First Google announces the end of its free energy monitoring app, PowerMeter, and now Microsoft makes a similar announcement about Hohm (yeah…that’s how they spelled it), its own energy monitoring/energy saving recommendations site. Both services were free and meant to raise home-owner awareness about energy usage and efficiency. It’s interesting to see two titans of industry like Google and Microsoft fail at breaking in to the energy management market, but not really all that shocking. The concept of saving energy and cutting down on one’s carbon footprint is much more prevalent than it’s ever been, but it’s still a fledgling movement. It’s like recycling—people recognize the need for it but aren’t inclined to go out of their way to make it happen.
One of the main components missing from both PowerMeter and Hohm was control. They were tools that could tell you what was wrong…but at most could only suggest ways to fix it. Tautological suggestions like “buying an energy-efficient refrigerator will save you energy”. Compare that gem to the energy saving solution made possible by home automation:
“When we moved into our new home we purchased an energy efficient furnace to lesson our carbon footprint as well as reduce our monthly utility bill. This fancy new HVAC system fulfilled our expectations the first two months of its operation.
However, in month three (July), we noticed a $537 increase in our cooling bill. What we came to discover is that our son would open his bedroom window before he went to bed, and the energy efficient cooling system was pushing cold air directly out the window, for 10 hours each night…
Our new automation system ensures this will never happen again. When our son’s window (or any other window for that matter) is left open for more than 20 minutes, the HVAC system in that part of the house is turned off. When the window closes, the HVAC system resumes automatically.”
While it’s true that the first step in fixing a problem is noticing the problem, people want more than graphs and charts telling them what’s wrong. If energy management is going to take off, we need convenient and innovated solutions that don’t amount to a waste of time and…energy.
Product of the Day
The Mile High Automation Product of the Day is HAI’s Omni Console (33A00-1).
This attractive console gives you control of your automation system in a simple to use and affordable form factor.
It features large buttons, a cool blue backlight, and a thin profile.
Product Highlights:
- Easy to Use
- Great for Arming/Disarm Security
- Able to Control Lights, HVAC, and Security System
- Flush-Mount Kit Available
Product of the Day
The Mile High Automation Prodct of the Day is the Omnistat2 RC-2000 White (RC-2000WH)
The Omnistat2 is HAI’s newest thermostat. It recently took home the Gold Mark of Excellence Award for “Best Green Product” at the Spring 2009 EHX Awards. It features a large, easy to read LCD display and an intuitive interface.The Omnistat2 2000 will support 2-stage systems and has the ability to control your humidifiers.
When integrated with your home control system, you can control your home’s climate settings from your touch screens, keypads, computer, phone, and over the internet.
This thermostat automatically adjusts when you leave the home to save energy and automatically resume it’s heating/cooling when you return. In addition, the Omnistat2 uses advanced digital technology to learn the heating/cooling patterns of your home to control the equipment for maximum efficiency and comfort. Its never been easier to track your HVAC usage & energy consumption!
Product of the Day
Mile High Automation’s featured Product of the Day is the OmniTouch 5.7e” Touch Screen (53A00-2).
The OmniTouch touch screen allows you to control your security, lighting, HVAC, and audio system in a graphical and easy-to-use interface.
Product Highlights:
- Easy to Use
- Large 5.7″ Display
- Control Lighting, Security, HVAC, and Audio Systems
- Able to view Security Cameras w/ Camera Server
- Mounts In-Wall or on optional Tabletop Stand
Product of the Day
The Product of the Day today is the Omnistat2 RC-1000 White by HAI. The Omnistat2 is HAI’s newest thermostat. It took home the Gold Mark of Excellence Award for “Best Green Product” at the Spring 2009 EHX Awards. It features a large, easy to read LCD display and an intuitive interface.
When integrated with your home control system, you can control your home’s climate settings from your touch screens, keypads, computer, phone, and over the internet.
This thermostat automatically adjusts when you leave the home to save energy and automatically resume it’s heating/cooling when you return. It’s never been easier to track your HVAC usage & energy consumption!
Product of the Day
Today’s Product of the Day is the HAI Outdoor Temperature & Humidity Sensor (31A00-8)
The Temperature/Humidity Sensor is used for sensing indoor or outdoor temperature from -40 F to 120 F. It is coated with a sealant to withstand outdoor moisture and features a new, high accuracy temperature sensor that doesn’t need calibration.
The temperature can be used to activate programs for controlling temperatures in attics, garages, greenhouses, basements, wine cellars, and coolers. The temperature can be displayed on the console or spoken over the telephone.
This sensor also includes a Humidity Sensor that is used for reporting the outdoor or indoor relative humidity from 0 to 100 percent.
