Want to see a very green home with alternative energy sources, energy-efficient electronics, and eco-friendly home furnishings? If you’re in Chicago this year, check out the “Smart Home: Green + Wired” exhibit at Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. It’s an entire 2,500-square-foot home constructed on the grounds, complete with working green systems and technology. 

The exhibit, which opened May 8 and runs through Jan. 4, 2009, provides patrons with many green and energy-saving ideas, from the photovoltaic (solar) film on the garage roof that collects energy from the sun, to the green roof and eco-friendly landscape, and to the electronics, which play a big role in this home.

Exceptional Innovation’s Lifeware home control system, which runs on a Windows-based computer network, controls the electronics and can display Lucid Design Group’s Building Dashboard that shows how much energy is being used in the home, on a real-time basis, by day or week. 

In addition, the home automation system controls heat, lighting and window coverings to reduce energy consumption. A motorized skylight in the ceiling opens when detectors sense a cool breeze (saving air conditioning), and digital electronics in the plants send voicemail when they need water. 

Even the whole-house audio system is somewhat green. It uses a NuVo Technologies’ Essentia E6G Energy Star-rated system to distributes music throughout the home without consuming a lot of energy. Despite distributing audio to six zones in the Smart Home, the E6G will only consume 0.80 watts in standby mode. On average, it consumes 68.4 kilowatt-hours of power per year to operate, which is said to be about a third of the energy consumption of most competing systems. 

Other green electronics systems in the home include a Lutron HomeWorks lighting control system for dimming and preset lighting scenes, Progress Lighting LED fixtures, an Okoro digital entertainment system that uses energy-saving GreenPower hard drives from Western Digital, Jamo RoHS-compliant (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) speakers, Somfy motorized window treatments, Samsung’s RoHS-compliant Q1 ultramobile PC, Ambient Device’s Umbrella with a weather reporting system in its handle, and an iPort dock for listening to iPod music over the home speakers.

Integrator Rick Simpson of 3G Applied Technologies in Chicago, donated his time and resources to help the Smart Home come to fruition. Rick, a certified Digital Home Technology Integrator, worked closely with the Museum of Science and Industry, Wired Magazine, and contributing partners.

About the Author:
Steven Castle - Contributing Writer

Steven Castle is a writer, editor, and humorist who recently completed Filthy Rich Things, a savage satire on our thirst for success and wealth. He is presently expanding his magazine work by writing more about alternative energy sources and green building.