Smart Home = Enjoy Life More
A Smart House Enhances your Lifestyle by giving you back the 'unseen' daily wasted time spent running your house systems. But also your friends will envy the interior environment and entertainment control you now possess at your fingertips.
Start small then build on the Energy Efficient Smart Home automation concepts employed, or design a fully integrated system for your new or soon to be renovated house. Even if you are renting you can still install Energy Smart Home Automation Technology that is removable when you move, giving you the Lifestyle Benefits Now.
Whatever your situation, Nous House have easy to use Smart Home Automation, Energy Saving concepts and compelling Lifestyle products you can buy to increase your time for family and friends, minimise your environmental impact and make your life more enjoyable in your new Energy Smart Home.
Lifestyle Enhancing Smart
Home Automation Concepts
Getting Started towards a Smart House
You have probably come across our site as you have an interest in technology. Perhaps you may be considering what Home Automation gives you or are just wanting an Enhanced Digital Lifestyle. To get started ask yourself, would you consider today buying a car without automatic windows?
Look at your car. If it is a fairly recent model, it most probably has inbuilt wireless remote security, remote and central locking and unlocking, climate control with temperature setting, a multi-source premium car audio system playing through at least 4 multi-component surround speakers, electrically controlled windows and all will have computers that monitor the primary functioning of the engine. You possibly also have electric seat heating, automatic wipers based on weather inputs, automatic lights based on ambient light level, electrically controlled shading of windows, DVD media players, and computers for car stability, enhanced braking and navigation. Compared to your car your house is a dinosaur more comparable to a 1973 Holden HQ than to your modern car.
Home Automation Technology and the Enhanced Digital Lifestyle are merely a collection of concepts bringing this same level of refinement, comfort and features to the place where you spend most of your time, your home. Ironically, you probably would not even contemplate buying a car today without most of the features noted above, so why is the average house so far behind?
Well obviously, cost is a factor as is the fact that most houses are only renovated once in every 10-15 years. Also, many of the technologies for the home have only recently been worthwhile from a value versus return basis. But now, the time is here when you can upgrade your home to provide you with the same features you expect in your vehicle, a place where you spend far less time than your house.
Look at the information on this site and you will see that it doesn't have to cost the earth to get more comfort, security and fun out of your home. Enhanced Digital Lifestyle is about YOU. How to make your life more interesting and fun whilst decreasing some of the repeated day to day drudgery that you are probably not even aware of.
One of the challenges of installing a smart home automation system is balancing the complexity against the usability of the system. When planning a smart home, it's important to consider some of the following factors; Aesthetics
This might seem like the most obvious answer, but one of the many reasons that people want a smart home, is because it adds the "wow factor". Smart homes have a completely polished appearance thanks to the clever use of touch screens and remotes that are often used to control blinds, lights, audio equipment, etc.
More often than not smart homes also offer the advantage of having cabling pre-wired into the wall cavity. Let's face it, there's nothing that can ruin the look of a home cinema more than that of messy cables running from behind the plasma screen and down the wall to the AV equipment.
Convenience
Smart homes come with the ability to make life easier and more convenient. And in a world that is so demanding on our time, who wouldn't love being able to control lighting, entertainment and temperature from their couch? What about automatic timers, and sensors, so that as soon as you leave the room the lights switch off?
On the extreme end of the scale home automation is as simple as presetting scenes to suit your lifestyle. For example, love hosting dinner parties then why not configure a "dinner party" setting into your touchscreen, so that at the press of a button the lights dim, the music fades, the curtains close and the temperature is just right.
Added security
Home automation can also provide peace of mind. Whether you're at work or away on holiday, the smart home will alert you to what's going on with your home security. Your security system can also be built to provide an immense amount of help in an emergency. For example, not only would a resident be woken with notification of a fire alarm, the smart home would also unlock doors, dial the fire department and illuminate the path to safety.
Future-proof
Future-proofing adds value to your property - with rising energy costs, futureproofing your home for energy efficiency makes good financial sense. Ask yourself, "Wouldn't it be nice to move into my new home and have perfect picture quality in every room from day one?" Or, let the kids have their own phone in each bedroom.
By having your digital cabling installed during the building process, it allows you to move in and start enjoying the full benefits of your TV, Internet and phone being completely accessible straight away. No mess, no fuss and no need to organise another contractor to come in later when you're already settled. When installing your TV's cabling take the initiative to include a high quality digital ready antenna. Not only can you enjoy perfect reception immediately, but you can also avoid the hassle of having to re-cable later on.
