The Right Lighting Keeps You Safe, Healthy, and Happy

At The Integrated Home, we partner with industry leaders to offer our clients the latest in home automation and design. One of our partners, Light Can Help You, works with us to provide the optimum home lighting design that’s also effortless to control. 

It’s not an overstatement to suggest that the right lighting can enhance your everyday lives in unimaginable ways. So let's explore what better lighting can do for you and your Charlotte, NC, home.

Here’s Why You Should Trust Your Technology Integration Projects to HTA Certified Companies

As a designer, builder, or architect, you want to work with other trained and certified professionals in their specialties or trades. When it comes to audio-video installers, you might be wondering: what is that certification? How do I know that this company has the skillset and resources to see the project to completion? As you know, partnering with the wrong company can lead to unhappy clients and problematic projects. 

Fortunately, there is a way to distinguish which audio-video companies have made the investments to stand out from the rest. HTA certification is a mark of quality that means you are working with a professional company that has met a high bar of standards. Let’s explore what HTA certification means and the benefits a certified partner – like The Integrated Home – brings to your Charlotte, NC, residential projects. 

Enhance Your Home’s Security, Lighting, AV, and More

If you’re a Control4 household, you know there are endless ways to automate your home and lifestyle. And recently, Control4 unveiled a handful of new devices that make your smart home even more accessible.

As a smart home installer based in Charlotte, NC, we’re always excited about new products from the biggest name in home automation. Read on to see all that’s new from Control4.

Motorized Window Treatments by Hunter Douglas

Motorized shades are valuable for countless reasons. They save time, automatically keep rooms cool, and award instant privacy at one touch of a button. Smart shades are an excellent solution for hard-to-reach windows like skylights, and vastly beneficial for the elderly and disabled. Plus, they can be integrated with smart systems like Control4.

If you’re an interior designer, you may be wondering how you can factor in design with motorized window treatments. As a smart technology installer in Charlotte, NC, we’ll share the different options you’ll find from one of our favorite brands, Hunter Douglas.

Discover Battery-Powered & Wireless Motorized Shades

Let your house work with you, not against you. We all know maintaining a household can be difficult. Dust bunnies appear out of nowhere, the dishwasher is full, and you need to stop by the store before dinner. So take one daily task off of your shoulders with motorized window treatments and watch how they enhance all hours of the day.  

Today, we’re spotlighting smart motorized blinds by Screen Innovations, an Austin-based manufacturer specializing in motorized window treatments, outdoor shades, and projector screens. Their shades run on battery power and a Zigbee 3.0 wireless network. How does it work? And what is Zigbee? Read on to discover how Screen Innovations will help your Lake Norman, NC, home.

Create Custom, Livable Scenes with Control4

Smart lighting control is, in our opinion, one of the most exciting and beneficial developments of recent technology. You can create schedules for your home’s lights, turn rooms on with a voice command, and even customize the color temperature and brightness of each bulb. But with a smart home system like Control4, you can take possibilities a step further when you combine your smart lighting with other home devices.

If you wish to transform your Lake Norman, NC home’s atmosphere, security, and more, continue reading for our lighting automation tips.

Being “green” isn’t only about saving the environment; it’s also about using your smart home wisely and enhancing your day-to-day life. But it may be confusing for homeowners to understand which settings to use to save electricity effectively. With so many controls, it can be overwhelming to choose the right scenes that will give you the most benefits. Today we are going to explain three easy ways to use your energy management system in Charlotte, NC. 

SEE ALSO: 7 Ways to Make Your Home Green

Create a Green Scene

When activated, a green scene will put the entire house in an energy-savings mode. This is sort of a catch-all solution to reducing energy output. The lights will dim 50%, your solar shades will roll down, certain high-power devices will shut off, and the thermostat will adjust the temperature. After selecting the appropriate settings, label this scene “green” or “save energy” and hit the button on your keypad or mobile app anytime you want to reduce energy expenditures. It can be while you’re working from home or relaxing on the weekends. You can also use an “away” scene that turns off everything except for the security system when you leave the house or go on vacation to save energy too.

Use Timers and Sensors

To avoid wasting electricity, use timers or occupancy sensors to shut off lights or fans when not in use. As soon as you leave a room, the sensor will detect no one is there and turn off the lights and fans. Another idea is to program bathroom lights and fans to turn off after a set time delay. You could also use your bathroom timer to remind you to finish showering to save water and electricity.

Schedule Events According to Sunset and Sunrise Times

Your Control4 smart home can mirror the earth’s natural rhythms by corresponding to changes in the weather or time of day. As the sun rises in the morning, your smart home will draw your blackout drapes and lower the solar shades to protect your furnishings from the sun’s rays and prevent additional heat from affecting the HVAC system. A sunrise scene will also ensure your outdoor lights stay off during the day. Then, your home will re-adjust as the sun sets – like raising the lighting levels and turning on the front porch light.