There seems to be some degree of interchangeability in using words like "smart home" and "green home". Take for example a news item that surfaced this week, "Builder pledges green housing". In one sentence the builder is pledging to build all "green houses" and in another sentence it is stated that they are building "smart homes".

The concept of a "green home" is usually one centered on an energy efficient home. This may involve such things as automated lighting, that turns on automatically when a person enters a room and the light in the room is insufficient for a human to really see, and it turns off when the person leaves the room. Now while something like this is about "home automation" it also is about saving energy.

The concept of a "smart home" has to do with home automation, home networking, remote control, web enabling home systems for access when not on the property, and so on. Some of these ideas can be also included under the concept of a "green home" in that the automation or remote control can bring about energy efficiencies.

However, there is an aspect of a "green home" that has very little to do with "home automation" and that is where incredibly interesting use of products and they way a house is built that requires very little heating/cooling and other energy saving devices. It is almost the "unwiring" or a home to achieve better results in the home environment.

So when a volume builder talks about building "smart homes" and "green homes" it will be interesting to see what is actually meant by such terms. Is it a better designed house so as to not use so much energy to heat and cool it? Is it about including some home automation to save on energy use?

So how do we view the idea of "smart home" and is it synonymous with the term "green home"? We will visit this quite often over the next few weeks and try to define what is actually meant by these terms.