Residential Automation and Networking at it’s best

The Home Controls Lifestyle
Comfort, Convenience, Security and Energy Savings. That's what the Home Controls Lifestyle is all about. This section will serve as a valuable resource that will highlight eight of the most popular systems in your home, complete with pre-engineered system designs for you. Each system is compatible with the other systems, so you can have a fully integrated home.

Review our Pre-Engineered Systems below, and in the coming weeks look for the comprehensive guide for complete Home Automation and Networking. Each system will have the recommended products and instructions to have your home in complete control.

Pre-Engineered Systems include:
Structured Wiring, Automation and Security, Lighting Control, HVAC, Distributed Audio, Distributed Video, Irrigation, Drape and Central Vac, Telephone Communication System

Structured Wiring System
Modern day life requires modern communication capabilities in your home. A structured wiring system allows you to have complete control of voice, video and data transmissions to and from any room. So, you can share broadband internet signals with multiple computers in any room, share a printer or scanner with any of your computers, and distribute DVD or satellite signals from a single entertainment component to some or all of the TV's in your home. You can also easily distribute security camera signals to all of your TV's. It is no exaggeration to say that today, any home that is built without structured wiring is obsolete as soon as the drywall is installed.

Automation and Security System
Security, lighting and appliance control, automatic air conditioning control, and energy savings all add up to a better way of life. Your Home Controls Lifestyle is greatly enhanced with automation and security.

Residential Automation
Your home will know how you live, and when you open your garage door, if nobody is at home and it is dark, all your normally activated lights in the house will come on, your thermostat will change to comfort mode, and your distributed audio will begin playing soft background music. Or…anything else you want it to do! When dusk occurs and you are home, all of your home's lighting will come on to whatever configuration and dim levels you normally live with... automatically. When you go to bed at night, push one button to turn off all lights, appliances and entertainment components, set back the thermostat to economy mode, close the drapes and enable the security system in the night mode. You get the idea! Why should you have to spend time doing repetitive things over and over when your home can work for you?

Security
Nothing is more important than the security of you and your family. Nothing. So you want the best integrated system available. Whenever an alarm condition occurs in your home, your Home Controls Lifestyle automation system will call you, your monitoring company, your neighbor or whoever else you want…according to the time of day or night. If there is anybody home, your system will not only sound an alarm, but will also shut down your HVAC system in case of fire and light a path for your escape. At the same time, it will flash the front outside lights for emergency personnel to more easily identify your house. In the event of a burglary, not only will an alarm sound and phones be dialed, but every light in the house will come on! Burglars HATE light and sound.

Lighting and Appliance Control System
You will need lighting dimmers, switches and modules in order to control your lights and some applicances. You will get great satisfaction out of being able to walk into your family room, press one button, and have all six lights turn on for you. Or, be able to press one button at your nightstand when you are ready to go to sleep, and have all the lights in your home turn off. With lighting and appliance control, you will also have a powerful tool to help you control your energy costs.

HVAC Control
Imagine the convenience, comfort and energy savings you would enjoy if your home always knew when to set your air conditioning and heating to the optimum temperature for you. That is precisely what the Home Controls Lifestyles programmable thermostats will do for you. They can work manually as you would normally set a thermostat, or they can work like ordinary programmable thermostats, and they can work automatically in conjunction with your Automation system controller to be part of the household scenes you set up. When you come home at night and open your garage door, your thermostat can re-set itself to comfort mode. When when you tell your automation system you are going to sleep, or you enable your security system in the "away" mode, your system will set the thermostat to the "economy" mode… without a thought from you. Or, you can call your home from your cell phone and tell your thermostat to cool or heat the house for you. For larger homes, you can even install zone systems that will keep certain parts of the home air conditioned and some not, depending on occupancy or other factors that you determine.

Distributed Audio
Listen to soft background music, crank up the volume to party volume, or distribute audio from the big game to every room in your home. This is a Lifestyle that is truly satisfying. With a Home Controls Lifestyle Zoned Distributed Audio System, you can even listen to your jazz CD in one room, the TV in another room, and FM in another. Up to six different sources in six different rooms! And, amazingly enough, this is very simple and economical to install.

Distributed Video
Whole house video distribution is becoming more and more popular. You may want to send satellite or HDTV signals from your family room to all the TV's in your home. Or you may want to distribute security camera video images from the front door and nursery to each TV in your home. This system requires you to have the Structured Wire System in order to get the signals to all of your household TV's.

Communication System
Upscale homes often feature leading-edge communication solutions like EncoreCX by industry leader Inter-Tel. Standard features include Hybrid Extension Ports, Internal Music-On-Hold, Caller ID/Call Waiting ID and Door Phone/Doorstrike connections.