Welcome to Our Smart Home Technology Blog

Almost everyone we know is grumbling about Daylight Savings Time and for good reason. It seems that the brief time period in which we enjoy sunlight has dwindled into a few hours, and many of us are feeling more sluggish as a result. Now that Texas has finally started showing signs of winter, your employees might feel a little cabin fever within your office walls, which interferes with brainstorming and creativity.

You can enjoy more of the illumination you and your employees need just by adding motorized shades to your Irving, TX, space, and you can even save money in the process. Keep reading to see how one solution can do both.

SEE MORE: How Lighting Control Makes Your Conference Room Smarter

Harvest Sunlight

We’ve all experienced the dreaded 3 p.m. lag, which often coincides with the time that we need to be the most productive. Liven up the post-lunch conference room meeting by brightening your surroundings! Human rhythms depend on bright daylight illumination to power us through the morning and afternoon. Motorized shades with photo sensors “read” the amount of daylight outside and automatically raise the blinds to optimize light intake. We can program your shades to rise and fall at preset times, based on circadian rhythm patterns.

...And Heat

Did you know that some of  that light coming through your office’s windows converts to energy? According to an Energy.gov study, up to 40% of a building's heating energy is lost through windows during heating seasons. Motorized shades effectively decrease your heating bills in two ways - by allowing more of the sunlight to come in and heat the house and by trapping cold air outside. Let’s look closer.

“Are you ready for some football?”Are you ready to watch the Dallas Cowboys or any of your other favorite teams play? If you don’t have season tickets, now is the time to check your family room or dedicated media space to make sure it’s has the best features this football season. You may want to upgrade your TV from HD to UHD, change your soundbar to a full surround sound system, or perhaps you need a better remote control for all of the games and shows you watch. In any case, we have everything you need to enjoy this year’s roster of sports entertainment. Keep reading to find out what our best recommendations are for a new media space or home theatre system. • Update Your Media Room or Home Theater with the Newest TechMost football fans will admit that you can enjoy the action better on a TV than at the stadium. We currently are featuring The Frame TV in the showroom (Samsung 65” Frame 4K UHD TV), which displays like a beautiful piece of art when the TV is not being viewed. You can choose from a plethora of art designs or you can add in your own from your photo collections or other source. And when you’re watching the game on The Frame, not only will it feel like you're right on the field with the players, but you'll also be able to tell the smallest difference between a player being inbounds and a football crossing the goal line.The one thing going for the stadium experience is the crowd environment, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised how you can recreate some of that ambiance with a Dolby Atmos surround sound system. You'll not only be able to hear the thud of every tackle but listen to crowd noise surrounding you from all sides. You'll feel like you're in the stadium without having to deal with the heat or bad view.

You may wonder with so many cool and beneficial smart home features, why invest in adding lighting and shading control? The truth is that automating your lights and shades has a lot of benefits, namely saving energy, time, money, and increasing home security. Making this long-term investment will not only add value to your home, but it will make your everyday life easier and more enjoyable. You’ll find that using smart lighting and shading is not just a luxury, but a smart choice when it comes to updating your home in Highland Park, Texas or anywhere you live in or travel to in the world.

SEE ALSO: Explore What it Means to Live With Smart Home Automation

1. Go Green by Adding These Energy-Saving Solutions

While installing smart lighting alone will save you a lot of energy – mainly because most of the electricity you use is spent on lighting – coordinating your lights and shades together will give you the most energy savings. Firstly, shades take the pressure off your HVAC system because blocking UV rays with solar shades will naturally cool the home. When it’s cold outside, you can also leave the shades open to let the sunlight warm your rooms. As soon as your shades go down at noon when the sun is high, your lights will turn on to a mid-level. Dimmers allow you to adjust lighting levels any time of day and still save energy. Our lighting partner, Lutron, recommends dimming lights down 30 percent, which will reduce overall energy use by 20 percent. Since our systems are customizable, the DeVance team can create a climate control system that saves you the most energy.

2. Enjoy the Convenience of Wireless Controls

In 1959, Joel Spira invented the rotary dimmer switch, Lutron’s initial claim to fame. Lutron’s popularity soared through consequent decades as they created customized lighting automation systems, motorized shades and controls for homes and businesses, perfecting their product offering along the way. Now one of the most significant names in the smart home industry, they’re innovating LED lighting, tunable lighting and motorized shades for Dallas, TX, offices like yours.

But with the other automated lighting systems out there, why do we consistently choose Lutron for business applications? You’ll discover a few of those reasons below!

SEE ALSO: Is Your Conference Room Design Ready for the Next Decade?

Streamlined Connection

Lutron uses custom repeaters that employ radio frequency technology to communicate, ensuring the smoothest connection and minimal network interference. This system, called Clear Connect RF, means that you never have to compromise the bandwidth needs of your AV system with your lighting and shading requirements, which pays off if you’re controlling many devices throughout a large, tech-heavy office. And whether you have two lights or two hundred, you can control dimming and color temperature, monitor energy usage or power down your whole office from anywhere by using your Lutron app.

