According to a recent study by ABI Research, home automation might just become a consumer-friendly service by 2013. I'd like to believe it, but it sounds overly optimistic.

The report points out that the home automation market has long been split in two. In the blue corner, you've got the heavyweight custom install solutions like Crestron, AMX and Konnex. In the red corner, there's a flyweight industry of DIY installers who are playing around with X10 and Z-Wave technologies.

Custom installs are expensive. Panasonic's high-tech 'house of the future', for example, cost almost £500,000 to build.

Unless the technology is included in new houses, the cost of retro-fitting LCD wall panels and intelligent lighting are typically out of most people's reach. As for X10 and Z-Wave... networking your home with these technologies is still very much a hobbyist pursuit.

Living in a smarter home

For those of you who aren't familiar with X10, it's a networking standard that combines power line communications and short-range wireless. Install an X10 controller application on a PC and connect your PC to a special controller module (that plugs into the wall) and you can send on/off commands to any device that's also plugged into an X-10 module.

I've dabbled with X10 myself - the more advanced and capable Z-Wave kit is nigh-on impossible to find in the UK. I like the idea of a simple, modular system that you can expand as and when you want to. But unless you're going to go the whole hog and install PIR sensors, CCTV cameras and temperature controls, there are easier (and far cheaper) ways to turn a few lamps on and off.

Home automation might well become a consumer-friendly service by 2013, incorporating a combination of powerline networking, Z-Wave and Zigbee technologies. But is there actually a gap between the pro and hobbyist markets that's worth exploiting? There's interest in the US. So could we see multimedia companies like BT, Sky and Virgin offer home monitoring services as part of triple- and quad-play packages?

Several companies have already had a go at introducing home automation to a mainstream audience. Motorola produced its HomeSight kit in 2005; Eaton's Home Heartbeat system offers similar whole-house wireless monitoring.

Not heard of them? Hmm. It proves that consumer-friendliness is one thing. Consumer demand quite another.