Home Entertainment & Automation Services in Matthews, NC.
Home Entertainment & Automation Services in Matthews, NC.
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Lutron Plans Whole-House Energy Control

Custom Installation Services is Charlotte's Source For Lutron RadioRa!

Call C.I.S. To Discuss The New Lutron RadioRa2 Product Line And How It Can Benefit Your Lifestyle

Energy-saving daylight sensing added to Lutron lighting and shading control.

Lutron Electronics has announced product rollouts that will take place this year and next, designed to provide total home control and energy management, mainly via its new upscale HomeWorks QS wired and wireless lighting systems and its mid-market RadioRA 2 wireless lighting solutions.

“We’re really going to focus on control of energy in the home,” says David Weinstein, Lutron’s vice president of sales.

For the first time, HomeWorks QS and RadioRA 2 will feature daylight sensing to automatically adjust lights and shades, based on the amount of sunlight penetrating a space. Occupancy sensing, which Lutron says can save 20 percent or more in lighting energy by automatically shutting off lights when no one is in a room, is also a part of the systems.

Lutron has used daylight sensing in its commercial products, but for the first time is introducing the technology into its residential lines.

Most automated shading in homes is accomplished by programming astronomical clocks to descend shades at certain times of the day to help keep a room cool—or do the opposite to help heat a room.

Lutron’s daylight sensing solution could also enable daylight harvesting—using the natural light to illuminate a room and reduce the need for electrical lighting.

Up to now, electronics installers had to use third-party sensors, and the programming required could be complex, explains Lutron product development manager Richard Black. Installers often used contact closures that descended or raised the shades at certain daylight thresholds. That was a simple solution to a complex issue, so when clouds passed, for example, motorized shades could go up and down too frequently. “There are a lot of settings you have to have to make that work effectively. Now that we have the logic, we can make it work better.”

Lutron also announced Venetian blinds with intelligent tilt alignment, as part of its Avant line. Lutron says the product can tilt the blinds seamlessly, and the company will look to integrate automated tilting via daylight sensing as well. The system can also adjust height of shading as the angle of the sun changes.

Chief among Lutron’s other product announcements are:

-A plug-in appliance module coming in December 2010 to monitor and control appliances are other energy loads in a home.

-Dynamic keypad coming in April 2011 that controls lights, shades, HVAC, audio/video and energy from one spot.

-Venetian wood blinds with intelligent tilt alignment.

-seeTemp intelligent thermostats coming in April 2011.

-An Eco Button that can dim lights and set back the thermostat plus or minus 2 degrees to save energy.

-Integration with iPad and iPhone.

-A phase-adaptive dimmer that automatically senses the load—whether its CFL or LED, for instance—and adjusts the dimming for that.

-A Green Button coming in April 2011 that dim lights, lower shades, sets back temperature, and turns off unneeded appliances via plug-in appliance modules.

-An iPad app in Dec. 2010.

“By adding cooling and heating, in addition to lighting and shading and connected loads, we can control 60 percent of the energy use in the home,” says Weinstein.

by Steven Castle

http://www.electronichouse.com/article/lutron_plans_whole-house_energy_control/

Custom Installation Services, LLC – ”We may be a few dollars more than the competition, but we are a million times better”.

Posted in Automation, HAI, i-Pad, IP Cameras, lighting control, Lutron Radio Ra II, Structured Wiring, technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment


Why Energy Efficiency Starts at Home

C.I.S. is the Carolina's #1 Authorized Retailer/Installer of Lutron & HAI Energy Saving Devices

C.I.S. is the Carolina's #1 Authorized Retailer/Installer of Lutron & HAI Energy Saving Devices

It’s time we took energy efficiency personally.

Consider the following stats:

-Over 70 percent of U.S. electricity is generated by burning coal, petroleum, or natural gas, all fossil fuels that emit carbon into the atmosphere when burned. Coal alone provides 44 percent of U.S. electricity and the majority of greenhouse gases. Source: DOE

-Homes and commercial buildings use 72 percent of U.S. electricity, and homes use 51 percent of that. Source: EPA

-There are approximately 126 million homes in the United States, which equates to an annual emission from homes alone at approximately 1.3 billion metric tons of carbon. Source: US Census Bureau 2006

-According to the National Home Energy Efficiency Program (NHEEP), the U.S. housing stock wastes more energy than any other sector in the world.

So why are environmentalists, policy makers and others focused on reducing the energy output of industry, transportation and the commercial sector? It’s true that we can make huge gains by making our power and manufacturing plants, cars and commercial buildings much more efficient. But many of us forget to include our homes in the energy efficiency equation. And this, I am convinced, is the primary reason why we are not seeing the efficiency gains we’d like in these other sectors.

