Complete Video Transcription:
NOVATO – Host, Sarah Rutan: Most people have heard of home automation, but not everyone knows the full extent of its applications. Today we’re in Novato with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Michael Martins of AC Electric to learn more about this emergent technology.
Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Michael Martins: So, what do we mean when we’re talking about home automation? We’re talking about a different concept in lighting, or a different concept in the way that you control your lights. So, normally, you come into your home and you have a bunch of switches on the wall. And you turn one switch on; it turns on the outside light. You turn the next one on; it turns on the foyer light. Then you turn the next one on; it turns on a few lights in your living room. And that’s how you sort of set the lighting in your house when you come in.
We’re talking about something completely different. We’re talking about something called, “scene-based lighting,” as opposed to switch-based lighting. So, what is scene-based lighting? With scene-based lighting, you’re controlling all the lights in your house with something called a “keypad,” instead of a switch. What is a keypad? A keypad looks like this. So, you would have this on your wall, instead of a bank of switches.
So, why is this better? Or, you know, what’s the difference? When you come in, like I said, and you turn on a bunch of different switches in your house because you want to cook your dinner, you’re setting a scene. You’re turning lights on over the sink, lights on under the counter, lights on over the counter, maybe some pendant lights over your space where you’re chopping your vegetables. You’re creating a scene in your kitchen that works well for you to cook.
What we do now is instead of having to come into the kitchen and turn each switch to a particular way to set that scene for cooking, we come in and just press a button that says, “cook.” And all of the lights adjust themselves to the proper setting for you to cook. Or, when you’re done cooking and you want to eat, we press the button that says, “dine,” and all the lights adjust themselves. And you sit down and eat. So, instead of messing with each switch, just trying to get the lights just perfect – or, you’re having a party, you hit “entertain.” Everything’s already pre-done. All the lights set themselves to entertain. So, it’s convenient. And it just makes sense. After you use it a few times, you go, “Oh, I love this. This is so easy. This is so great.”
Let me talk a little bit about security and why this system can help you with security in your home. You know, you’re coming home from the grocery store. You’ve got the kids in the car. Everybody’s making noise. It’s very busy. And you’re coming up your driveway.
And with this system, you have a keypad on your visor. You push one button, your garage door opens, your garage lights up. It disarms your alarm system. It opens the locks on the door to, say, the kitchen, where you’re going from your garage. And it lights up the lights in the kitchen that you want lit up when you come home with all the kids and the groceries. So, one button on your visor gets you in your house, well-lit, and everything on its way. That’s convenient. It’s also security.
Let’s say, God forbid, you had a fire or something in your house. And everybody’s asleep at night. This system will tie in with your alarm system, with your smoke detectors, with everything going on there. So, your smoke detectors go off, your alarms go off. It detects smoke in your house. The system will light up a path of egress, a low-light path of egress, through the smoke, so that you can get out of your house and get all your kids out of the house safely. So, for security reasons and safety reasons, this system is just amazing to have in your house.
It’ll do a lot of great things. It’ll control the shades in your house, up and down. It’ll control your lighting. It’ll tie in with your thermostat. It has the ability to control your heat settings. It’ll tie in with your alarm system. It’ll tie in with your garage door opener, and a lot of other different systems in your house, so that your house becomes automated and functioning that way, and functioning with a keypad. Anyway, it’s fun; it’s safe; it’s secure. Check it out. I highly recommend it.
Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more about local top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.
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