SAN DIEGO, Jan. 18, 2012 – /PRNewswire/ – Today, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) introduced its new Energy Innovation Center (the Center), a showcase facility where residential and business customers can learn about energy efficiency, alternative fuel transportation, Smart Grid, and clean generation.
The Energy Innovation Center offers an array of seminars on energy efficiency; classes in the food service demonstration kitchen; tours of the Smart Home full of energy-saving technology; information in the resource library, and guided tours of the water-wise walkway which showcases drought tolerant plants that save water and energy.
“The Energy Innovation Center will be a valuable resource for the community,” said Hal D. Snyder, vice president of customer solutions for SDG&E. “We are committed to helping southern California reach a more sustainable energy future and the Center will provide businesses and residential customers with the tools and resources they need to make smart energy decisions to be more energy efficient, save money, and help the environment.”
In December 2010, SDG&E began construction on an existing 27,000-square-foot building and focused on designing and constructing a facility that is designed to meet U.S. Green Building Council’s Platinum LEED certificate, the highest level of certification for energy-efficient buildings. In order to meet the LEED platinum certification, SDG&E was required to incorporate the latest sustainable design elements in the Center’s design. Some of the sustainable elements of the Center include:
85 percent of the original building’s materials were reused or recycled.
The roof will have a rain water collection unit that stores water used for the Center’s irrigation system.
The state-of-the-art Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning (HVAC) system has sensors that shut off the A/C when the windows are open.
The solar panels heat the Center’s water and help offset the building’s energy use by 34 percent.
Most of the items seen in the Center are made from recycled materials, including the carpet which is made from recycled tires.
The Center showcases different examples of highly efficient lighting, HVAC units and leading technologies to demonstrate the choices available for businesses and design professionals to incorporate into their buildings. Many of the program offerings and design features are the result of a collaborative approach with community-based organizations, local businesses and other key stakeholders and technology sponsors.
Key features that customers can experience at the Center include:
Smart Home experience tours;
Sustainability tours;
Interactive kiosks, displays and resource library;
Solar Trees® in parking areas that provide both shade for your car and power for the region;
Water-wise walkway with drought-tolerant landscape demonstrations;
Produce Demonstration Garden;
Food Service Demonstration Kitchen.
A key component of the Center is the full commercial Food Service Demonstration Kitchen that boosts numerous energy efficient appliances that introduce new features to the food service world that saves energy and saves money for chefs, restaurant owners and facility managers with food service kitchens. At the Energy Innovation Center, chefs will have the opportunity to utilize the demonstration kitchen to test their recipes on energy efficient equipment to ensure that the updated appliances work well with their dishes.
“The San Diego County Chapter of the California Restaurant Association commends San Diego Gas & Electric on the opening of their new Energy Innovation Center,” Chris Duggan, director of local government affairs for the California Restaurant Association. “This state-of-the-art facility will provide our industry professionals the opportunity to experience cutting-edge technologies and utilize educational resources that will increase energy efficiency and environmental leadership.
Audio Impact, specializing in Home Theaters and Smart Homes in San Diego, recently finished an outdoor music system with Sonos and outdoor rock speakers. The system has the Sonos Play3 and Play5 units, along with the wireless CR-200 remote control. This Sonos system allows music, from Pandora, to be played in a wine cave, along with the backyard pool area. The rest of the home has a Control4 Home Automation System with HC-300’s and SR-250 remotes.
All the equipment is centralized and wired inside Middle Atlantic racks.
Check out the movie to enjoy another easy-to-use, fun system from Audio Impact!
Can cool looks and ease of use help us save energy in our homes?
If the web buzz generated this week by the Nest thermostat—which isn’t even available yet—is any indication, the answer is yes.
Nest has a lot going for it. First off, it’s very cool looking, with a pleasing round shape to replace those bulky thermostat boxes, an easy-to-read digital readout and even a little leaf symbol that appears when you’re being good about your energy use.
But perhaps the biggest things Nest has going for it is its Apple pedigree and ease of use. Nest Labs cofounder and CEO Tony Fadell is an ex-Apple executive dedicated to making a thermostat that’s simple to use and program.
Like an iPod, Nest basically has one button, or ring. You rotate the outer ring to adjust the temperature. The display turns blue when cooling and red when heating. Push down to open the menu.