Resale Value
Probably not an important factor when first deciding to improve your lifestyle with a Smart Home installation, it is comforting to know that your investment in Smart Home Automation technology will add considerably to your house's inherent long term value. Savvy buyers understand the lifestyle benefits afforded by home automated systems and will value your house appreciably more than similar 'old technology' houses in your area.
At the higher end of the residential market a Smart Home investment makes even more sense, as the actual installation costs in most cases represents an even smaller percentage of the lift in selling price as influenced by the Smart House systems. A Smart House is almost always advertised with the systems being one of the key features on the sales literature, as it should be.
In 1994 C-Bus was launched by Clipsal as the first Australian made control and management system on the market. Since then, C-Bus has proven to be the simplest and most cost effective building and home automation system of its type and is now distributed by Clipsal's owner Schneider Electric throughout the world. Considering a great deal of the manufacturing and design is still done in Clipsal's Adelaide Head office and engineering premises, this means it is also good for Australia. Many competitive products are coming into the market from overseas companies, but Clipsal holds the market share and also the hearts and minds of Australians installing, specifying and designing with the automation products.
Fully programmable and allowing building managers to configure the workplace to automatically switch lights off after hours, adjust the intensity of light in accordance with natural light levels, integrate with building management systems and more.
C-Bus Control and Management System C-Bus is a micro-processor controlled Control and Management System which uses Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) data cable or airborne Radio Frequency (RF) signals as its communication medium to control lighting, air-conditioning and other services. Information is sent from input units, such as C-Bus Wall Switches, Touch Screens and Occupancy Sensors via the C-Bus data cable or RF signal to output units, such as C-Bus Relays and Dimmers.
A C-Bus building or home automation system provides energy efficient solutions through automation control and also power monitoring. Whether ON/OFF control of a lighting circuit or dimming control, C-Bus can be used to control and automate virtually any type of electrical load.
In homes, C-Bus offers a total luxury package. From home theatre at the touch of a button, to a home that looks after itself with 'welcome', 'goodbye' and 'master off' scenes. There's even a C-Bus 250V wireless home automation version for existing homes. renters and single room applications. Nous House are C-Bus experts with many years of home automation experience, making us well able to advise you in what to look for in an optimum automated smart home installation.
A Smart Home is not a daunting proposition, even if you are not a particularly technically minded person. It is just your normal average house with some added home automation technology systems to make your life more comfortable, more secure, more energy efficient and to give you enhanced entertainment options. A properly set up system usually requires less technical ability to run it than that required to use a car GPS, as it will have been specifically programmed for ease of use.
Many people will read ALL the things that can be done and decide it is too much for them. As they don't need this or that done, they think the Smart Home Automation is a waste of money and not for them. What they may not understand is that Smart Home concepts are not an all or nothing endeavour, but rather the approach is more synonymous with how you decorate your home, adding parts over time to provide a rich interoperable tapestry of the systems you need or desire. Whether you choose to buy and implement many of the 'more advanced' Smart Home concepts or not is a personal choice for you.
To try to demonstrate this point and to describe some of the possible concepts of a Smart Home, I will tell you about the systems I have installed into my house and how I use them daily. In another article I will tell you what a 'fully enhanced' home installation would provide. Metaphorically, my house has systems to provide a 'Holden HSV' level of home automation, but the later article describes the 'BMW 7 Series' system. But all levels of installation are possible to suit your requirements and budget, continuing the metaphor, everything from a 'Diahatsu Charade' right through to a 'Bugatti Veyron'. The most widely purchased Smart Home concepts are also usually the best value offerings, so there is no reason not to getting started down the path.
A Normal Autumn Day
The day starts early for my house as it prepares itself for the comfort of its residents, being us.
As we are getting towards winter now, the home automation has started turning on the underfloor heating system in the main bathroom on the coldest days, which is welcome in the early morning. It does not keep the floor warm all day, but rather, turns heating on an hour or so before the normal use times and lets it drop back to a more ambient temperature at the other times of the day to conserve energy.
During the summer months our sun blinds have automatically been deploying for the start of the day to keep the heat and bright light out of our living spaces until the sun is higher in the sky, reducing cooling requirements. But as winter approaches and we want that extra 'free' warmth inside, our inside translucent blinds are now down early in the morning whilst the exterior sun blinds remain retracted, bringing the welcome heat inside whilst still providing privacy and brightness control. Controlling the heat and cold interactions between inside and outside the house can save lots of energy during summer and winter seasons.
Whilst many clients enjoy being woken by their smart house audio system being programmed to start music fading up or window furnishings opening at the wake up time they set, I prefer to just wake up using my trusty iPod dock clock radio. This highlights the personal choices and modular aspect of Smart Home technology; you don't HAVE to use it for everything.
