Once you walk into the home, a simple voice command saying “Alexa, I’m home” or “Okay Josh, I’m home” will turn on the living room and kitchen lights, open the living room shade and kitchen curtain, turn on the music to a preferred listening station, turn the heating or air conditioning system on if needed, and turn off the security system. From the flush-mounted 10-inch Control4 touchscreen near the front door, a client can easily close the garage door, turn on the landscaping lights and fountain, start the irrigation system, or view the performance of the home’s solar backup battery system.

A Fibaro Z-Wave connected button on the nightstand that invokes an “I’m awake” scene that raises the master bathroom shades, turns on the desired music or the flat screen monitor hidden behind the Electric Mirror to current news or local weather information, and even starts the Kohler Intelligent Shower to the homeowner’s preferred shower temperature and spa setting. The master bathroom shower controls are intuitive and easy to operate, which is important when connecting technology to necessities in the home.

Walk into the kitchen from the living room and the latest connected kitchen technology solutions from Control4, Bosch, and Thermador are on display. The coffeemaker can be initiated by voice command for the ultimate coffee-making experience. The oven can also be turned on to a specific temperature by voice command or even remotely from a touchscreen. They've also used the latest Cosmos technology from Panasonic to improve the indoor air quality of the showroom home. When an unhealthy odor is detected in the kitchen by the Cosmos IAQ sensor, it automatically turns on the nearby guest bath fan to exhaust the contaminated air.

The home’s energy management system is intelligent enough to know if the local weather forecast predicts cloudy days ahead because the battery should be charged during the lower electrical rate off-peak hours so that inexpensive stored electricity is available to the home during the more expensive daytime hours.

In this solar-powered intelligent home, when the interior summer temperature is above 75 degrees the Velux skylights automatically open and the Haiku smart ceiling fan turns on to provide convection cooling prior to turning on the more energy-intensive AC system, thereby preserving and extending the solar battery life.