Fully automated homes offer the ultimate in Smart Home Technology, boasting George Jetson-like advancement once believed to be many years in the future.

Today’s Smart Home Technology offers everything from Wi-Fi home thermostats, to wireless door locks and outlets that can be turned on and off remotely, as well as inform you if your infirm Granny has started her morning pot of coffee. What’s more, the ability to manage outlets, appliances, heating and cooling, and more with the help of the wireless Internet, a smart device, and a few apps is now an affordable reality.

How can you make your home a bit smarter? Mr. Electric® has ways to help you power your tomorrow with these technology options.

Fitting over your existing deadbolt, smart locks automatically disengage when a phone with a digital key is near. They allow for remote operation, unlimited keys for family and friends, and notify you of activity at your home.  

Control your home’s lighting wirelessly, including lighting intensity, color and scheduling.

Smart open/close sensors for windows, doors, and cabinets can text and inform you of a breach, and when used in conjunction with other home automation products, can even turn on lights, adjust the thermostat, and more.

Plug smart outlets directly into existing wall outlets for remote on/off operation, create a schedule, and track power usage of plugged-in appliances.

As technology rapidly advances and becomes affordable, upcoming Smart Home Technology is sure to be limited only by our imaginations. Visit our website or give us a call to find out about how we can help you capitalize on home automation opportunities today! The future is waiting…

You already have a smart phone – maybe even a smart thermostat. What's next? Believe it or not, refrigerators are next in the line of devices with advanced features and technology to improve our domestic lives. A new smart fridge, manufactured by GE, is scheduled to come on the market this spring.

Welcome to the Future

For the average household, the refrigerator is the third-largest energy drain after the HVAC system and the hot water heater. That means there's a lot of room to improve on efficiency.

Your garden-variety refrigerator really only has one setting to manipulate: the temperature. And the EPA recommends setting it between 35 and 38 degrees, so there's not a lot of leeway in that regard before you risk spoiling your food. The real value in a smart fridge  is in its communication with you, reminding you to adjust your behavior and not waste any unnecessary energy.

For example, if you leave the door open, a smart fridge can alert you to close it rather than wasting all that cold air. If it's time to clean the coils, it gives you a heads up, so it can continue to operate at peak efficiency. If the power usage suddenly spikes for no apparent reason, the fridge lets you know so you can have it serviced to correct the problem.

The EPA is encouraging manufacturers to include such smart features in their products. “These features would offer consumers more ways to reduce the energy consumption of their refrigerators and freezers, help lower their utility bills, and better protect the environment and the climate,” the agency says. “Refrigerators and freezers with connected functionality will also be “smart grid”-ready, meaning that with consumer permission, they will be able to respond to utility signals, including curtailing operations during more expensive peak demand times.”

Savings Beyond Belief

If your refrigerator is more than a decade old, it's costing you more money than it should in electricity usage. If it's more than two decades old, it's really draining your finances. That good news is that the new models are so efficient they could pay for themselves in utility savings within a few years. New federal standards kicked in for refrigerators last fall, which means that the latest models are performing at an all-time peak.

When you go fridge shopping, make sure you purchase a model that bears the Energy Star logo, which means it performs at least 10 percent above and beyond the minimum federal efficiency requirements. “We can all do our part in meeting the challenge of climate change,” said Janet McCabe, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, in a press release. “By choosing Energy Star appliances, families can save energy, save money, and reduce carbon pollution.”

If every fridge and freezer in the country were updated to meet just the minimum requirements, homeowners would save a cumulative $890 million annually on their energy bills. Even if your share is just a small fraction of that, every bit counts.

AC driven LEDs are rare but popular in certain applications. Designers focus on LEDs because of their advantages like direct, brilliant light, strong color saturation, slim measurements, dynamic lighting scenes and in total all the design possibilities that are thinkable. The only restrictions are made by the heat that needs to be dissipated by surface, natural or forced ventilation and the driver’s measurements. The driver is mostly not slim at all. That is why AC driven LEDs can be a smart consideration.

Conventional LEDs, Modules and Light Engines are driven by DC (direct current) power supplies. The LED characteristics are highly dependent on these components as they control the inrush current, convert the alternate current down to DC voltage and stabilize the current the LEDs are driven with. The efficiency of the system is dependent on the driver too as the power factor is one part in the total sum. Most conventional DC power supplies support LED systems with power factors (PFC) of 0.9 and higher.

The lifetime of LED lighting systems is defined by electronic devises. The LED can last up to 100,000h but if the driver needs a replacement after 50,000h the system is only half worth the maintenance. Without any driver at all the problem is solved completely. Power supplies need space, no matter how small, the driver is mostly bigger than the LED modules and electronic component’s wiring needs space too. Without this item there are not restrictions in design any more than heat dissipation. Designers can release their full creativity.

AC driven LEDs are of advantage concerning design and lifetime options. The more complex the circuit, the higher the possibility of system failure and electrical noise. On the other side, the efficiency of AC driven LED modules is not that high like DC driven ones. The performance achieves 110 lm/W these days which is good compared to other light sources but behind DC driven LEDs with up to 140 lm/W and more. AC driven LEDs are a thinkable substitute in applications like bulb lights, downlights, ceiling lights and industrial lighting systems.