Coffee's made as the system has warmed up prior to us being in the kitchen and is ready when required. The kitchen home automation touch screen displays the latest weather information, news headlines and all the newspapers at the touch of a touchscreen button. Inside and outside temperature is displayed as well as the pool temperature and days forecast. Probably a bit cold to swim today at 21 degs, but the pool solar should bring it up during the day so perhaps this afternoon.
The pool solar system is programmed to watch the temperature of our outside balcony to discern sun heat availability, and only starts the pool solar system re-circulating water when the water returned to the pool exceeds the pool temperature. If the sun disappears or the return water gets cold with a passing shower, the pool solar stops to save energy and not cool the pool rather than warming it like straight time based systems can do. The smart home automation pool system gives useful swimming temps into late autumn.
Pool filtration is programmed to run automatically decreasing in period toward winter, to dose chlorine and acid automatically (using an automatic chlorinator) and to minimise power use by running the pump during the lower electricity cost shoulder and off-peak tariff periods.
Of course, the technical side of any automation programming is done by your home automation installer, not requiring you to be a particularly technically minded person just to operate the systems. I can turn all the different pool pumps on and off manually from my touch screen should I choose to, but it usually has the big touch screen buttons marked 'Auto Pool' and 'Auto Solar' depressed taking care of it all automatically.
Blinds start to retract after 10am, and though this could always be done automatically, when at home we prefer to use the wall switchplates to set the blind positions ourselves and of course all blinds can move together to save time. The external sun blinds have been programmed to automatically retract should it get overtly windy at any time to avoid damage. All in all, blind control is a manual / auto mix which is our programmed preference over fully automatic.
When we are at home during the day, the internal house temperature is monitored by the home automation system, and during summer and winter the air conditioner keeps the rooms at the right temperature. Our air-conditioners are an older style of unit, but are still easily controlled and 'modernized' by our house system running them, so each area can turn on or off heating or cooling via local wall switches, thermostat or touchscreen controllers.
The home automation touch screen that we use the most is the one in the kitchen particularly favoured by my wife. Not only does it support full control of all the house smart automation systems like lighting blinds, heating/cooling and pool, it also provides additional features such as access to the latest news and weather, full internet browsing and searching, email, live internet radio, live digital HDTV, and photos, music and video from our networked media server, security camera viewing and retrieval, live energy efficiency information, calculator, calendar and an electronic shopping list.
For entertainment, digital music or radio stations are accessible and controlled by touch screens in most areas of inside and outside the house, and are served from a centralized media server on the home network. All areas can play from alternate sources simultaneously should different family members want different programs and all areas can control their local sound parameters.
Towards the evening, the house system knows when it is sunset all year round, and so the lights in primary areas of the house are set to start dimming up slowly to keep light levels more or less the same during the day to night transition. No running around flipping switches!
Lighting in the house is run at about 80% most of the time and areas that are not used are off or dimmed unless we enter those areas. This decreases lighting power used by close to 20% and increases the halogen bulbs life significantly. If you need more light for a job it is also helpful that you still have some additional brightness available. Our touchscreens display current energy use in KiloWatt Hours and so we can minimise energy use by dimming lights and switching off appliances and see the results immediately. Our power bills dropped by about 15% just by adding this 'Energy Smart' section to our touch screens display.
Utility areas like the bathrooms are serviced by home automation occupancy sensors which automatically switch on the lighting upon entering the area when it gets dark. It switches the light off after you leave. The sensors also control the extractor fan throughout the day and the system is programmed so short stays need no fan but longer stays do, and very long stays get extended fan time and increased fan speed. Very practical and Smart! Of course, the fan and lights can also be operated normally if you wish or if guest are around. Later in the evening, lower intensity lighting on the walls is used automatically rather than the brighter downlighting used in the early evening.
Inside blinds drop automatically and subtle lighting changes occur to provide privacy in the bedrooms and some other living areas just after dinner in preparation for family time in the living room. Towards the end of the evening, lights very slowly dim further to sooth weary eyes. Several lighting scenes are set during the evening as the family flows from kitchen to dining then to living areas, moving from utility to ambience.
Our full library of video, music, photos and other streaming media is available from all touch screens, notebook PCs, tablets and smart phones and in the evening is used extensively in the combination home theatre / living room to augment the FoxtelIQ TV system from an attached DLNA media player. A DLNA media server provides access throughout the home wired and wireless network.
At the end of the night, a final push on the end of night button beside the bed shuts down remaining lighting, sets ventilation to the required mode and resets the home systems for the day ahead.
