Barry Driscoll is in the basement installing a state-of-the-art surge protector from Square D. Barry hooks up a main surge protector for the whole house that will take care of all the appliances, electronics, and anything else that could be damaged. It also protects the telephones and cable TV that run throughout the house. This eliminates the need for individual surge protectors on separate appliances. This can be installed in a retrofit as well as in new construction. Barry is also installing an arc fault detector. These units that are now required by the new national electrical code for branch circuits in bedrooms protect against fires from arcing caused by damaged wires (if you hit a wire while hanging a picture), deteriorating electrical insulation, stressed electrical cords, or misapplied or damaged appliance use. The arc detector was designed to detect overloads, short circuits and arc faults and open the circuit and stop the arc fault and its high intensity heat before a fire is likely to ignite.

Bob and Tim Woods from the Internet Home Alliance meet in the kitchen. Tim details the Home Director structured wiring installation in every room, allowing the homeowner to stay connected to both the Internet and in-home control functions throughout the house. On the Panasonic flat screen LCD TV you can watch normal cable television or monitor outside security cameras. All the structured wiring is connected to the outside world thought a Panasonic Gateway. Woods also demonstrates a wireless Web tablet on which the homeowner can control home audio, heating & cooling, lighting, security, and telephones.

In this segment Bob meets Eddie Fisher, the master electrician on the Brooklyn project's infrastructure team. The team of five electricians from AC/DC Electric is rewiring the building from basement to roof deck. Fisher's team is pre-wiring the building for telephones, computer and cable TV. New York City building codes often require the use of materials and techniques not often seen in residential construction. Codes enacted in the summer of 2003 in New York City require a separate power line from the main electrical box to each GFI (Ground Fault Interrupt) circuit. Also required by code in this building is the use of BX, or metal-shielded, cable. BX is a rigid, flexible metal conduit with a wire bundle, consisting of individually insulated conductors covered by a flexible spiral-wound layer of metal. BX will typically last longer than vinyl-clad cable and may prevent some inadvertent damage in the future.

A Honeywell thermostat, in combination with the company's Telephone Access Module (installed in the basement or a utility closet), allows homeowners to dial into a home's HVAC system via telephone and make adjustments remotely.

Bob meets Tim Woods from the Internet Home Alliance at the Home Director network connection center in the basement. It's where all the structured wiring comes in and where the main controls happen: 2 +2 (cat-5 and RJ), cable broadband, security link-up, telephone, etc. Because the homeowners are a dual career couple they need to be connected to each other (home office to the studio) and to the outside world in a broadband environment. In the kitchen Larry Hicks of Home Director is installing some cable for a universal 2 + 2 outlet for TV, telephone or data near the breakfast nook providing flexibility for use of a phone, screen, etc. Looking at the Alliance's wiring plan, Tim points out the security camera at the front door and the ADT iCenter security system. The study/screening room will be a real media center with speakers for dolby stereo running through the ceiling, cable broadband, and a Panasonic high definition TV. There willl be speakers throughout the house allowing different music to play in diffferent rooms all controlled from the audio center in the kitchen. The Cisco Aironet system is a wireless network for the home allowing the homeowner to put a wireless card into his laptop and wirelessly port the web anywhere in the house. Because this is an old house in which they are trying to preserve the original plaster and lath walls, the installation of the structured wiring has required different tools and is a much slower process than in new construction, but it can be done.

Bob Ryley meets with Ken Frankel from Lucent Technologies to talk about the new HomeStar wiring system. Ryley points out the outlet part of the system on the wall. These outlets, of which there are six in the house, connect into the basement. Ken explains that the HomeStar system takes care of television, phone, internet, and security for homeowners. Homeowners can be sitting in the living room and see who is at the front door without getting up. Cameras are linked into the television for exterior and interior monitoring. The wire connecting the outlets distributes voice, data, and video through the house. Bob then shows us the hybrid wire which consists of three wires on the inside. The first is a cable wire for television. The second is for video distribution and security monitoring, and the third is for telephone and computer. The telephone and data wire is the highest grade wire called a Category Five wire. Ken tells us that cat five is six hundred times faster than a regular phone wire and perfect for home office use. He points out that using HomeStar a homeowner can save money with the networking capabilities of cables linking various televisions and computers throughout the home.

Bob meets with Tom Morgan of Home Automation Inc to look at the "brain" for the home automation system and then goes on to meet with the wiring contractor to see how the house is wired.

In the well-connected home, one device can control almost everything in the house. Lighting, heating, cooling, and entertainment systems are accessed from a single wireless device.

Bob visits Middleton Place, a plantation garden outside Charleston, South Carolina.

Bob continues his tour of the PGT window factory in Venice, Florida. Dave Olmstead shows Bob a standard aluminum window with a thin, non-structural bead on the edge. He compares it to the heavy gauge frame of the two-pane, laminated impact-resistant window. They follow the assembly process from the cutting of the aluminum window parts, which is timed precisely to match the timing of the glass delivery, to the assembly table where the frame is prepared for the laminated glass. At the silicone station a thick bead of silicone adhesive is applied to the frame. The laminated glass must be pressed into the frame without delay to prevent a skin from forming on the silicone, which would reduce its adhesion abilities and prevent it from passing the violent impact test. Finally trim is added, the windows are cleaned and fitted with strucural bead, screens are installed, and the windows are packaged for transport. Olmstead explains that each of these impact-resistant windows is produced to order. They run three to four times the cost of standard windows, but in the year since Hurricane Charley sales of these windows have increased 300 percent.