What Makes a Smart Home Smart?

By Paul Cox

Published August 17, 2011 at 2:00 PM EDT

Front of the Smart Home during the grand opening, last June.

Try to imagine a house so efficient it doesn't have a furnace or an air conditioner. It may sound like magic, but the people at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History claim to have pulled it off. On The Sound of Ideas we'll find out why the Museum's Smart Home uses just ten per cent of the energy of a normal house. Plus: how it's built, how some of the materials are truly local, and how to adapt the ideas found there to just about any home. On this rebroadcast from last June, you'll hear from the smart people who designed and built Ohio's first passive house, Wednesday morning at 9:00 on 90.3.Evalyn Gates, PhD, executive director & CEO, Cleveland Museum of Natural History
David Beach, director, GreenCityBlueLake Institute, Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Chuck Miller, principal, Doty & Miller Architects
Clint Cravens, field operations manager, Green Street Solutions