When we go away on holidays, I hit the 'Away from Home' mode button on my home automation touchscreen, which fully automates the inside and outside blinds, and the interior lighting to simulate us being at home for security reasons. We feel secure when we are away from home as we have a video surveillance system linked to the home automation system. We have a back to base alarm system also integrated into the house system with phone and GSM dialing in the event of a break in. The House automation systems can automatically turn on lights should movement be detected whilst recording the event for future viewing and notifying us via smartphone. We can look at any 'alarms' triggered via the internet and get also emailed the footage.
If I arrive at my holiday destination having forgotten to switch on the 'Away from Home' mode or if something wasn't set right, no problems. I can control the whole automation system from my phone or notebook via the internet, as well as checking the internal and external surveillance camera system for any events. This is far better than the 'Lock and Hope' system we previously relied upon.
Another great feature we installed was an uninterruptible power supply for the home automation system, predominantly on the lighting and control system side. We are in a area with quite bad power and for the last few years have been having 4-6 blackouts per annum ranging from several minutes to one of 8.5 hours. When the power goes off, we are the only house in 2-3 square kilometres with electric lighting. All dimmers and the home automation control system functions normally and we can still use the energy smart readout to tell us how long we have on battery which allows us to further reduce energy consumption to extend that period.
I hope you have enjoyed a day in the life of my Smart Home and Home Automation system and can see some areas where the concepts may help to enhance your lifestyle also. Remember, with Smart Home Automation, you can start small and build as you can afford to cover new automation concepts each integrating with your existing Smart systems. This is how we started and haven't looked back since.
Do It Yourself Ideas that YOU can install
Wiser Home Automation Controller by Clipsal
The Wiser from Clipsal is probably the most innovative automation system controller in the world today. It provides many required home automation functions within a single unit form factor, plus a number of other pertinent services such as Wireless (WIFI) Gateway and network edge router with firewall to link to your external broadband.
Its intuitive user interface is both locally and remotely accessible from a multitude of controlling devices including Colour c-Touch touch screens, web tablets and web books, notebooks and other PCs, Apple iPhones & iPads, and almost any device that runs a web browser. This allows the home owner to choose their own preferred 'lifestyle choice' device and have confidence it will inter-operate and control their automation to a good degree.
Whilst not strictly a 'Do It Yourself' product, it is noted here in the DIY section as a great base platform to use in your DIY setup, as it gives you so much functionality in one box. Installation is technical and requires good knowledge of IP and C-Bus, but customisation is within the abilities of a more technically minded person. We suggest that for the initial configuration and customisation of this product you use a Nous House c-Bus expert installer, and then you should be able to master further customisation yourself.
Colour Web Tablets for remote control using WIFI Routers
Wireless tablets are the minimalist's dream in form and function. They are fast replacing both desktop and laptop PCs as the preferred medium for browsing the web. The reason is that similar functionality is provided in a fully portable neat form factor. In a smart home, the tablet computer has the added potential of controlling the home lighting, dimmers, audiovisuals and appliances.
Nous House suggests you look at the outstanding tablets we sell from Archos, some of which run Windows, some run the media proclaimed 'iPad killer' Android software used in many leading edge mobiles, and also their normal web tablets.
We will also be stocking the iPad (when we can get any that is!!!) as many of the automation and audio products have software that currently only runs on iPad.
C-BUS Wireless Series Dimmers and Appliance Controls
Nothing is quite as cool as being able to control your whole environment from one remote control. Lighting, sound, video, appliances, even air conditioning. All possible, even if you are renting. With the C-BUS wireless family of products from Clipsal and a good web tablet, you can automate your house to gain the lifestyle benefits you desire, and still remove it to take to your new house should you move.
The wireless series is also a great solution for existing homes where the owner does not want to go to the mess and fuss involved in extensive house re-wiring renovations. Due to its easy modular nature, C-Bus wireless works well for DIYers as the installation of most components only requires fairly basic technical knowledge, or just a little help from a Nous House installer.
Media Servers and Media Players supporting DLNA / PNP
DLNA is a functional and cost effective solution for distributed audio, video and other media. It provides a great depth of useful features with some products providing features such as web media streaming, web server functions, PVR recording, Media file management, storage & playback. DLNA is a continually evolving standard, with adoption levels that equipment vendors can certify to, to allow inter-operability and inter-functionality between many differing vendors equipment
What this means for the home owner is the ability to choose from a range of different products meeting their lifestyle choices, but providing confidence that it will inter-operate to a good degree. Whilst it is sometimes not as simple or functional as it could be between different levels of DLNA support, in most cases it provides good functionality at a reasonable cost. And unlike many other distributed audio/video systems it doesn't require special cables other than a data cable run to serviced rooms. For renters and those wanting to avoid costly cabling work, many products even communicate via wireless so all you need is a local power point.