When integrated with our irrigation module, it is easy to save on water usage on rainy days. The sensor lets the system know when it’s raining and can skip that day’s watering cycle
HAI is a leader in promoting energy efficiency within the home by providing ways to reduce energy consumption while maximizing comfort.
HAI carries many products that keep your home confortable while saving you money on your energy bill, and who doesn’t like that?HAI provides simple solutions to streamlining your home’s energy consumption through lighting control, heating and air conditioning, water heaters, appliances and other electronics.
To save energy and more importantly money, you can have your lights turn off automatically when you leave the home. Studies show that dimming a light by just 10% can save 10% of electricity and double the life of the bulb. HAI systems can automatically set lights to 90%, saving you money. Mile High Automation carries the full line of HAI lighting Omnistat2 control devices.
According to the US Department of Energy about 56% if the home’s energy usage comes from its heating and air conditioning system; using a HAI thermostat will reduce those costs. The omnistat2 will let you schedule you’re a/c and heating settings based on events, time, or sensor readings. This allows for full control so you are not heating the home while you’re on vacation or cooling a room when the widow is open. Mile High Automation provides the HAI products and the programming to give you full control over you home and your bank account.
Having had the pleasure of traveling to our clients homes and complete the installations of the systems, I thought I would share a bit about the systems themselves and how our clients are actually integrating them into their lives. Primarily everyone is utilizing the security portion of the systems to the fullest. These are complete perimeter and interior alarms, some have taken advantage of the 24-hour central station monitoring we are now offering. Lighting controls and HVAC systems are being integrated in all of the installations and combining those with the security system customizing the systems has been pretty intense. I think once a client sees something actually working as it is meant to it allows the imagination to run wild. We were able to make on the fly programming updates and create custom buttons for the system that our clients were able to see and then tweak immediately to suit their needs. It has been a lot of fun working directly with our clients, in their homes, to make things work for them exactly as they wish.
I have gotten to visit some areas I might never have gone as a result too. I got to visit Lincoln’s tomb in Springfield, Il. I was in the hills outside of San Jose in a beautiful area of the country known as Los Gatos. Got to see most of Georgia as I drove from about an hour north of Atlanta from a lakeside home to another house in the western hills of the state. Very different areas each stunning in their own way. Our clients have all been very nice and extraordinarily accommodating. The systems have all been substantial and have had all the different services we offer represented. It has been a pleasure so far, despite a few travel issues, and I look forward to working with many more of you in the coming years.
This video is a user guide on the general operation of HAI’s award winning thermostat, the Omnistat2. This product recently won “Best Green Product” at the tenth annual Electronic House Expo this past
March! This expo commemorates the finest achievements in home electronics products, services, and installed technology and is attended by the majority of home automation manufacturers.
One cool new feature that HAI added to this new model thermostat is you can set the backlight display color from a set of 100 colors. The Omnistat2 can also display a graph of your heating and air conditioning usage over the past 4 weeks. This graph can help give insight on what HVAC settings work best for your house and ultimately can help save on energy bills.
The Omnistat2 has replaced all of HAI’s older model thermostats. They have simplified their climate control product line by offering only two thermostats. In situations where you’re using either a multi-stage system or you’re controlling a humidifier that’s integrated into your HVAC system, you will require the Omnistat2 RC-2000. In all other cases, the RC-1000 will suffice. HAI is also developing a wireless version of the Omnistat2 which is expected to be released later this year.
Energy Star reports that the average home will spend approximately $2000.00 a year on heating and cooling costs alone. Larger and multi-zone homes should expect to be in the 2.5 to 3.5 multiplier. Using automated thermostats coupled with an intelligent control system will offer an average conservation of between 16% and 22% depending on usage. The real benefit of the integrated and automated home comes in the worst case scenario. For example, someone leaves a window or door open, the average programmable thermostat has no idea that this has happened and will continue tell the air handler to run. It doesn’t know any better, it is simply trying to do its job. The cost factors of this situation are hard to estimate(we have been told of monthly electric bills near a thousand dollars after just one school day!). The manufacturers do not plan for this. The integration and communication between the security system and the HVAC system are paramount in this instance. Our system will set that zone to a reasonable nu
mber (the control system will know the temperature outside) or turn that zone off completely. The decision is yours, we will program it to do so.
You will also not be locked in to a simple schedule any longer. By communicating with the security system the HVAC will know if you are home or away and react according to occupancy. Vacation mode settings will do the same thing. You can hold the temperature where you like it and just give the house a call from the airport to get it back to temperature while you fly coming home to a comfortable house. You can also remotely monitor your homes temperature or have the home call you in the event of an extreme low or extreme high temperature, saving you from possible serious water damage. Those costs are also very hard to estimate (though a client shared a friends figure of approx. $200K) and with our system you should never have to.
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