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Hot Home Tech Holiday

This blog comes to you from Jason Evans. Jason C. Evans is the consummate home technology enthusiast. He has been in the industry for almost 20 years specifying, installing, designing, and selling various types of home technologies. Whether it is home audio, video, security, or automation there is a good chance that Jason knows something about it, has installed it, played with it, or maybe even broke it. He is really excited about the convergence of so many technologies that were previously stand alone solutions but can now be combined together to provide really awesome experiences and tremendous value for homeowners. You can connect with Jason on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncevans/ or via email at jasoncevans73@gmail.com



"Home tech was a hot seller last holiday season and it will continue to be this holiday season as well. Technologies like Z-Wave, WiFi, and Bluetooth LE have made it possible to add devices wirelessly to any new or existing home and can usually be installed by even the most timid DIY’er. So...what things are on my hot list for cool home tech?


Let’s start with Blink Wire-Free Cameras. Blink was acquired by Amazon earlier this year and they offer a lot of bang for your buck when it comes to security cameras. What do I like?

  • Wire-free….yeah that means no power cable, no ethernet cable, etc. Amazing!
  • Super easy set-up. Download the Blink app, remove the camera from the packaging and follow the on-app instruction.
  • Great video quality...and recordings have audio.
  • Best part--NO MONTHLY FEES! When your Blink cameras capture motion those video clips are uploaded and stored to the cloud where you can review the video. You can even share video clips via text message, email, etc. 
Now if you want to get really geeky you can integrate Blink cameras with voice commands from an Amazon Echo product as well as the app IFTTT (If you don’t know what this is don’t worry about it.)

The next hot home tech is lighting control from Noon. Noon makes it extremely easy to add lighting control to a new or existing home. Many rooms in our homes have layered lighting. Some lighting is ambient lighting, some task lighting, and maybe even accent lighting. With traditional lighting switches our choices are either on or off for each of these. The Noon Room Director, along with the app, makes it possible to create lighting scenes or moods that incorporate ALL of the lighting in a space. Since a single room director can control up to 10 Noon Extension Switches this means you can create some really practical scenes along with some more dramatic scenes.

Let’s take the example of a kitchen that has a countertop along the wall and also has a kitchen island. You may have some under cabinet lighting to illuminate the counter. Above the island you may have some pendant lights to accent the space and provide lighting for the island. In the ceiling of the kitchen area you may have some 6” recessed LED lights. From the Noon room director you will be able to trigger different moods, perhaps one mood for cooking which has all lighting on a 80%, another for entertaining which would lower the lighting levels of all the lights, and yet another for clean-up that would turn all lights on at 100%. Check out this video that demonstrates how Noon works.

Noon Room Directors connect to the WiFi in your home and communicate with the Noon Extension Switches over Bluetooth LE(Low Energy). This means that even if your WiFi goes down in your house you can still have access to all of the scenes you set in the room director. And of course Noon can be controlled from Amazon Echo Devices and Google Assistants.

Now swapping out electrical light switches for Noon switches while not hard does require some electrical knowledge. Be sure to follow directions carefully and to be extremely safe when working with electrical wires. Noon does have some great step-by-step videos on their website and YouTube channel to help walk you through. If you have any doubts or concerns be sure to consult with a professional electrician.

So those are just a couple of my picks for hot home tech this year. As you can imagine there are tons more but these two are pretty awesome as they add value to everyday life and are simple to install and use. Happy Home Tech Holiday!"

Thanks for the awesome home tech holiday ideas Jason! Make sure to click on the links in the blog to go directly to the product's website and do some holiday shopping!

Need the perfect house for this awesome home tech? Click HERE to view available properties!

Looking to upgrade homes? Click HERE for your FREE home estimate!





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