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Five Great Posts on Energy Efficient Home Technologies 03/06/2012 | Leave a Comment
Lower Energy Costs and Increase the Value of Your Home by Making it More Energy Efficient
A recent article on ECNmag.com, “Building Value with Energy-Saving Upgrades in Homes and Businesses,” discusses how “improving the energy performance of your home can make it more comfortable and attractive, increase its value, and help you save money on your energy bills.
Easy Being Green: Get Out of Your Hybrid Car and Into Your Green Home
Did you know that the average family spends around $1,900 a year on home utility bills? And, a lot of that energy is wasted through inefficiencies in your home, which is both bad for you and the environment. Of course, there are little things we can do like keeping the heat on a lower temperature and putting on a sweater, installing LED light bulbs, and installing low-flush toilets. But if you’re looking to further green your life, there are some more significant improvements that you can make to your home overall that can help reduce your energy consumption, decrease your energy bills, and even increase the value of your home.
Afraid of Vampires? You Should Be. Energy Draining Appliances Could be Costing You a Fortune
Which electronic appliance do you think uses the most energy in your home? The air conditioner? The refrigerator? Guess again. It’s your cable or satellite DVR set-top box, according to a Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report, “Reducing the National Energy Consumption of Set-Top Boxes.” Hard to imagine, but it’s true. This is because today’s cable boxes are basically running at full power all the time, even when switched off, which is costing you money.
Vampires No More? NCTA Moves to Make Cable Boxes More Energy Efficient
The NCTA and CableLabs are forming an Energy Lab facility, which will concentrate on improving energy efficiency and promote the development, testing, and deployment of technologies that will enable users to reduce and manage energy consumption in the home. They will work on manufacturing set-top devices that have sleep capabilities that will reduce power consumption when subscribers are not watching television.
Home lighting control solutions are quickly becoming one of the most popular home improvements. One of the main benefits of home lighting control is the potential energy savings. According to the a white paper produced by the Energy Conservation Enhancement Project at Louisiana State University, “20% of all electricity produced in the U.S. is used for lighting, but 50% of that is wasted by inefficient lighting sources or careless consumers.” And, they recommend that home lighting controls should now be part of every family’s home energy plan.
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
UltraViolet: The Next Step in Expanded Home Entertainment 02/16/2012 | Leave a Comment
If you thought Blu-Ray was the last color you’d be hearing about with regard to your home entertainment, think again. The newest and most exciting color stands ready to change everything: Sony’s UltraViolet.
UltraViolet arrived on the market recently without a whole lot of fanfare. For some time, announcements of new Sony Pictures movies or television shows were accompanied by “Available on Blu-Ray or DVD.” To aid in the still-stubborn transition to Blu-Ray, the two types of disc were packaged together, leading to “Available in a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack.” And then, with little explanation: “Available in Blu-Ray/DVD/UltraViolet combo pack.”
So what’s the story with UltraViolet?
In essence, when you purchase a Sony Blu-Ray or DVD of a title, you’re given an UltraViolet redemption code. When you log in to your UltraViolet account and redeem the code, the title is added to your Digital Library. Since UltraViolet is cloud-based, once you have a title in your Digital Library, you can instantly stream it to computers, tablets, or smart phones, or download it to your PC or Mac. You can also share your collection with up to six family members.
With the proliferation of portable devices and the growing preference of some to watch shows and movies on their computers, the appeal of UltraViolet is clear. But will the technology catch on? Will other companies besides Sony develop their own UltraViolet? Only time will tell.
Are you interested in learning more about UltraViolet? Contact Certified Connection to learn more!
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
Biggest Home Electronics Trends of 2011 02/08/2012 | Leave a Comment
Electronic House magazine recently put out a list of the top home electronics trends of 2011. There were some interesting innovations in the year, and we’d like to share their list here.
- 3D TVs with passive polarized glasses came on the scene. Active-shutter glasses still provide a better picture, but passive polarized glasses are a good option and more options are expected in 2012.
- More and more users of home automation technology want to use their iPads to control their home systems. Some people speculate that someday, instead of coming with a remote, electronics components will come with a downloadable app.
- Projectors are getting smaller and quieter, which means they’re making their way out of a dedicated home theater and into many families’ living rooms. This makes technology like this a viable option for people who want the benefits of a home theater, but don’t have the space for a dedicated room.
