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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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