and the airtightness strategy and installation was more straightforward.

The occupants are especially pleased with the 2m overhang at the front of the barn. It is designed to allow solar gain (heat) in the winter when the sun is low, but creating shade in the summer when the sun is stronger. After going through a summer and a winter now they have confirmed that it works well. 

For their self build, they decided to go with mechanical ventilation with heat recovery as it would be efficient and effective. They had a few problems with routing the ducting but the plan worked in the end. They advise that early planning is important with this.

The house has two manifolds, one for supply and one for extract. The ducting is 92mm semi rigid plastic which runs to each individual room. Having a single run to each room back to the manifold means that the system easy to balance, especially when compared to a traditional teed off system which is one long run of ducting connecting all of the rooms.