Probably not, but that was the question I was asked while working at Grand Designs live in London this weekend.

I was there to help show and explain HDL UK’s home automation system and also more importantly to help educate people on what’s possible for them to achieve with the latest smart-home technology.

I was working on a stand with a product that can deliver as complete a home automation system as you will find, with superb styling and functionality. Despite this, I (and I am sure everyone else that was there) happily pointed visitors to other stands with solutions that will suit their needs better.

So for that customer that just wanted to control his existing heating it was easy to show him our neighbouring stand from British Gas  showing their product Hive, or point him in the direction of new- to- market Mi Home from Energenie.  I didn’t get a chance to get as far as Yale’s stand to see their range of locks with Apps, but I definitely pointed a few other people their way.

Anyway back to my initial question ‘would you buy a house without a toilet?’ No you wouldn’t.  In fact a lot of you may have 3 or 4 of them in your house.  The gentleman that posed this unusual question as you may have guessed was just trying to make a point.  In his 70’s now, he can remember a time when a toilet (if you were lucky enough to have one) was outside.  So 50 years from now he sees the same supposedly ridiculous question being asked about Home Automation….. I think and hope he is right.

Erik Hansen