During the construction phase of our luxury investment home, 586 Lairmont Place, my business partner and I needed to make a decision regarding low voltage features. With large luxury homes a certain standard is expected. If we want to make an energy efficient smart home, now is the time to make these decisions while we have our walls and ceilings exposed with no drywall. Below are the options we went with.
Lighting: Traditional lighting seen in most homes involves an in-line switch that operates a light or a circuit of lights. Lighting is the core of home automation, and if you choose to make your home a “smart home”, a lighting control system is a must.
A lighting control system is defined as an intelligent network based solution that incorporates communication between various system inputs and outputs related to lighting control with the use of one or more control devices. Basically, any light in the home can be controlled from a single device, in our case an Ipad on a docking station. This is important with large luxury homes for 2 reasons. The user can turn off a light that is left on in a room that may be a far distance from the front door, when leaving or the master bedroom when going to sleep. Secondly, both energy savings and the life of each lamp will be greatly increased.
The brand of system we choose is Vantage. Vantage is among the highest ranked home lighting automation systems, and will allow us to achieve more functionality with dimmers and more circuits per panel.
Typically, a lighting control system would be installed right after the framing phase of construction, and before drywall is in place. There are systems however that can be installed without removing drywall.
Audio: Most productions home buyers will consider surround sound in one or more rooms to fall into “home audio” category. For higher end luxury homes, a full home audio system with amplifiers controlled by a single device is more ideal. This includes in wall/ceiling speakers throughout the home operated with either wall mounted controls, Ipad docking stations or an iphone/android. These speakers can also act as your intercom system and doorbell.
Network/WiFi: A typical wireless router will not be sufficient for larger homes. What we will need is a high power gigabit wireless router with 2 high power wireless WiFi access points. Our router is dual band gigabit, the latest advancement in WiFi technology delivering speeds up to 1750mbps. Our 2 access points will harness data transmission so that more data reaches each targeted device instead of radiating in all directions equally.
Heating/Cooling Controls: There are 9 separate hvac controllers in our home. They will be controlled in 3 different ways.
- Wall mounted thermostats.
- Ipad docking stations.
- Iphone/android application from any location outside or inside the home.
Energy savings will greatly increase by allowing the user to remotely control the temperature.
These low voltage options will greatly increase the value of our home. With the latest technology, we have turned the home into a “smart home” allowing the end user to save money on energy bills, and gain the convenience of controlling the entire home lighting, hvac and audio from a single device.
If you need a real estate brokerage that offers services to landlords or property owners. If you have rehabbed your property and want to hire a company that will do its best to preserve your property while leased or it’s time to sell, please call Shelter Realty at 702-376-7379.