[thechat] Your dream house: what tech stuff?

[Martin Burns]

On 22 Oct 2006, at 17:13, Luther, Ron wrote:

> Elfur Logadóttir noted:
>
>
>>> As it happens my family will be building 4 homes in the coming  
>>> three years
>
> Wow!!  Congrats to the Northern "L" clan!!  Pretty cool.
>
> Well, normal stuff is 'normal' so I'll mention an odd thing or two:
>
> - I saw this interesting gizmo at a home and flower show maybe 10  
> years ago,
> so _maybe_ it's commercially available now ... and it's  
> specifically for homes
> in 'northern' climates!  You press a button in the evening and the  
> space between
> your double pane windows fills up with tiny styrofoam bits - giving  
> you more
> insulation.  In the morning you press a button and the little bits  
> are vacuumed
> away and stored for the next time they are needed.  The demo was  
> really neat.
> Never seen one actually installed though.

Cool. Although I like the Scandinavian approach of triple glazing.  
And of course
heat-reflecting glass is pretty common these days:
http://www.pilkington.com/applications/products2006/english/bybenefit/ 
thermalinsulation/kglass/default.htm

> - Kitchen junk.  (1) A 'hot water' faucet.  I've been in a few  
> homes lately that
> have a separate water faucet in the kitchen that gives 'instant'  
> hot water.
> No waiting and no guessing on the temp cuz it's set to a constant  
> 140F or 170F
> or whatever.

Yep - you have a wee boiler under the sink. Hideously expensive to run,
and a no-no if you have young kids...

> - Electrical outlets in the floor.  "Large" "open" "greatrooms" are  
> nice and all
> ... but I really hate trying to hide the electrical cords for the  
> coffeetable lamps
> under throw rugs.

Now that's a cool idea - somewhat like the classic office floor plate  
concept.

Incidentally, Ron, we liked the layout of your house a *lot*, and  
it's one of the
influences we have in mind...

> - Electrical outlets in the eaves?  Some of my neighbors have  
> electrical outlets
> in their eaves.  Makes short work of putting up their Christmas  
> lights ... which
> is actually about the only thing they are good for.  Is it worth a  
> couple hundred
> for a convenience you only use once a year?  Some folks think so!

Also electrical outlets generally in the garden - for music at the  
barbie, or
just lawnmowing, it's excellent.

> (2) I've seen a few houses with a 1/2 bath in the detached garage.   
> A very good
> idea I think.  Keeps muddy children out of the house a bit longer  
> and the sink
> gives you a nice place to wash up all kinds of things you might not  
> want to drag
> into the house.

Or a mud room on the way in - just simply cement finished with a  
drain in the floor so you can hose people/animals/boots/etc down on  
the way in!

Cheers
Martin
--
 > Spammers: Send me email -> yumyum at easyweb.co.uk to train my filter
 > http://www.nuclearelephant.com/projects/dspam/
Sell Cloth Nappies from your website:
http://www.purpur.co.uk/announcing-purpur-associates