Search

HOME SMART HOME: FALL 2018 ISSUE NOW AVAILABLE (FREE DOWNLOAD) Blog

In the earliest part of my life, my father was entrenched in the world of real estate and property flipping. I’d spend countless summer days with him while he transformed battered dwellings into charming abodes. I even broke my leg at one of “our” job sites when I attempted to move five pieces of sheetrock and failed miserably. But I was a dedicated neophyte nonetheless. Due to his life of relentless movement, it was necessary for him to stay connected to clients, contractors, and well, mom. Therefore, he was an early adopter of one of the world’s first cell phones (though you’d never know it considering he just conquered the emoji).

THE POWER OF CIRCADIAN WELLNESS AND LIGHTING Blog

The lighting in and around our homes can powerfully impact our daily lives. Tailored task lighting can improve our cooking experiences, reading lights help reduce eye strain, or illumination that lights nighttime pathways keeps us safer. Lighting affects the ease with which we interact with our spaces.      In addition to how our homes function, lighting also profoundly affects our body’s biological rhythms, otherwise known as circadian rhythms. Things like daily exposure to the blue light emitted from screens and mobile devices, daylight savings time, or jet lag can throw off our biological clocks.

The Right Way to Customize Keypads Blog

This post comes to us from Lisa Montgomery, Senior Editor at Electronic House and freelance home technology writer. Being able to press one button to control multiple devices is one of the most appealing features of home automation. Creating these one-button “scenes” requires programming of the keypad’s companion home automation system, which is a fairly simple task for a trained custom electronics (CE) professional.  Surprisingly, what’s often the most challenging part of a keypad design is deciding what to name each button. Keypad buttons should be labeled in a way that makes sense to all members of the household and that best reflects the family’s personality.