Portable Solutions for Renters
Stand-Alone Energy Efficiency Monitoring system
Every time you turn something on, you're increasing the amount of electricity that's been consumed. Not to mention the appliances that are on and using power 24 hours a day.
The Clipsal Cent-A-Meter is a brilliant innovation that gives you the information you need to take control of your power consumption. A Clipsal Cent-A-Meter sensor is installed by a licensed electrician and fits onto the main active or phase cable at the switchboard.
The sensor measures power flow and the Transmitter Unit sends that info to the wireless hand held Receiver, you now have an instant, accurate assessment of just how much electricity you're using and how much it's costing you per hour.
Smart Home Infrastructure
Wireless is almost a pre-requisite for a portable solution. Obviously most people don't want cables running all around the floors of their rental house or unit and also want to buy something that will be useful in their next abode. Of particular interest will be the Wireless Access point products, some of which combine the functionality of the external broadband connecting router for either ADSL or cable connectivity. Perhaps you could consider the Clipsal Wiser home automation controller which does the wireless connectivity and controls the house?
Whilst similar Wireless & Internet access routers are generally available from the service provider (eg Optus & Telstra etc) this will usually require locking you into a substantial length of contract to repay the 'free' hardware. If you buy your own, you can normally just have a standard month to month contract without a long term of tenure. Great for shorter leases.
Retro-fit for Existing Houses & Smaller Renovations
Smart Home Infrastructure
Modern Homes provide a lot more services to their owners than did homes of old. To run the new and next generation of services, you need a cabling infrastructure that can cope with it. The lead has come from the Information Technology industry, that has been wiring with Unshielded Twisted Pair cabling (UTP) for many years.
Today, equipment from many different vendors is converging to use digital rather than the old analog platform for home entertainment and control. Gone are the days of running 10 Metre plus speaker cables all over your house. Now sound is sent digitally to an amplifier close to the listeners and sound quality is far superior for it.
The new paradigm is further extended by the addition of the internet and how it has infused into every aspect of our lives. The NBN is on its way as well, so it makes sense to wire once for the future and allow your home to support future upgrades without requiring future rewiring. Nous House recommends that for the modern home, each major room should have at least four seperate non co-located UTP cables to service it.
Of course, you also need devices like Ethernet switches to link the UTP to and Wireless access routers/firewalls to link it all together.
New Homes, Extensive Renovations and New Additions
Control everything in your home with a comprehensive C-Bus installation
We live in a world of convenience. Motorised garage doors, keyless entry and electric windows on our cars, remote control TV's, DVD players and airconditioners, even microwave ovens and dishwashers. Not a day goes by when we don't rely on 'smart' technology to make our lives easier.
So what about the rest of your house? How many times have you turned off your bedside lamp only to realise you've left a light on, or pressed 'play' on your DVD remote only to get up again and dim the lights?
Or worse still... arrived at work and wondered 'did I turn the iron off?'. With Clipsal C-Bus® you can make your home a smart home, automating your whole home or individual rooms. You can add to it as you want or as your needs change, and the best news is it's very affordable!
It's your home – make it a smart home and enjoy smart living
Home Automation Touch Screens C-Bus
To add a touch of real pizazz to your home, there is nothing better than wall mounted touch screens to control all aspects of your home automation. It can control your audio visual systems, multi-room audio, lighting, blind & curtains, Air Conditioning, or whatever you want. The high end colour units also provide full internet browsing, scenes, scheduling and logic programming to control advanced aspects of your Smart Home systems
Energy Efficiency Monitoring system using C-Bus Home Automation
Every time you turn something on, you're increasing the amount of electricity that's been consumed. Not to mention the appliances that are on and using power 24 hours a day.
There is a great stand-alone product you can use, the Clipsal Cent-a-Meter which provides a lot of information.
However, with a full C-Bus installation you have the ability to keep track of the energy use of all components of your C-Bus network separately. This allows you to do things like grouping energy use by arbitary area such as Pool, Lighting, Heating etc Imagine being able to drill down on your usage by time and adjust or move usage to a different time to reduce your power consumption.
You can even graph usage on your tablet or cTouch Touch screens. When you can see how much you are using, it is amazing how much you can reduce just by dimming a few lights and by moving the pool pump run time to a different tariff period.
