Future Computing Environments

Specifications for the Experimental House

Research Themes:

BEDROOM FLOORS:

Two floors (or townhouse/apartment units) as identical as possible, each with:

Master bedroom at least 240 sq. ft. with at least 40 sq. ft. of closet space, direct access to master bathroom. Also have "public" access to master bathroom.

2 other rooms (which could be bedrooms or a home office) at least 180 sq. ft. each with at least 20 sq. ft. of closet space each.

2nd bathroom with shower.

Bathroom amenities for both bathrooms: heated towel rack, heated floor, speakers, TV, phone.

Greatroom: at least 500 sq. ft. included kitchen with at least 20ft counter space track lighting with local dimmers. Ductwork should be sized to include an additional load of 20 PCs without monitors, as well as a group of 20 people. In the kitchen a wire chase should be directly accessible at the back of the counter or inside the cabinets, with access to the top of the counter.

Run air conditioning to all closets, be able to handle the equivalent of two computers without monitors in a closed closet. Electrical and data outlets in closets. Closet doors should create enough sound insulation to greatly reduce computer fan noise perceived from bedroom.

Drop ceiling which has data outlets and electrical power available to equipment installed in the ceiling. Ceiling must be capable of having several 15 lb. loads attached to it at various points (such as laptop computers). The drop ceiling should be at least eight feet above the floor with 10 or 12 feet desirable. Space above drop ceiling is air conditioned. Ductwork should be at least six inches above drop ceiling.

Deck: at least 300 sq. ft. for each of these 2 floors. Each deck should have an outdoor speaker system. Weatherproof power and data outlets should be available.

ATTIC:

Attic insulated, air conditioned, and has electrical and data outlets. Attic can be walked in.

BASEMENT:

Any rooms in the basement should be 3 feet from the exterior wall, to provide an unfinished corridor to facilitate wiring runs and maintenance.

A home theater of at least 400 sq. ft. that can seat 10 people in either a theater or conference room arrangment. Access to the theater from the other floors is finished. If possible the unfinished area of the basement should be used to install a rear projection system.

Bathroom

Garage space for four cars.

The rest of the basement is unfinished, but is insulated, air conditioned, and has electrical and data wiring. Laundry facilities should be available in the basement. For the purposes of sizing electrical and cooling needs, there will be up to 10 people, 10 computer monitors, and 50 PCs without monitors running in the unfinished space in the basement.

GENERAL ISSUES:

Each room should have independent control of heating, cooling, and ventilation, either with computer controlled ductwork (dampers and registers) or with heat pumps or exchangers for each room. If ductwork is used there should be a feed register and return in each room, including closets. Cooling and ductwork should be sized to include an additional load of 10 PCs without monitors in each room, except where otherwise stated.

Lighting:

The ceiling should be painted white (satin finish). The spots should be adjustable and a lot of them. The flourescents can be aimed at the ceilings and should have many different switches. Central control of lights such as described in http://www.amponq.com Light switches do not have A/C power. 2 CAT5 wires as well as two 18 gauge unshielded wire pairs to each light switch. The electrical boxes for the switches should be triple gang boxes, and triple width wall plates should be used.

Electrical: An outlet every 6 feet, and on each wall in a room for walls less than six feet (including bathrooms where feasible). AC current sensors should be placed in all outlets, with signal wires back to a central point. There should be a computer readable electric meter. There should be a whole house surge arrestor and signal/interference blocker. There should be a high-frequency signal bridge spanning 120V legs.

Data wiring: Next or near to each electrical outlet should be a data wall panel with 4 RJ45 network ports and 2 video ports (either cable TV style or BNC to be specified) These panels should have 4 CAT5 wires, two RG6 quad shielded 75 Ohm coax video cables, and two 18 gauge unshielded wire pairs going to the central wiring point in the house. The electrical boxes behind the panels should be triple gang boxes, and triple width wall plates should be used. Additional data panels should be on each wall in unfinished areas (attic and basement) and above the drop ceiling. Additional wiring to particular wall panels may be specified once house plans are available. All data wiring goes to a central point.

Phone lines also go to a central point.

Each bedroom gets 2 pairs of speaker wire and the great room/kitchen get 4 pairs of speaker wire from a central point to a wall panel with banana jacks. A set of in wall speakers should be installed in each room, with a jumper panel providing access to the wires from the central point and the wires to the in wall speakers.

Each bedroom gets 2 audio cables and the great room/kitchen get 4 audio cables from a central point to a wall panel with RCA jacks.

A security system should be installed with all wiring to a central point. It should sense closure of all doors and windows including interior doors. Motion sensors should be mounted in each room and around building exterior. Computer should be able to lock and unlock all doors and windows. Computer should be able to open and close all doors and windows.

Methods should exist to add new low voltage wiring. These might include wiring tracks behind removable baseboard, a system of conduits in the walls, thick walls which have an interior gap between each side, lighting coves completely circling each room, or cable trays above the drop ceilings, on the basement roof, and on the floor of the attic. There should be a large conduit between each room and either the attic or the basement, as well as a conduit between the attic and basement.

Each floor must be wheelchair accessible.

As much as possible the floors and walls should be non-metallic.

Exterior doors and outside the doors should be provided with power and audio and video cable for a video camera and intercom.

All electric appliances (no natural gas).

In each room arrangements for mounting LCD display and touch panels should be made. Display should be easy to remove for use, maintenance, and upgrades.

Computer control of each water tap (on/off and temperature) should be possible. There should be a computer readable flowmeter for the house water supply.

Any driveway should have vehicle sensors.

HVAC should include a humidifier and electrostatic air cleaner.

Roof mounted weather station with computer interface.

If possible, window tint should be controlled. All blinds and drapes should be computer controlled.

All as-built blueprints, engineering drawings, riser diagrams, etc. must be provided in computer readable form.

UNRESOLVED ISSUES

Include fiber optic cabling to each room?

Should we try to have some sort of floor that allows wiring, such as a raised floor? Install this later on top of existing floor?

If we can afford it, we should as much as possible try to put something in the floors now that does force and vibration sensing. Can we build load cells into the flooring from the start? Maybe what we could do is to have the whole floor dropped down 6 inches (or some reasonable height) so that we can add the smart floor later.

Hardwood floors and ceramic tile floors are difficult to work with. Perhaps a carpeted floor or floor made out of panels would be best.

Does it matter what exterior is? (brick, stucco, wood siding, plastic siding)

Any preferences on kitchen white goods? What is computer controlled?

garage or outside lot? Parking for how many?


Future Computing Environments Georgia Institute of Technology