Human-Centric Setup

Static lighting - illumination that doesn’t change temperature or brightness throughout the day - occupies most commercial centers: The American Society of Interior Design reports that 68 percent of employees complain about the lighting in their offices. We can blame this trend on the ubiquitous fluorescent light that raises many staff complaints - ranging from unshakable midday lethargy to early-morning jitters.

We recommend Lutron’s lighting control for businesses aiming to implement the lighting that humans need to thrive. Its brilliance and tone shift imperceptibly throughout the day but impact our productivity, alertness and well-being in noticeable ways. You might notice that your staff seems more focused and alert, even during that late-afternoon meeting.

Lighting and shading control is often considered a must-have aspect of any smart home because of how much convenience it adds to your lifestyle at home. If you’re considering adding lighting and shading control to your Texas residence, it can be tough to know how to get started. Keep reading to learn the main aspects of lighting and shading control so that you can start taking advantage of its benefits in your University Park or other Dallas area home.

SEE ALSO: Top 3 Benefits of Lighting and Shading Control

Choose Your Brand

When it comes to lighting and shading control brands, two companies stand out far above the rest: Lutron and Crestron. Some control systems only control lighting or shading, not both, which can make the system more complicated. That’s not the case with Lutron and Crestron. The great thing about Lutron and Crestron is that they both provide so many different options: roller shades, wireless dimmers, skylight shades, touchscreen controls, and more.

From the same company, you can get everything you need for a complete solution. And beyond the technical aspects of the control system, Lutron and Crestron also offer window treatment design elements. You can look through their extensive collection of different fabric types, colors, and patterns to find the best options to match your home’s décor.

Pick Your Locations

The types of lighting and shades you choose will depend greatly on where you put them. It’s important to get the right lighting and shading materials for your lifestyle and the purpose of each room – blackout shades for a media room, but transparent shades that simply reduce the sunlight glare will serve the client better in rooms with a gorgeous view. After you decide which rooms you want to have lighting and shading control in, a DeVance Electronic Lifestyle expert will be there to offer advice and guidance on selecting the best materials for each space—considering everything from what the ideal fabric type would be to reduce UV damage to furniture on through to the final selection of light fixtures to accentuate your artwork.

In previous blogs, we’ve discussed how lighting automation can save a significant sum each month, especially when you incorporate some low-voltage wiring and occupancy sensors. For example, today’s shift to LED lighting has slashed energy costs nearly in half.

This month, we’ll focus more on employees and how lighting ties into their job satisfaction and performance. When surveyed by the American Society of Interior Design, most employees voiced dissatisfaction with their office’s lighting. Corporate lighting is often static and fluorescent, but there is an alternative. We’ve found that human-centric lighting, like the Lutron solutions we’ll describe here, improves morale and productivity, assets which can, in turn, affect your Dallas, TX, business’s bottom line. Keep reading to learn how lighting could provide a health benefit to your staff.

SEE ALSO: How Lighting Control Makes Your Conference Room Smarter

Lighting, With People in Mind

Human bodies crave varying lighting brightness and tone during different times of day, corresponding to the sun’s rise and fall. The problem? We spend about 90% of our days inside. As a result, we’re shut off from the illumination that we need to power through our tasks throughout the day, sleep well at night; then wake up and repeat. How can you break the vicious cycle and get your employees’ health back on track?

Why Timing Matters

Often, employees talk about office lighting in terms of feeling “unnatural,” even if they’re not sure why. Corporate lighting’s tone and brilliance usually doesn’t correspond to the time of day. Your staff might notice these affects as mood problems at first, including irritability and sluggishness.

What do you want the focal point of your home to be? To draw attention to a piece of art, a beautiful rug, or an antique chair you need to eliminate the distractions. In the interior design world, technology tends to be an obstacle. Designers are always trying to hide all of the tech since it can be an eyesore. Too many switches will create “wall acne” and cords, wires, or unsightly black boxes don’t exactly match the theme for your McKinney, Texas home. In this blog, we will focus on how to make certain elements of your lights and shades disappear with smart home automation. Keep reading to learn all about it. 

SEE ALSO: 5 Household Items to Make Smarter with an RTI System

Smart Shades

For this part of your home you won’t be hiding the roller fabric, or drapes, you’ll be hiding the motor that moves the shades up and down. Some motorized shade companies install a big box on the top of the window, which can look like a giant obstruction on the wall. To solve this issue, DeVance hides the motor in an enclosure—which is like a pocket inside the wall. You won’t see the motor or wires at all, instead everything is hidden and your family can focus on the beautiful fabric over the window. Smart shading also eliminates those hanging cords used to adjust the curtains. Instead, you’ll use a small remote control or your mobile device to open or chose them.

Smart Lighting