By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
This Kapolei Knolls home is wired so that the homeowner
can view security check points from a computer monitor
at work or in a home office. Below, a camera is disguised
as a smoke detector/fire alarm.

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The well-wired house of the future is on show at the Parade of Homes this week at Kapolei Knolls. Upgraded wiring in the home allows for the use of televised intercoms, computers and telephones without cables running from room to room, and tiny cameras connected to your computer so that you can check on what's happening at any time -- and even turn things on and off long-distance.

Honey, I’m high tech home!

By Burl Burlingame
Star-Bulletin

High tech has become haute tech. The fashionable phrase is often used to help pitch new homes these days, even though it seems to mean nothing in particular. What's a low-tech house these days? An adobe wickiup?

Something to keep in mind while touring the Parade of Homes.

Most often what the seller means is "wired." The average home these days might not include separates line for the modem and fax machines, but the extra lines can be used for phones for the teenagers or for live-in parents. Once a home was considered well-wired if it had a jack for the telephone.

No more. you can choose between dozens of types of wires and systems, ranging from a simple double-jack for your phones and an extensive Local Area Network -- what the computer guys call a "LAN" -- which means, for example, that you can have your computer in one room and your printer in another without stringing cables all over the house.

By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Donna Mesa checks out the mini monitor on the intercom
phone installed at a Kapolei Knolls model home
by Alert Alarm of Hawaii .

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When it comes to wires, it's helpful to learn the language. Basically, there are three types of wire or cable:

Coaxial: This is the fat wire the cable-TV guys string into your house. It can be used for other things, though, and can handle lots of signals for long distances (the reason it's used for cable-TV) and it's easy to install and handle.

Fiber-Optic. This type of wire can carry hundreds of signals, sometime thousands, courtesy pulses of light traveling down a plastic or glass shaft. But it's very difficult to use and install. It's most often used as "backbones" for systems handling lots of traffic. Your local cable company may be making a big deal out installing fiber-optic in your neighborhood, but that's pole to pole, not into your house. They switch back to coaxial for that.

Twisted Pair. No, this isn't Bonnie and Clyde. These are copper wires twisted around each other, like the wires connecting the phone to the wall jack. Once used only for phones, improvements to twisted-pair design have allowed more data to be carried on the lines, which means computers and other electronic devices can be plugged into the system.

By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Surveillance cameras, like the one at the top corner of
the entrance, above, is wired to intercoms and computer
systems to scan activity throughout the home.

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The Electronic Industry Association has classified these type of wires into various categories: Category 1 is old-fashioned voice wire; Category 2 was a standard for IBM equipment; Category 3 is an improved voice line that can also handle electronic data (This is what most homes already have); Category 4 was cancelled; and Category 5 is a vastly improved wire that can turn your home into a LAN, plus handle the usual telephone traffic.

These improved Category 5 twisted-pair wires are most likely what Realtors are referring to when they call it a "high-tech" home. For example, the new apartment units at One Archer Lane and the model homes at Kapolei Knolls are wired with Category 5, just in case the owner needs the extra bandwidth. The rest of us will just have to re-wire.Some of the features available to Category 5-wired homes are on display at Kapolei Knolls during the Parade of Homes this week. For example, a home owner can use the system to run a television intercom, connect computers and several different telephone lines.

By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
New computer is offered with the purchase of a home.

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One futuristic feature on display at Kapolei Knolls, already available, is CompuVision, a security system that ties together tiny cameras hidden in the home with personal computers. An owner can connect from any PC, including his machine at work, and view his home live and direct. Not only will it let you know if the babysitter is smoking your cigars, it will allow you to turn appliance on and off long-distance. This kind of interaction gives a hint of what the well-wired home is capable of in the near future.

It costs about $3,900 for the basic system, says Donn Enoki of CompuVision, who was installing the Kapolei Knolls set-up.

At Castle & Cooke's model homes in Mililani Mauka, the homes are wired with a modified Category 3 wiring that allows up to six phone lines. "That's enough for most people," said Bill Barrett of C&C. "To be candid -- while those who want Category 5 wiring are definitely part of the market, they're still a very small part of the market. REAL small."

Castle & Cooke isn't going to be left off the high-tech bandwagon. Each of their homes also comes with a Pentium computer.

The facts

What: 42nd Annual Building Industry Association Parade of Homes
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. this weekend and next
Where: Various homes (28) around Oahu. A guidebook for all homes is available at each home. For the first time, the public can vote in a "People's Choice" category.
Cost: Free
Call: 847-4666
Web info: http://www.schuler-hawaii.com or http://www.castle-cooke.com