Smart Home Infrastructure
Modern Homes provide a lot more services to their owners than did homes of old. To run the new and next generation of services, you need a cabling infrastructure that can cope with it. The lead has come from the Information Technology industry, that has been wiring with Unshielded Twisted Pair cabling (UTP) for many years.
Today, equipment from many different vendors is converging to use digital rather than the old analog platform for home entertainment and control. Gone are the days of running 10 Metre plus speaker cables all over your house. Now sound is sent digitally to an amplifier close to the listeners and sound quality is far superior for it.
The new paradigm is further extended by the addition of the internet and how it has infused into every aspect of our lives. The NBN is on its way as well, so it makes sense to wire once for the future and allow your home to support future upgrades without requiring future rewiring. Nous House recommends that for the modern home, each major room should have at least four seperate non co-located UTP cables to service it.
Of course, you also need devices like Ethernet switches to link the UTP to and Wireless access routers/firewalls to link it all together.
Energy Efficiency - Reduce my Power Bill
Residential energy bills are rising at an alarming rate, cutting into the family budget to an extent not seen in the past. Luxuries are forgone to make up the shortfall but it keeps increasing. Its feels like we are paying almost as much per quarter as we used to pay for the whole year.
What can be done to arrest this continually increasing burden? Taking proactive action, That's What!
Below are a number of concepts and tips to help you get a handle on your energy costs, without impacting your lifestyle to any great degree.
Energy Savings Tips from Nous House
Ten low cost ways to cut your power bill (Many More Tips Here)
- Monitor your energy use with a power use meter eg Clipsal Cent-a-Meter.
- Reduce the Biggest Energy Consumers first as this makes the most difference (see Energy over Time table).
- Put all your gadget chargers in one place on an individually switched power board, and only switch on the charger you are using.
- Have your computer set to auto-sleep automatically when you leave it alone for a period.
- Consider putting either a TrickleStar switcher(Best) or a cheap plug-in timer(Good) on stand-by'd equipment in your lounge area, switching them off for at least the time you are at work.
- Consider putting Compact Fluorescent bulbs in your utility areas such as 3rd toilets, laundrys, garages etc.
- Beer Fridges (2nd Fridges) are only really needed in Summer months so turn them off in Winter, Spring and Autumn.
- Washing Machine - Use Warm water instead of Hot, or Cold water instead of Warm. Warm Wash/Cold Rinse = $100 per annum saved
- Put your laundry outside to dry when it's warm, instead of using the clothes dryer.
- Put in low cost green energy efficient dimmers and run your lights at 80% power, saving near 20% and making your bulbs last much longer than normal.
Automatic Lighting - Stand-alone or with C-Bus
Why not reduce energy use by installing automatically controlled lighting, particularly in outdoor areas. Lights turn on when you need them and are off the rest of the time, saving power. No need to leave the light burning for hours when you go out till you return. Just turn on the automatic lighting and off you go.
With either full C-Bus home automation or just a combined movement / light level sensor, you can even have your lighting on ready for you when you return home at the end of each day and still save power, all done automatically.
Energy Saving with Dimmers
Installing new age 'green' dimmers is a great way to reduce your lighting power use and create a more ambient house as the same time. New energy efficient dimmers by Clipsal in both their stand-alone, wireless and full C-Bus home automation dimmer installations reduce power use when lights are dimmed. Old fashioned dimmers still sold at the hardware store etc actually converts the 'dimmed' power into heat when dimming the light and so is no more energy efficient than having the lights on full.
New dimmers set at 80% will provide close to a 20% saving in power use over the same light being on full, and also extends the life of the bulbs
Environment Control - electrically controlled Blinds, Sun Blinds and Louvres
Controlling heat enetering a room is a great way to keep your house cool in summer but warm in winter. External 'see through' sun-blinds are very effective and save the power required to keep your house interior cool in summer.
In winter, your sun blinds retract early to gain the most use of winter sunlight entering your rooms to keep them warm. Once again the savings in heating your rooms can be large. Interior blinds also stop heat entering rooms during the day but are also useful in stopping internal heat being lost through large glass windows during winter and at night.
Of course, why not automate it all with either a C-Bus wireless home automation or fully wired C-Bus automation installation?
Smart Technology Gift Ideas for Family and Friends 
Every Man Yearns for a New Set of Speakers
There's few things that a lady can buy her man that will make him smile as much as a beautiful new set of speakers.
At Nous House we believe in providing only the best looking and sounding speakers that quite fortuitously are made right here in Australia, adding to their appeal to your man who likes supporting his local mates. 
Call / Email Nous House with your particulars for a custom designed Music Listening or Home Theatre system, or browse through our online information. This is one present that will give him years of pleasure, and will make absolutely sure he remembers your anniversary.
