Components For Building A Smarter Home |
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by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore ENERGY EFFICIENCY Better sprinklers, such as the WeatherTRAK system from HydroPoint, also play a prominent role in the energy efficiency of a home, especially in drier municipalities in Arizona, Nevada, and California. “Customers like the idea that their home uses the latest technologies to make living more convenient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly,” says Caroline Nordahl-Brosio of HydroPoint. “Now, WeatherTRAK extends the latest technology to the area outside the home to reduce water bills, protect landscape investments and boost property value.” Ordinary irrigation timers, Nordahl-Brosio points out, lead to water waste and harmful runoff. WeatherTRAK eliminates most runoff and cuts back on landscape water usage by adjusting watering volumes and schedules to “correspond precisely with daily weather conditions and the specific needs of any landscape.” Additionally, WeatherTRAK helps builders reduce the financial, regulatory and legal risks attributable to over-watering (such as landscape and property damage, mold, non-point source water pollution, customer complaints and excessive water bills). “Government agencies have already paid out hundreds of millions for water-efficient clothes washers and low-flow toilets in the last several years,” Nordahl-Brosio adds. “While these appliances have helped to alleviate water shortages, the greatest opportunity for savings lies with landscapes, which receive 58 percent of all non-agricultural water and are typically over-watered 30 percent or more.” Don Allison, Principal of Monogram Design Builders – one of a small handful of Arizona’s Energy Star builders – agrees. People are getting smarter about what kinds of landscaping they should consider, as well as a home’s overall functionality. A smart home, he points out, is one that uses energy wisely – for the benefit of the buyer as much as the environment. “With Energy Star, you have another layer in the field inspecting your homes, but it adds efficiency to the home, which results in cost savings,” he says. There are reports and reviews that are done by Energy Star, and our homebuyers save between $280 to $590 a year in energy costs. Which is pretty significant. And that’s just pure savings on an annual basis. Of course there’s an environmental side – you’re saving environmentally. It’s something we believe in, and it adds value to our homes.” But Allison admits that Energy Star is just a baby step in what is to come as builders continue to explore new ways to up the IQ of a home. “As the baby boomers are aging and going to retirement, they’re in that technology revolution right now, so to that extent more of those things are going to be adopted easily,” he says. “I think the homes 20 and 30 years from now, and the technology available, is really going to be beyond our imagination.” |
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