Many people have programmable thermostats that allow programming temperature set points at various times of the day, but few actually program them. Nest says its thermostat can learn your heating and cooling patterns and suggest ways for you to be more energy-efficient. Oh, and if you want, it can be manually programmed for seven days with 20 set points per day.
Nest says the thermostat learns your personal schedule in a week and starts automatically turning down heating or cooling when you’re away to save energy.
Who wouldn’t like an extra set of hands around the house? Or some help with basic, everyday activities such as keeping your home comfortable? And if that extra help could also make your home more energy efficient, reducing your utility bills, wouldn’t that be an added bonus?
Home automation, once considered a luxury, is doing those tasks for more homeowners than ever before, and in ways that may surprise you. Many homeowners recognize the importance of saving energy, something that benefits the environment and their budgets. Three key areas of home automation that influence energy savings are window coverings, thermostats and lighting.
Heating and cooling accounts for the largest portion of a house’s overall energy use. Artificial lighting also contributes to home energy bills. Automating these areas of the home that consume the most energy allows users to improve energy efficiency.
Window coverings
You may think of your window treatments as more of a design statement, but window coverings, from blinds to shades, can help control the flow of sunlight into your home. In summer, drawing the blinds can help keep the interior of your home cooler. Opening window coverings when it’s cold outside in the winter can allow more warming sunlight to enter your home.
By automating your window coverings, you can better control the amount of light, and heat, entering your home, even when you’re not there. You can program an automation system to close window coverings after everyone has left the house for the day to help keep things cooler in the summer.
Or, in the winter, when many of us leave the house before the sun is up, an automation system can open window coverings to allow sunlight and warmth into the home after the sun rises.
Thermostats
Turning your thermostat back between 10 to 15 percent for eight hours a day can save you as much as 10 percent on your heating and cooling bills, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s website, energysavers.gov. Programmable thermostats allow you to automate temperature changes in your home.
In summer months, you can set the thermostat to allow the temperature in your home to rise higher so the air conditioning runs less when no one is there. The same technique can help reduce heating bills in the winter. By setting a programmable thermostat to change temperatures when needed, you can achieve more precise control over the temperature in your home without the risk of forgetting to set the thermostat back every time you leave the house.
Lighting
Artificial light is another major energy user in households. Reducing electricity usage can be as simple as turning off lights you leave a room.
If you had asked someone in the 1960s what the home of 2015 would look like, chances are they imagined something akin to The Jetsons’ home complete with Rosie the Robot and other space-age appliances that dressed and fed the family.
But, rather than space-age technology, the biggest thing that is expected to change in future single-family homes is the size.
“Homes will get smaller,” says Stephen Melman, Director of Economic Services at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in Washington D.C. “We asked builders, ‘what do you anticipate the new home size would be by 2015?’ ”
According to the results of the study, surveyed home builders expect new single-family homes to check in at an average of 2,150 square feet. Current single family homes measure around 2,400 square feet, which is already a decrease from the peak home size in 2007 of 2,521.
While the decrease in home size has a lot to do with the recession, many believe that the real estate changes will stick around even after the economy and home values get back on solid ground.
“Although affordability is driving these decisions, smaller homes are a positive for builders,” said Melman. “It allows for more creative design, more amenities, better flow. It’s an opportunity to deliver a better home.”
Other things that make up the home of 2015? No more living room. According to the survey, 52 percent of builders expect the living room to merge with other spaces and 30 percent believe that it will vanish completely to save on square footage. Instead, expect to see great rooms — a space that combines the family and living room and flows into the kitchen.
Expect to see more:
- spacious laundry rooms
- master suite walk-in closets
- porches
- eat-in kitchens
- two-car garages
- ceiling fans
Expect to see less:
- mudrooms
- formal dining rooms
- four bedrooms or more
- media or hobby rooms
- skylights
Many of these changes reflect a desire for builders and consumers going green. Smaller space means more efficient heating and cooling. Ceiling fans distribute heat evenly while skylights, on the other hand, release heat.
However, as builders look to go green, they’ll be installing energy-efficient windows and compact fluorescent and LED lighting, as well as water-efficient appliances and plumbing.
Additionally, many new homes will have the baby boomer population in mind with walk-in showers, ground-floor master bedrooms and grab bars.