A recent New York Times article, “Doing More While Using Less Power,” throws around a bunch of conflicting energy efficiency projections. And other articles on the subject typically state projections in the billions and trillions—collective numbers that few can comprehend, not to mention the fact that wildly varied projections stretch into 2020 or 2030 or 2050—times few us can comprehend, especially when most of us are trying to survive in an economically scary 2010.

The Times article also laments the fact that some businesses, while they could save millions on energy efficiency initiatives, remain hesitant to do so. “Perhaps the biggest barrier to maximizing energy efficiency is the natural reluctance of people to try something new,” the article opines.

That may well be true. In both business and politics, anything new poses risk, and risk is not typically welcome in economically troubled times.

But maybe, just maybe, the hesitation people have with all this energy efficiency stuff is that they are not personally invested in it. And of course they are—if we continue on our wasteful ways we will all have stakes in inflated energy costs and a deteriorating climate. But people don’t feel they are invested in it—and that is the problem.

The sad part is, people have reason not to be personally invested in energy efficiency: We throw incomprehensible numbers at them—billions and trillions—as well as incomprehensible terms like BTUs and kilowatt hours—and dates that extend far into the future, which more likely inhibits a sense of urgency in the matter. We say we should set policy in industry and in the commercial sector and in transportation—and soon the entire matter is in someone else’s hands—not our own. The problem becomes so much larger than each individual. Instead, we need to personalize energy efficiency and give everyone a stake in it.

The numbers above prove we should start our energy efficiency efforts in the home. So why aren’t we doing it?

The Real Prius Effect

Say what you will about the Toyota Prius—I say you can do the planet better by turning lights off in your home—but the hybrid electric car does one thing amazingly well: It puts energy efficiency in the face of its driver, with a large screen-based readout that makes saving gasoline like a video game. The Prius may not be the best choice for saving the planet, but it manages to personalize energy efficiency and gives its users a real stake in it.

And here’s another story, which for many actual people may be far more convincing than a bunch of incomprehensible numbers. I was at a Little League game this summer, the day an energy-efficiency appliance rebate program ran in my state, and the very blue-collar, probably not so energy-efficient granddad in front of me said, “Yeah, we bought a new washing machine and a new refrigerator—and you know what? It’s going to use half as much electricity as the one we had!” He was as excited about the energy efficiency as he was about his rebate—if not more so. And the funny thing was, the scene repeated itself the very next week with another person who suddenly started thinking about energy efficiency. That is personalizing it. And that is why our energy efficiency efforts should start in the home—with real people and not vague corporate or government entities. Involve real people in energy efficiency, and we will start to get real results.

by Steven Castle

http://www.electronichouse.com/article/why_energy_efficiency_starts_at_home/

Custom Installation Services, LLC – ”We may be a few dollars more than the competition, but we are a million times better”.

Posted in Automation, HAI, lighting control, Lutron Radio Ra II, News, Structured Wiring, technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment


URC to Debut Subsystems for Home Control

URC MX-6000 - Available At Custom Installation Services Charlotte NC!

URC MX-6000 - Available At Custom Installation Services Charlotte NC!

Over the past couple of years, URC has worked hard to reposition itself as a whole-house control company – not just a maker of remotes.

In a symbolic gesture, the company even changed its name in March from Universal Remote Controls to just plain URC, which is what everyone has always called it anyway.

The name-change sets the stage for CEDA Expo 2010, where we’ll see URC’s most ambitious play in the home automation space.

The company promises a “monumental unveiling” of a new line called Total Control, which pushes URC “beyond controlling the home theater and becomes the whole house control company of choice,” according to a CEDIA teaser.

Of course, we’ve heard that claim from URC before. Likewise from virtually every manufacturer of higher-end remote controls.

So what makes this particular unveiling so monumental?

Today, “We offer whole-house control, but to a large extent it’s with third-party products,” URC marketing director Jon Sienkiewicz tells Electronic House sister publication CE Pro. “Now, we’ll have URC-branded products.”

URC-branded products? As in subsystems?

It wouldn’t be a first. With help from Lutron, URC developed its own line of natively compatible lighting controls in 2008. The company did recently unveil an energy monitoring app for its networked controllers. Could thermostats, multiroom audio, IP cameras and other subsystems be far behind? URC isn’t saying.

by Julie Jacobson

http://www.electronichouse.com/article/urc_to_debut_subsystems_for_home_control/

Custom Installation Services, LLC – Charlotte NC ’s #1 URC Dealer, Installer, Programmer!

Posted in Automation, HAI, Home Theater, lighting control, Media Rooms, Multi Room A/V, News, technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment


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