The 40,000-square-foot Rasmussen Center for Community Advancement Professions at Grand View University was completed in 2008 and houses the departments of art, education, human services, criminal justice, political sciences, psychology and sociology. The building uses the TALON system to automatically operate VAV boxes for the center, raise and lower window shades based on time of day and interior room temperatures, and adjust lighting for the center’s art gallery and main conference room.

Link

The home of the future unlocks the door and turns on the lights when you arrive, brews coffee to wake you up, and automatically waters the garden. Seem like something that’s still decades away? You can create a smart home today that does all that and more–and you don’t need to pay thousands of dollars to a contractor to accomplish it.

Automate Your Home With Four Easy Projects | Reuters.

Day into evening, Lightline  mimi blinds are the right choice for your special rooms. They take horizontal blinds to a new heights of fashion with an exciting selection of colors and finishes. The exclusive feature make these blinds a welcome addition to your home.

Add a motor and motorize you blinds for convenience and energy savings. Visit www.dcwindowautomation.com to learn how.

Roman, Austrian and balloon shades. Roman shades draw up into neat horizontal folds, Austrian shades into scalloped folds, and balloon shades into billows. All have rings on the back through which cords are strung. With the desired height. With others, you wind the cord around a cleat attached to the wall. However, motorizedroman shades are always first choice from consumers. Any shade can be motorized.

Sturdy, tightly woven fabrics are generally best for Roman  and balloon shades. Lightweight, airy fabrics are suitable for Austrian shades. If the fabric is patterned, gather up the fabric to see how it will look when the shade is raised.

Roman shades are also available in other materials, including woven wood, solar control screening and handwoven natural fibers, reeds, and grasses.

Visit www.dcwindowautomation.com for wonderful pictures on all styles of shades.

Ultra energy efficient home unveiled

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District says construction is finished on a home in Folsom that should see monthly energy bills of about $24.

The 1,940-square-foot bungalow features two-inch by six-inch framing to allow more room for advanced insulation, solar electricity and a solar hot water, LED lighting, very tight and conditioned attic space and walls and an advanced water-based air conditioner.

Another feature is a home automation system that monitors energy use, solar energy production, and water use and remotely controls the home’s lights, thermostat, and window blinds, SMUD says.

Link

Blinds Express and Comfortex Window Fashions Launch Breakthrough Product: Odysee™ Insulating Window Blinds
New York – New window blinds product by Comfortex offers the energy efficiency of cellular shades with the variable light control of traditional wood blinds.
Window Blinds — Window Shades
ROCHESTER, NY — The new Odysee Insulating Blinds by Comfortex Window Fashions, offered at BlindsExpress.com combines the energy efficient performance of cellular shades, with the variable light control of traditional wood blinds.

Odysee features flexible fabric vanes that when compressed provide an open view through and when expanded into cells, provide superior window insulation. Available with both light filtering and room darkening fabric collections, the white color to the exterior not only provides a uniform external appearance but also aids in the reflection of heat and protects against damaging ultraviolet rays.

Odysee provides year-round energy savings providing up to 71% more insulation then compared to standard horizontal wood blinds.

“Odysee Insulating Blinds are both beautiful and durable. Odysee combines all the functionality of a blind, plus the tremendous benefit of superior insulation. The color choices in two fabric options, will appeal to a broad spectrum of designers and consumers,” said Thomas Williams, Systems Administrator for Blinds Express.

Odysee Insulating Blinds are built with green technology utilizing a highly innovative and automated manufacturing and fabrication process that minimizes landfill waste.

Museum Piece Offers Glimpse of a Prefab Future

The exhibit, whose plans, materials and design earned it the designation “Chicago’s greenest home,” is open to the public through January. (See http://www.msismarthome.org.)

There is something futuristic about the way this technology-studded three-story structure with garage is put together and operates.

The digital nerve center includes an automation system that controls temperature, lighting and window coverings to reduce energy consumption. In the morning, the home’s LifeWare automation system clicks on the lights, raises the shades and cues wake-up music from the NuVo digital music system.

The motorized skylight opens when detectors sense a cool breeze, saving on air conditioning. Digital probes in houseplants send a voice-mail message when water is needed. When the doorbell rings, a touch screen reveals a wireless video feed from the front entry. And a few clicks put the entire house in shutdown mode, automatically securing doors, turning off lights, and lowering heat or air as residents leave for a vacation.

Link

Window treatments always spruce up a room’s interior design. They add a little style and décor to an otherwise drab area of the home. Windows aren’t typically exciting and they only provide one clear function: to let the light in. Not only does this look boring (unless you live in a very scenic area), it isn’t very energy efficient either. So no matter how much you like the view, it’s always important to invest in some kind of window covering.

LINK

Technorati Profile

As great as those towering windows in your family room are at capturing the view, there will be times when you’ll want to cover them up. When you’re watching a movie, for example, you’ll want to close the drapes to prevent sunlight from washing out the bright, beautiful picture on your new big-screen TV. You can stick with old-style drapes that must be opened and closed manually, or you can save yourself a lot of time and trouble by going with window treatments that can be controlled electronically.

LINK

Say goodbye to the bland living room. The colorful days of décor are upon us, and you need to comply with the rules or the home fashion police will raid your house and charge you. These days, black and white, monochrome, stainless steel, and white are all gone. Now, bright vivid colors are where it is for décor. However, all is not lost. You do not need to go out and buy new furniture. You can update your look, and keep those heirlooms from your grandmother. The bachelor furniture can stay, as long as you know what to do. Consider the basic white room. A white wall no longer looks great when it is featured with a white couch in the front, both of which are coordinated with a glass coffee table. That room probably also has white wood blinds. Well, you need to discard those wood blinds. Surf the web and find some window treatments with colors. Find vertical blinds with a vivid red. There are some sites with so many colors that you are sure to find one that makes your heart beat again, now that the room no longer looks like an operating room. Bright vivid blinds can coordinate well with a pillow or a small rug, but get the blinds first, as the colors of those are more variable than the colors of blinds.

LINK