SuperHouse Vlog #50: The future of SuperHouse

Posted on February 6th, 2017

I have a lot of fun making SuperHouse videos, but recently I’ve been thinking about ways that I can make them better. I have many ideas for different types of videos and a list of about 50 episodes I want to make in the future. Please have your say in the future of SuperHouse!

The Patreon page is at www.patreon.com/superhouse

Below is the original episode plan from the early concept for SuperHouse as a high-tech home renovation TV show. There were still some holes in it, but it gave us a rough outline for what we thought could be structured as a show something like a high-tech version of “This Old House”.

Season 1

#1: Welcome to the SuperHouse

  • SuperHouse introduction
  • Montage of future topics
  • Demo of RFID door
  • Demo of mobile phone control of blinds
  • Field trip: Clipsal training house, Clifton Hill
  • SMS letterbox notification project
  • Tour of the website highlighting detailed instructions for letterbox hack

#2: Wiring Your World

  • Introduction to smart wiring: X10/A10, CeBUS, Dynalite
  • Internet access options: DSL, cable, 3G, wireless
  • Setting up a router / firewall
  • Field trip: Tasmanian house fitted with CeBUS cabling
  • Building a stud wall
  • Installing a LAN/WLAN
  • Community wireless

#3: The Ultimate Garage

  • Building a steel-frame garage
  • Driveway detectors: magnetic and infra-red
  • Painting interior walls and trim
  • Field trip: Dad’s place to talk about building envelope etc
  • Recharge station for EV
  • Extraction fan for exhaust (auto-start car)
  • Hanging plasterboard
  • Wall insulation
  • Low power / efficient lighting options

#4: Front Door and Access Control

  • Hanging a front door
  • Fitting electric striker plates
  • RFID access control
  • Keypad access control
  • Fingerprint scanner access control
  • Facial recognition access control
  • Field trip: Brisbane airport access control system?
  • Doorbell notification / video surveillance

#5: Pets, Sensors, and Storage

  • Building a built-in cupboard
  • Installing an intelligent cat/dog door
  • Field trip: R&D: robotic fish, other robot pets?
  • Using temperature, humidity, smoke, CO, and gas sensors
  • Humidity-controlled bathroom and fans

#6: Walls (this ep is very weak, need to find more)

  • Plasterboard: hanging, finishing, painting
  • Cornices, corners, architraves, skirting boards
  • Field trip: South Korea: grass house and Ubiquitous Dream Hall
  • Introduction to Arduino

#7: The Ultimate Home Office

  • Door, desk, drawers, storage
  • Connecting up your computer and printer
  • Field trip: multi-location, maybe Jason Smith’s home office + another
  • Sharing peripherals (printer, scanner, etc)
  • Multi-line phone, VoIP
  • Video conferencing
  • Home server
  • Online apps: Google docs, etc
  • Mobile devices: smartphones and synchronization

#8: Roofs, Water, and Solar

  • Replacing a tile roof with steel
  • Installing a water tank
  • Connecting tank depth sensors to the HA system
  • Connecting hot water system to the HA system
  • Field trip: R&D: solar cells
  • Installing solar panels and a reverse-reading meter
  • Installing solar hot water boosting
  • Roof insulation options

Season 2

#1: Floors

  • Floor and wall tiling
  • Fixing a squeeky floor
  • Floor polishing
  • ?
  • ?

#2: Fencing

  • Building a picket fence
  • ?
  • ?
  • ?

#3: Saving Water

  • Installing a water tank and rainwater collection system
  • Connecting depth sensors and pumps to the computer
  • Greywater: collection, purification, storage, use (legislation)

#4: Garden irrigation and lighting

  • Computer controlled sprinkler system
  • Installing garden lighting

#5: Video from everywhere

  • CCTV systems
  • Building a deck or verandah
  • Doorbell notification

#6: High-tech driveway

  • Installing electric driveway gates
  • Fitting a car sensor
  • CCTV feed to your car

#7: External walls

  • Replacing weatherboards
  • Rendering a brick wall
  • Exterior painting

#8: Heating and cooling

  • Installing central evaporative cooling
  • Installing central heating
  • Smart thermostat

Season 3

#1: Fireplace

  • Installing a gas fireplace
  • Connecting a gas fireplace to the computer

#2: Security

  • Using the house computer as a security system
  • Installing external security lighting
  • SMS notification
  • Dialler
  • Connecting motion detectors
  • Connecting smoke detectors

#3: Home entertainment

  • Installing a wall-mount flat-screen TV
  • Building a home media PC with MythTV
  • CCTV feeds to MythTV

#4: Control from anywhere

  • Building a house-wide audio system
  • Setting up a web interface for the house computer
  • Using a phone / iPod as a house controller
  • Connecting your house to virtual reality (Second Life?)

#5: Phones

  • Setting up a VoIP phone system with Asterisk
  • Connecting Asterisk to MythTV

#6: Curtains and blinds

  • Installing electric curtains and blinds
  • Linking curtains / blinds to the computer

#7: (Topic to be determined)

  • Linking an endless hot water system to the computer
  • Computer controlled water feature
  • The ultimate cubby house: VoIP
  • Voice control
  • Swimming pool management

#8: Grand Finale

  • “Live” show from the SuperHouse
  • House tour showing everything in place
  • Giveaway / prize draw for the crowd
  • Auction the house live on TV? Mmm, tempting!

3 responses to “SuperHouse Vlog #50: The future of SuperHouse”

  1. […] Food. Art. Recycle Bin. SuperHouse Automation. […]

  2. […] It is a Tweet or Post by Jon Oxer from Superhouse.tv (an awesome Home Automation and Electronics Youtube Channel based in Australia). And the Title of the Post is “SuperHouse Vlog #50: The future of SuperHouse“. […]

  3. Chris Hiscox says:

    Moving On, how to set up a sellable smart home. With so many cloud based units how can a house be sold as smar t when all the tech is really personal and if AI then becomes unlearnt when chnging owners. From hostnames not ip address, to planning a move plent of scope to advise and plan

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