Your iPad, iPhone or Android doubles as your Remote Control
Wireless tablets are the minimalist's dream in form and function. They are fast replacing both desktop and laptop PCs as the preferred medium for browsing the web. But now you can control your audio visual system, or in fact your whole house's systems with your favorite tablet PC. 
In a Smart Home, your favorite tablet computer has the abililty to control the home's lighting, air-conditioning, blinds, fans, pool, complete audiovisuals and even appliances using Smart Home Automation.
Nous House suggests you look at the outstanding tablets we sell from Archos or use your iPad or iPhone to control your audio visual or home automation environment.
Archive your Music and get rid of the CD/DVD clutter
Everyone has them. Drawers, boxes or racks filled with seldom played dusty music albums or movies on CDs or DVDs. Why not archive them onto a digital media server so you have access to them from yout modern TV, home theatre receiver or media player. You will also get your drawers back!
The DLNA specification is a digital music standard supported by most audio, video and IT equipment manufacturers. It provides a basis for a highly functional though cost effective solution for storing and playing digital audio, video and other media files.
DLNA supporting equipment provides a great depth of features with some products providing web media streaming, web server functions, Personal Video Recording (PVR), Media file management, storage & playback. DLNA is a continually evolving standard, with adoption levels that equipment vendors can certify to, to allow inter-operability and inter-functionality between many differing vendors equipment
What this means for the home owner is the ability to choose from a range of exciting digital media products that suit their lifestyle whilst providing confidence they will interoperate
So why not clear out your dust collecting clutter, whilst still preserving the freedom of access to your favourite music and movies in the same rooms as before. Once all your digital media is in one place, you can easily expand your entertainment zones to other rooms such as the study, bedrooms and the outdoors.
Being Green Never Looked so Good
Energy Efficiency Monitoring system - Possibly a present for the wife. She will enjoy monitoring the energy use of your house to reduce the quarterly electricity bill, but this unit displays a style and panache that will make it a talking point in every summer dinner party.
Everyone gets the message with the power bills of late, that every time you turn something on, you're increasing the amount of electricity that's being consumed. Not to mention the appliances that are chewing up power 24 hours a day.
Why not make your house a little smarter this holiday season and give an energy monitor. The amount she will be able to save off your electricity bill is large with this great looking device, where you can see your energy use in real time and monitor how your money's being spent allowing the savvy home owner to do something about it.
The DIY Kyoto Wattson 01 looks great in any room and subtley changes colour based on the current power use. A talking point and a useful device for the Smart Home in one.
A Webtablet that doubles as a media server
You mightn't have noticed but wireless tablets are taking over the world, fast replacing desktops and laptop PCs as the preferred medium for browsing the web. Nous House stocks a large range of premium tablets from the award winning range from Archos that suit normal web browsing use or acting as home automation controllers. 
Models great for birthday presents include the Archos 9 Windows based tablet which is amazing for teenage PC gamers, playing MMORPG games while lying on your couch or being a HD media server in the lounge,
or the new Archos 48 which in a small portable form factor Android tablet that can also be placed into a dock allowing it to be an HDMI media server with 500GB storage, for use in your home theatre or lounge room environment but can just as easily be picked up by a family member to 'take the show on the road' when you go to a holiday destination, or even watching or listening to music in the car on those long drives.
Wall Mounts, Desk Stands and Hardcases for your iPad
iPads are an amazing device with a huge market penetration due to their ease of use. Unfortunately this often leads to young children who are playing with them (and sometimes those not so young) dropping them in the course of use due to the slippery curved nature of the back design that slides out of the hand rather too easily.
The Wallee is an extremely versatile hard case for the iPad that gives it quite reasonable physical protection should the worst occur, but also provides a range of intelligent accessories that can turn your iPad into either a desk mounted, wall mounted or even hand mounted tablet.
These products are high quality but incredibly inexpensive considering the wide range of applications using the accessories and also the piece of mind they convey when 'Mummy's iPad' is being used by the kids
Fun Ideas to Smarten up your Home 
Create the Perfect Outdoors Party Environment
Let's face it, one of the best party environments during summer is outside. So having all your expensive audio equipment only playing in your lounge room doesn't seem practical for this time of year.
Why not take the plunge and install a great new outdoor audio environment for next summer. Nothing livens up a party, barbeque or outside dining like some nice background music, listening to the cricket (with a cold beer) or a funky party beat.
The best part is, it doesn't have to cost the earth. You may only need speakers to attach, as many modern amplifiers quite often have an un-utilised second zone.