“A bigger share of the new homes will be purchased by people 55 or 65 and older,” said Melman. “They’re more likely to have more cash for a down payment, but they’re empty nesters, so they don’t need five bedrooms.”
Home digital control panels can help manage security and energy consumption.
Enter one of the first rooms on this ghoulish garage tour, and a skeleton jumps out of a shipping crate, a red light glows and a three-headed dog barks and growls.
That’s just one of the automated effects set up for Halloween in this three-car garage in a suburb of Seattle.
Every October for the past three years, the Griffin and Petrie families have converted their garage into a haunted house, with the shock, scare and awe delivered by a Control4 HC-300 processor.
Brett Griffin, who sells Control4 systems for Definitive Audio, rigged the garage with motion sensors, relays and timers, all linked to the Control4 processor, which was programmed to enact a different frightening scene when each sensor is tripped.
In the final chamber, a trigger starts an MP3 of a priest reciting “Our Father” over wall-mounted Control4 speakers. A young lady in a guillotine pleads for mercy … the lights go out … there’s darkness … a brief moment of silence … the sound of the guillotine blade slices through the air … and a head thumps to the floor. It’s automation at its scariest.
Audio Impact can help you monitor your home, anytime, from anywhere. We even make it simple, with specially designed systems, that work with Apple, PC or Google phones. Now when you are out and about you can always check in and see that everything is in order. You can check on the kids, or check on that “thump!” at night. Our systems even allow you to turn lights on remotely, or set lights to work on a schedule.
We would love to come over and check out what we can do for you. Give us at ring at (858) 271-4154 or email us at info@audioimpact.com and we can set up a time.
“Out of sight, out of mind” is a dual-meaning phrase that is understood when enjoying the luxuries onboard Tony Nelson’s yacht, The High C’s. As she eases out of the harbor, her passengers slip away from the stress of life onshore, feeling total relaxation and comfort.
The discretely hidden systems that are carefully designed, programmed and installed by Audio Video Excellence offer a complete escape without the burden of bulky boxed machines and tangled wire messes.
Nelson’s 74-foot Viking is well equipped, with five staterooms, an enclosed fly bridge, spacious salon and a fulltime crew. Nelson relied upon AVX to technologically enhance the quarters with several plasma TVs, the convenience of a media server and the integration of the entertainment elements with the necessary navigational electronics.
This home needed a simple, elegant solution. Our client purchased this home in La Jolla and wanted a Home Theater and easy-to-use remote.
Audio Impact sprung into action, calling on it’s general contractor to frame out the existing opening to match the home’s decor and allow for the Samsung UN55D6000 TV to be installed on a swing arm. We fitted the home with an Integra 40.2 Receiver and Control4 Remote and brain (SR-250 and HC-200). We used our client’s existing Sony Blu-ray player, Nintendo Wii and Time Warner cable box. The end result is a magnificent looking installation with a simple control solution.
New apps for smartphones and tablets are normally used on the go, but there are several that make sitting in your home theatre more enjoyable.
No, the apps can’t set up your system - but one can help you better understand the words used to describe home theatre technology.
It’s called Home Theater Glossary, was developed by Deep Powder Software, and is available from the App Store or the Android market.
It gives definitions for some basic words and common terms. They can be searched, or looked up alphabetically, offering simple results for even the most complex terminology.
If a word you need to know is not listed, well, there’s a direct feedback feature so you can bring the developers up to speed!
“Clicker” apps
A number of apps are available that turn your mobile device into a fully functional remote control.
RedEye, for example, controls almost any equipment that receives infrared control signals - TVs, cable boxes, stereos, DVD players, VCRs and more.
The iOS or Android app is free. A small hardware device actually generates the infrared signals; it’s available online and at some retailers (here in Calgary, Memory Express is one).
Beacon, from Griffin Technology, (www.griffintechnology.com/) also turns a smartphone into a remote control.
Another software and hardware combo, it uses Bluetooth signals from your device and converts them to the infrared that most TV and stereo components expect.
You can change channels on a set-top box, pump up the volume on your sound system, program your DVR, and more through your touch screen display.
Logitech is releasing a similar product, a wireless device that connects to your iPad, iPhone, or Android smartphone and turns it into a universal remote.
But its new Harmony product line actually adds more features to the iPad version (over the smartphone apps).
