We are all aware of the need to reduce our energy consumption, water consumption and our carbon footprints, but how best to do it? 

Home Automation is a Green technology in that it can be used to achieve all three of these goals. 

Using Automation to achieve Ecological goals is commonly called Ecomation and here are just a few examples of what can be achieved:

Auto Off
Use occupancy sensors (such as PIR's) to shut off lights that are not needed.

Daylight Detect
Better than turning off a light that is not needed, is not turning it on in the first place! Ecomation systems can inhibit the activation of lights during daylight hours

Dim it Down
Dimming a bulb by 50% saves 50% of the energy,  apply this over a whole house and the savings are significant

Goodnight
The goodnight button can turn off things you forgot you left on - that light under the house, the flouro strip under the stairs.  Put a few goodnight buttons around the house and you will find yourself regularly pressing it to kill all those unwanted lights and loads.

Goodbye
Where the Goodnight button is great when you go to bed, the Goodbye button will shut off loads you don't need while the house is unoccupied during the day or weekend. Activated by the alarm being set, the Goodbye will turn off any lights, towel rails, fans, mirror demisters etc.

Warm Welcome
The opposite of the Goodbye, the warm button will detect your arrival and depending on the time of day turn on the bare minimum of loads / open doors to get you from the garage to the kitchen.  Coming home in the dark, rather than flick a switch that floods the halls with 1000w of inefficent tungsten light, the system may illuminate a row of ankle level LED fittings to provide plenty of light to carry the shopping in.  10 LEDs would use less power in a year than one tungsten bulb for an hour.

Vacation
Pressing the vacation button when heading away for a week or month will kill all underfloor heating, hot water cylinders, everything in the house but the clock radios and fridges.  Heading to the airport - you never have to wonder if you left the oven on or the hair straighteners on - IT's OFF!

Timers
Putting the towel rails and underfloor heating on timers means that they are only on as required.  commonly the underfloor heating in an ensuite would only be required between 6am and 8am and then only in winter.  Timers provide a massive saving for these types of devices that we simply forget about but which make a massive impact on our homes quiescent consumption.

Sensor Switch
Adding a sensor to the light in the cupboard means the light is only on for the time it is required, adding a Daylight Detect as above will further reduce energy consumption

Controlled Power points
Most devices still use power even when switched off.  The average NZ house uses approximately 500w of power - with nothing turned on! This is the power used to keep the indicator lights on, the cellphone chargers warm, the forgotten heated towel rail. A controlled powerpoint kills the socket dead and puts an end to wasted power.

LCD Screen Savers
A typical 17" CRT computer monitor will use around 5 amps of current when running, where the same size LCD screen will use around 0.5 of an amp! If you have been looking for a good time to swap your old monitor or TV for a LCD screen - now is the time.  What does this have to do with Ecomation?  It's the structured wiring side of an Ecomation system that will enable you to pass your HiDef 1080p content from the source equipment to all the LCD's in the house over the Cat5 or Cat6 structure.

232 PWM LCD
LED lighting is the future of illumination, but has always been hard to dim, with a DMX or 232 controlled PWM Dimmer - the ability to dim LED is now in your hands.

Online Order
One Woolworths truck delivering 20 peoples groceries is far more efficient that 20 people driving their cars.  Using a structured cabling system and shared internet connection to the kitchen laptop, order your groceries online and save both time and fuel.  You can save common shopping lists and take the hassle out of shopping forever.

ExoFridge
Now you have ordered your groceries online - install an ExoFridge, your delivery company can put your groceries in the fridge or heater compartment at your front fence so you don't even have to be home.  Afraid of ordering boxes of wine online because your neighbours kids are the pinot type?  An ExoFridge eliminates the worry.

Electric Louvres
Reduce the need for airconditioning in the home by the use of Electric Louvres.  If the temperature gets too hot, the louvres can open allowing a breeze to reduce the temperature. 
In a smart system you can use the wind direction to open the louvres on different sides of the house to make the most of the breeze.  If the wind gusts or it rains the system can close the louvres again.

Auto Awning
The Electric awning has been around for a long time, but connect it to a thermostat inside the house and the home can extend awnings automatically to reduce the heat load through the windows and hence the amount of cooling or airconditioning required.  Remember to ask for a wind speed detector as well, you might not want to donate your awnings to your neighbours on the next gusty day.

Alternative Energies
Solar and Wind generation are becoming more popular on grid homes.  Reducing the homes energy consumption is the first step in planning any solar, wind or hydro system and Ecomation is a great way to achieve that.  Reducing your consumption will reduce the amount generation capacity required and if you are looking at battery backup - reduce the amount of battery capacity required as well. 

Solar hot water
The majority of energy used in a home is in hot water heating, solar hot water heaters will make a huge impact on your consumption.  Now connect your solar hot water system to Ecomation system and divert the energy wasted while you are away to the generation of electricity or heating of a pool.  Most solar hot water systems are dumb in that they are plumbed to the houses hot water system only, and when they reach the setpoint they simply waste any additional energy from the sun.

Generators
Many people are installing backup generators in areas with fickle power.  The cost of a generator to run your entire house is many times greater than the cost of a generator to run the essential services.  An Ecomation system will shed the non essential loads in a powercut so your generator can start under a reduced loading, meaning a smaller generator is required for backup.

Soil Sensors
Soil humidity probes connected to your Ecomation system can ensure the correct amount of water is delivered to your garden via your watering system and no more. 

Water Watchdog
Adding a solenoid to the incoming supply at the batch will mean when you set the alarm, no matter what may have been left dripping, running or ready to burst, no water is going to be wasted (or flood the house).

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