Look through our large range of outdoor audio products or Call / Email Nous House with your particulars for a custom designed system. This is one upgrade that will give you years of pleasure
Access Your Home with Nothing...... but your Thumb
Sound's a lot like something Jeremy Clarkson would say on the award winning BBC show 'Top Gear'.
But you too can easily and quite inexpensively have a very James Bond-esque fingerprint scanning front door reader programmed to only allow access to your house by you and your family. It can also make up part of a larger house security or home automation system should you like to embark on one at the same time or in the future.
Archive your Music and get rid of the CD/DVD clutter
Everyone has them, drawers, boxes or racks filled with seldom played dusty music albums or movies on CDs and DVDs. Why not archive them onto a media server so you have access to them from yout modern TV, home theatre receiver or media player.
The DLNA specification is a standard supported by a large number of audio, video and IT equipment manufacturers. It provides a basis for a highly functional whilst cost effective solution for storing and playing audio, video and other media files. DLNA supporting equipment provides a great depth of useful features, with some products providing features such as web media streaming, web server functions, Personal Video Recording (PVR), Media file management, storage & playback. DLNA is a continually evolving standard, with adoption levels that equipment vendors can certify to, to allow inter-operability and inter-functionality between many differing vendors equipment
What this means for the home owner is the ability to choose from a range of different products meeting their lifestyle choices, but providing confidence that it will all inter-operate to a good degree.
So why not clear out your dust collecting clutter whilst still preserving the freedom of access to all your favourite music and movies in the same rooms as before. Once all your media is in one place, you can easily expand your entertainment zones to other rooms such as the study, bedrooms and the outdoors.
Energy Efficiency Monitoring system
Every time you turn something on, you're increasing the amount of electricity that's been consumed. Not to mention the appliances that are on and using power 24 hours a day. Why not make your house a little smarter this holiday season and put in an energy monitor. The amount you can save off your electricity bill is large as when you can see your energy use in real time, you can monitor how your money's being spent and do something about it.
The Clipsal Cent-A-Meter is a brilliant low cost innovation that gives you the information you need to take control of your power consumption. For a more upmarket look you may choose the Wattson 01 which looks good in any room and changes colour depending on use.
A Clipsal Cent-A-Meter sensor is easily installed by a licensed electrician by fitting a measuring device onto the main active cable in your switchboard.
The sensor measures power flow and the Transmitter Unit sends that info to the wireless hand held Receiver, you now have an instant, accurate assessment of just how much electricity you're using and how much it's costing you per hour.
Smart House Automated Lighting System for your Home
You live in a nice house that you are happy with and don't want the hassle of renovating, Right?. But you would really love your house to be a 'smarter' home. Why not install automated lighting?
With automated lighting, or 'home automation' you can have your lights come on automatically at dusk, change during the evening to different scenes based on where you and your family are situated and gives you 'single button' all lights out at the end of the evening or when you leave the house. You can also control the mood in your house using your favorite personal communicator such as an iPhone, iPad, Android phone or tablet or PC.
All this can be achieved WITHOUT running new cables in your walls and under your floors and for substantially less than you might consider. It's Wireless Home Automation!
A normal Unit, Apartment or Town House would be around $7,500 and a house from $10K depending on size. But this is not for some ugly looking white plastic switches, it is for the most modern, sleek architecturally beautiful Saturn Glass push button switch plates. slim.jpg)
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For control from your tablets or PC, a Clipsal Wiser home automation controller provides wireless connectivity for your house and controls the house's new automated lighting system. Once this controller is installed, adding other Smart Home Automation features is also much easier. For instance, you can add equipment to monitor and graph your home energy usage to reduce your power bill for around $750 more or control your air-conditioner from $500 more.
So why not smarten up your home for the holidays with a Smart Home Automation Lighting system. Even just starting with the lighting control, you will overjoyed with the lifestyle enhancement and lift to your room's decor.
Recommended Installation Expertise Explained
Smart Home Automation - Custom
Concepts and product ranges that generally
require installation by a suitably trained agent,
technician or contractor. Of course, Nous House
provides these installation services and
full after sales support for these solutions
for our customers
Smart Home Automation - Technical
Concepts and products that require installation
of a more technical nature. Whilst probably not
beyond the skills of a DIYer with a modicum of general
technical ability eg IT people, it may be hard going
for a person with average skills
Of course, Nous House provides free technical
support for these solutions for our customers
DIY Smart Home Automation
suitable concepts and product solutions
for the do it yourself customer. Some technical ability
will be required for installation, but nothing too
demanding or anything not easily googled for help.
Of course, Nous House provides free technical
support for these solutions for our customers
Manufacturers
