It’s hot!!! Those were the most common words echoed for the majority of July. For multiple days, temperatures were at an all time high reaching the 100’s across a large portion of the United States. There were many families like the one pictured above who spent a good portion of their time in the pool trying to cool off.
Check out this 7 day forecast in Dallas Texas. Yikes!
With summer heat escalating, the harder it is to keep your home cool. The demand for energy is also raising, creating a strain on power grids and in your wallet. It is especially hard if your home is like most of the homes we integrate which are over 5,000 square feet.
There is good news! There are solutions to help you beat the heat in the summer months. Below are a few tips on how an automated system can assist in lower temperatures and energy consumption.
1. Motorized Shade Control
Motorized shading is a great way to keep the heat from penetrating into your home. Motorized shades can be programmed to lower when the sun rises. You can also control all or a portion of them with a single touch of a button from a keypad or touch panel. There are a number of options to choose from when comes to selecting the right fabric. You can have a complete black out for the ultimate in reducing heat gain, or you can choose a diffuser that will significantly reduce heat gain.
2. Light Control
Have you ever put your hand by a light bulb that has been on for a while? It’s hot. This assists in creating heat in your home. Keeping the lights dim or off will help in lower temperatures. Making sure lights are off in rooms where people are not occupying is a big plus.Automated motion sensors can detect if no one is in a room for a given time, so they can turn off the lights automatically. They can also turn them on when a person enters a given space. Creating multiple lighting scenes is very useful as well because a certain level of output can be determined for each light to create the proper balance between all lights on and all lights off. Dimming lights lower temperatures and lowers energy consumption. It’s that simple.
In addition to controlling the lights, using LED Lights can be very beneficial as well. These lights give off far less thermal heat and also have a much longer life span then a standard light bulb.
3. Climate Control
Whether you have a complete Crestron home control system or you have a simple thermostat that has the ability to control the time the thermostat turns on and off. It’s a good practice to use it. It is recommend to program your thermostat to go up by five degrees about 30 minutes or so before you leave and have it come back to your “normal” temperature a half-hour before you return. With a more complex HVAC system, the climate can be controlled in specific rooms across an entire property. This makes a lot of sense when a large scale home is being integrated.
4. Energy Management
One of our strongest partners is Crestron. They have a an energy management solution called Fusion. With Fusion, all systems can be monitored, so it gives the home owner the ability to see in real time how applying some of the techniques we mention above can pay dividends. We will elaborate more in a future blog post about the Fusion energy management system.
5. Landscaping and Building Materials
In addition to the automated technologies that can help transform your home to be cooler and more efficient, there are also the considerations of landscaping and building materials. Although this tip is not an automated one, it’s one worth pointing out. If you are about to build a brand new home, maybe even your dream home having a well thought out landscaping as well as optimal building plan is something that should be discussed with your builder and or architect before construction. We could do a whole post on this subject alone, but it’s important to do your homework here because there are solutions that can be beneficial for a lifetime.
Key Takeaway: Keeping the home cool using practical technologies is beneficial from an energy conservation point of view as well as creating a more comfortable living environment for your family.