Smart Homes Of Dubai

While passing through an amusement park exhibit three and a half years ago, Craig Taylor realised he wanted a home of the future – a house where dinner could be made at the touch of a button and parties could be organised at the flick of a switch.

But knowing the limits of the possibilities, Taylor returned to Dubai with a basket of high-tech ideas now found in his Meadows family home.

In his spacious residence, decorated with a modern touch and cosy details, the Taylor family is one of a small, but growing, number of Dubai residents who have banished all their remote controls to a dark corner, installed a closed-circuit television security system and control their home's lighting, heating, air conditioning and pool temperature all through the convenience of a single control pad no bigger than a laptop screen.

It's called an intelligent home.

“It makes life easier and gives you the potential to be more frugal in keeping costs down,'' said Craig, who manages developing markets for IT company CISCO.

“I liked how easy it seemed to do things. Just in the living room we had five remotes and when my mum would come to stay, she'd think I was torturing her. We left her one weekend alone and she couldn't turn the TV on,'' he said.

While the Taylors say the system is easy to use, installing the wires and gadgets was a bigger headache than they had anticipated, said Craig's wife, Jeannette.

“Although the house was delivered late, we gave them two weeks to put in the system and while we were moving in they were chiselling. It takes about two or three months and it will be messy,'' she warned.

The system cost approximately Dh184,000 and has required little upkeep since it was installed two and a half years ago.

Still, with three growing daughters in the house, the couple is looking to install a multi-tuner music system to ensure everyone's tastes are taken care of, while allowing MP3 music and videos to be uploaded onto the network.

When the family looks to sell the home, the Taylors hope it gives them an edge.

“I do hope it adds value to the house. A lot of houses are the same and if you can make it a little different, you may receive a better return,'' Craig said.

Offering something a little different from the competition has increasingly spurred business for Neil Palin, the Managing Director of Intelligent Homes.

“With so much housing in Dubai, it's more difficult to sell apartments so now developers are looking for that little extra,'' he said, adding that the business has changed considerably since he entered the market four years ago.

"While the cost of building an intelligent home can range from Dh150,000 up to Dh1 million, Palin says that his company is looking to educate property developers on the practicality of installing intelligent home systems while construction is being done rather than after.

“In Dubai, they use a lot of pre-cast concrete with a lot of steel and it's difficult to install a wireless system – it's hard to get it through concrete,'' he said.

“It's much more expensive to retrofit, and when you have a Dh7 million villa, people want it to be smart-homed. If you don't put it in, the client will put it in himself.''

That's what Reeyaz Mousa did.

Unhappy with the quality of his Jumeirah Islands residence, Mousa, CEO of a Dubai-based company, installed a Dh300,000 intelligent home system that includes a top-of-the line entertainment system, whose crown jewel is an in-house theatre, complete with cinema seats, surround sound and a giant screen.

Although the couple rarely uses the theatre, their three daughters have taken to entertaining their friends on weekends.

“I always wanted a cinema and so I decided I might as well get it done and do it all at once,'' Mousa said.

The Mousas moved to Dubai from England nine years ago, seeking out opportunities and a better lifestyle.

And like the Taylors, the couple installed indoor and outdoor audio systems and temperature controls.

“It's made life easier. We're frequent entertainers, and when we entertain outdoors, the guests think the sound and light system is brilliant,'' said Reeyaz's wife, Yasmin.

With a television in every room – nine in total - including a waterproofed TV in the master bathroom, the couple speak of the ease with which they and their daughters have been able to enjoy their intelligent home.

It has also offered an element of safety for the children.

“You are watching something and then you can switch to the CCTV to monitor the kids,'' said Yasmin.

With the smell of incense filling their Eastern-inspired home, the family - which has lived in the house less than a year - are already searching for their next address.

Although they have designed the house to their exacting standards, their next place will have an upgraded arrangement than what they currently have.

“There's new technology and we want it to be even better than now,'' said Reeyaz.

What an intelligent home touchpad can do

How a house gets smartened up