- Android’s tablets and smartphones were popular this year and may end up a close second to Apple’s tablets and phones. They could also act as control panels for home systems as more apps are developed.
- Smart TVs became more popular this year, and social media is becoming a more important part of the experience. This trend will definitely continue into 2012.
- Prices on big TVs came down this year, making it more affordable for people to hang a large screen in their living rooms.
- Streaming music is becoming more popular, and may be replacing media storage components. Some streaming music companies have had issues with sound quality in the past, but that issue seems to be slowly fading as quality gets better and better.
It’s not too late to jump on some of these 2011 trends. And if you want to stay on the cutting edge of the hottest trends to come out of 2012, contact us today!
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
A Look Back at 2011, and Looking Ahead to 2012 in the World of Home Technology 12/30/2011 | Leave a Comment
2011 has been really great for home technologies and the momentum will only increase in 2012. In June, ABI Research released a report that predicted that more than 12 million home automation systems would be in use by the year 2016, up from approximately 2.8 million in 2011. That’s some pretty huge growth and we can’t wait to see what’s in store in 2012.
Here are some of the trends we are seeing as we move into 2012:
Home Automation and Home Entertainment for the People – Probably the biggest and most important trend we are seeing is the affordability of home technologies for the average family. In the past, home control and home automation technologies, including lighting control and security control, and home entertainment technologies, such as home theaters, streaming media servers, and smart TVs, have only been accessible to those on the wealthier end of the spectrum. This is no longer the case. Home control and home entertainment technologies will continue to become commoditized and accessible to the majority of people.
Greening Your Home – More home owners and businesses are looking to both save money on utilities, including electricity, and are more conscious about decreasing their carbon footprint. This trend will only increase as more home control technologies that provide cost savings become available and more affordable.
More Control Than Ever – Home control and automation systems are becoming more and more sophisticated than ever. Home and business owners can control virtually every aspect of their properties, including lighting, security, and environment, from a tablet or smartphone. Providers, such as Control4 and Crestron, are also increasing the number of apps that make all of this possible. This is only going to continue to be the case as the technologies and applications continue to be developed for the home technology market.
Cooler Technology and Fun Gadgets – There is just a lot of cool toys out there in the market. Smart TVs, including 3D TVs, that meet all your family’s home entertainment needs are one of the coolest developments in recent years. They are only going to improve, becoming more user-friendly and interactive, as the market develops. Also streaming and stored media systems that can hold all of your movies, music, TV programs, and more are a huge hit with consumers.
We are looking forward to 2012 and what it holds for home technologies. We’re hoping for increased interoperability and integration between vendors so that we can help you make your home a more efficient and entertaining place to be.
As always, please contact us with all of your home automation and control and home entertainment system questions. Learn how a custom system from Certified Connection can change your life.
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
Additional Reading
Lower Energy Costs and Increase the Value of Your Home by Making it More Energy Efficient
Easy Being Green: Get Out of Your Hybrid Car and Into Your Green Home
Control Your Home from Your iPad
Have All of Your Media Available in One Place with a Media Server 12/19/2011 | Leave a Comment
Imagine having all of your music and movies, or all music and movies for that matter, available at the touch of a button. Media servers do just that. All of your digital media, including music, movies, and pictures, can be stored and kept easily accessible on a media server. Recently, media servers have started to do more than simply hold a collection of music files. They now can stream music or movies through services like Pandora and Netflix. Media servers, like your Xbox or Playstation, can make unlimited amounts of media files available at your fingertips.
Also check out the review of this new media server in Sound + Vision magazine, which would be great for any home or business, the MMS-2 Mirage Media Server.
To incorporate a streaming media server into your home entertainment system, all you need is an Internet connection and an Internet-ready TV or an Internet-ready Blu-ray player. We’ve discussed some of the more popular ones in a past blog post, including Apple TV, iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Rhapsody, etc.
Enjoy music, movies, and TV the way you want it in your home or business with one of Certified Connection’s custom solutions. There are plenty of media servers out there that can simply store media, stream media, or do both. Contact us today to learn more about your options and decide on the one that’s right for you.
Certified Connection is the premier provider of custom-designed home control, home automation systems and home theaters to residential and commercial customers. For more than 10 years, Certified Connection has served homeowners and businesses in and around Boston, throughout the South Shore, and the entire Cape.
