Computerized Home Has Thoughts of Its Own : Housing: A demonstration dwelling in the suburbs can answer the telephone, baby-sit, make the coffee, start the shower and a lot more.

When the buyers of a certain big brick house in this distant Washington, D.C., suburb say they’re calling home, they won’t necessarily be talking about a family member.

This house answers its own telephone and talks in a human-sounding computer voice about what’s going on inside.

It’s a “smart” house--the ultimate gadget, the home that the futurists of the 1950s and ‘60s dreamed about.

In a few short years, the Space Age technology that makes the smart house so smart will be as common as microwave ovens, says Potomac Edison, which wired the house and is conducting public tours of it.

The Federal Communications Commission gave its approval for further development by voting in June to ease certain private home restrictions on use of radio and cable television signals needed to make smart house technology work.

“It’s somewhat disquieting to think of oneself as living in a dumb home,” FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan wisecracked before the vote.

It’s also somewhat disquieting to be standing in what appears to be a normal home in the country that has smart house capabilities.

This house can be programmed to watch the baby, make the coffee, start the shower, dim the lights and turn on the music.

It can be equipped to sense whether people are in a room and reduce the heat and douse the lights.

If the baby cries, sensors over the crib could activate the TV near the parents’ bed and give a view through the television camera in the child’s room.

If the vacuum cleaner’s running when the doorbell or telephone rings, it automatically shuts off so the user can hear that someone’s calling.

The “brain” in the basement can handle about 900 functions. One or a series can be programmed into any or every switch in the house.

Want the bathroom light on, music playing and the shower water running nice and hot before you get out of bed? Tap the bedside switch once.

Another flick of a switch turns on the kitchen lights, coffee maker and radio.

If the doorbell rings while you’re watching TV, flip to the channel that monitors the doorway to see who’s there.

The highly scheduled person can put the whole house on a 24-hour, seven-day clock so it’s lit up, warm and humming in the morning, shuts down when occupants leave for work and is playing romantic music in softly lit rooms when they return in the evening.

If fire breaks out, the house can automatically alert the fire department, shut down the circulation system to keep smoke from spreading, flicker the front lights to signal firefighters and illuminate a pathway to exits for inhabitants.

This house’s computer “brain” uses minimal power and keeps a daily tabulation in dollars of how much has been spent on energy for all the appliances, lights and other gadgets. Owners who want to cut back can program it so certain appliances will operate only during off-peak hours.

As soon as appliances are developed that can take more than on-off commands from the smart house system, occupants will be signaled by telephone or television that the iron’s been left on, for example. Cooking dinner by remote control also is within the realm of possibility.

Houses like these are popping up around the country first as demonstrators, then for sale to individuals.

Chuck Barger, of Potomac Edison, said the “smart” technology adds about $10,000 to $15,000 to the cost of a new house.

Leon Weiner, chief executive officer of Smart House L.P., in Upper Marlboro, Md., which designed the system said he’s working on one that can be installed in existing homes, but currently the only smart houses are the ones built as such.

The system replaces traditional electrical wiring with three cables that transmit household electric current, telephone, audio, video, security and communications signals to every room. The cables all are controlled by the central computer in the basement.

Instead of the usual two-socket electrical outlets, each room has little “convenience centers” with outlets attached to the three cables.

You plug the VCR into the house, for example, instead of the television set. Then, any set in any room can pick up the tape that’s playing.

The FCC’s ruling was necessary because radio signals are used to operate certain fixtures in these homes and a stronger cable signal is needed to enable every room in the house to have a hookup.

This is a house that illustrates how far consumer technology has come, but it’s also a little bit eerie.

By calling the house’s computer and punching the appropriate numbers on a touch-tone phone, you can reprogram every function from afar.

Imagine the tricks you could play on Halloween.