Parade of Homes

The wife and I spent this past weekend checking out a "Parade of Homes" in WI where local builders showcase their wares. We're planning to build a home there in the next year or two and this seemed like a great way to spot local talent for our build. The homes on the tour were all custom homes and some featured various HA kit. I must admit that nothing really jumped out at me, but the most popular stuff seemed to be:

• Thermostats -- lots of Nest and Ecobee. A few featured Tekmar which I had never heard of before, but they looked pretty sharp and seemed well built.
• HVAC -- tons of zoned systems. In fact, it seemed like 100 percent of the homes we toured had this feature. Easily 95 percent used Aprilaire systems.
• Audio -- very nearly every home that featured distributed audio used the latest Sonos amps.
• Home Theater -- very nearly every home that featured a full-on theater had a Sony 4k projector. Zero homes had distributed video.
• "Advanced" automation -- I only saw one home that featured anything approaching centralized automation and that was a Control4 system.
• Lighting -- a few of the homes featured Brilliant lighting control, but these only had a few controls per home. It wasn't a situation where every room had one (at US$300 per single switch, I can see why). In fact, these seemed to be more for the built-in Alexa hooks than anything. Beyond that, I didn't see much else.
• Lots of Ring Doorbells.
• Security -- I must admit that I didn't pay much attention to the security systems that were featured, but every home had one.
• Irrigation -- 100 percent of the homes that featured irrigation had RainBird controls.

The most extreme homes were ridiculous. One had a main living space over 5,000 square feet and the indoor volley ball court took the total to over 8,000. Another had an indoor half-court basketball court. Interestingly, I saw zero pools, but that may have more to do with the Wisconsin climate than anything. In all, I must admit that I was fairly well unimpressed with the HA kit that the builders were showcasing. I've read that builders are shying away from spec automation, and I suspect that this is due to the move to IoT.

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I was encouraged that all of the builders we interviewed were willing to let me do the low voltage stuff myself which was a pleasant surprise.

... volleyball court?!

Right?


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My neighbor did his own low voltage wiring while the builder took care of everything else - then at inspection time it all had to be ripped out since he did not get it approved - just letting you know in case the same rules apply - I would be sure to get it integrated into the builders plans so when the certificate of occupancy is issued your wiring is approved at the same time... Assuming you want to do it before the drywall and insulation is installed.

That’s a great tip, thanks. I’ll be sure to check with the builder and the local inspector to make sure everything complies.


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Must be a local jurisdiction thing. The places I've built houses they don't even inspect anything low-voltage. I build a house in Virginia in '98 that I pulled all the LV wire myself (with friends) and the inspector never blinked. The builder was a bit aghast at the amount of wire we pulled (over 8000').

Security -- I must admit that I didn't pay much attention to the security systems that were featured, but every home had one.

Notice any having video surveillance systems?

I'm sure it depends on where you are, heck I was born in NYC and I remember my dad would give the garbage man a bottle of scotch at xmas - I'm sure after doing that they would have picked up dead bodies with the garbage without a word - but I'm sure that would not be the case everywhere - why risk it -- if not necessary?

Notice any having video surveillance systems?

Interestingly, no. I saw cameras in the aforementioned Ring doorbells and the Brilliant switches, but that's it.

I'm sure it depends on where you are, heck I was born in NYC and I remember my dad would give the garbage man a bottle of scotch at xmas - I'm sure after doing that they would have picked up dead bodies with the garbage without a word - but I'm sure that would not be the case everywhere - why risk it -- if not necessary?

Agreed. I don't see any harm in being sure.

I'm sure it depends on where you are, heck I was born in NYC and I remember my dad would give the garbage man a bottle of scotch at xmas - I'm sure after doing that they would have picked up dead bodies with the garbage without a word - but I'm sure that would not be the case everywhere - why risk it -- if not necessary?

Agreed. I don't see any harm in being sure.

No harm in having body disposal services either. That said I prefer using my local pig farm.. more ecologically sound.

Sustainable!


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