DreamHouse/Tech

Technology

As a technogeek, my dream house is naturally gadget central. ...here are some of the ideas I've explored, and are exploring for the place...

• JeffriesTubes
• VacuumCapsules
• P.E.Ts (Personal Electronic Thing)
• LightFixtures

Basic Tech

(as submitted by Oscar)

There are some other nifty ideas that would be useful in a dream house. Such as for example, in a cold climate, a drilled hole with a pipe in it that can circulate water can raise the temperature of the water, thus reducing the energy required to heat the water to near building temperature; also, using double glazing will reduce heat or cold loss from within a heated/cooled room; and, having a heated mirror in your bathroom will stop condensation from gathering on it. If you want a warm basment, build up earth on three sides, and have double glazed windows on the fourth side, which should be pointed so that it catches the sun in winter but is shaded from it in summer.

I saw (on a tv show) a stove that was based on magnetic convection. For demonstrating it, the (interior) builder put a pot of water on the "hotplate" with a 20 pound note sitting halfway underneath it, and when the water was boiling he pulled the note out intact! I thought that was a pretty cool idea!

Building materials

As far as bricks and mortar go, the Ming dynasty contruction work on the Great Wall of China is pretty good. Bricks as tough as modern concrete contructs, and mortar that has proved the equal to the bricks in surviving erosion and acid rain, and in some places, outlasted the bricks... not to mention just how cool this would be! :)

Entertainment

• http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~hudson/bubbles/
• NUMB
• http://www.uni-weimar.de/~bimber/research.php (esp the "Embedded Entertainment with Smart Projectors" from around august2004)