Tag Archive for: Safety
Negotiating Your Home in the Dark? An automation system provides solutions to everyday challenges and increases home safety.
Last week I was talking to a client, who has been living in an automated home we did for them 4-5 years ago, about an upgrade to the new Vantage Equinox system. He mentioned his wife had recently taken a tumble on the stairs. It turns out she often heads down to the kitchen in the night for a glass of water but never turns the lights on for fear of disturbing him in his sleep. We had a simple solution to improve their home safety!
We popped around and added a “sneak” button so she could turn on the lights to a dim level leading away from the bedroom and negotiate the stairs in her home safely to the kitchen. We thought this was a pretty good solution until the lady of the house pointed out she has no hope of reading the the buttons at night without her glasses – so I had our tech glow the LED so she can easily find it at night.
Double win, we improved our clients home safety and restored a little marital harmony at the same time.
The ability to change the homes functionality and programming as a clients needs change is something you just can’t do with a conventionally wired home – a great reason to have smart wiring. A lighting control and automation system means you can do anything you like at any time in the future as clients needs change – including improvements to home safety!
Here’s her feedback on the sneak tweak:
“Hi…just a big vote of thanks for solving my problem negotiating my many stairs in the dark! Stepping off into space and landing in a heap is no fun. Your techie made it super easy by illuminating the words to a brighter lux between the hours of 10 pm and 5 am. Thanks!”
Are your smoke detectors in working order?
Walking around a clients house yesterday, we were updating their home to a Vantage Equinox System. We were done and dusted when I noticed a tiny little smoke detector outside the kitchen, it was very pretty, and miles up on a 3 meter high ceiling so you barely noticed it – an interior designers dream. The problem was the client hadn’t noticed it either and nobody had any idea whether it was working or if it even had a battery in it. Off we went for another lap of the house and discovered a total of 5 smoke detectors, all in various states, some with covers off and batteries missing, all impossible to reach without a good sized ladder.
We were running cabling nearby so the client asked us to put the whole lot onto the alarm system where they are centrally powered and battery backed up, if there is any issue with them, the panel will alert monitoring.
The primary reason for smoke detectors is life safety, and this is the reason we are required to install smoke detectors within three meters of any “sleeping space”, most commonly bedrooms, but if you have a pullout couch for the odd hanger-on, then this needs covering as well.
The secondary reason for smoke detectors is property protection. Given that many of our clients spend a good part of the year elsewhere, usually somewhere warmer, the house or bach is often empty for days or weeks at a time. I have to ask the question – what good is a battery powered smoke detector beeping it’s heart out while the house burns to the ground around it?
The law says you need hardwired smoke detectors if the people sleeping in the bedrooms are paying to be there (i.e. hotels and lodges). Why are they better protected than your own family?
If your current smoke detectors are from the bin by the tills at Bunnings or you can’t remember if you changed the batteries last year or not, please get them connected to your alarm system so we can all stop worrying about them! Click here if you want yours checked out.
Rant Over – Brendon 
P.S. We use and recommend heat (rather than smoke) detectors in kitchens to avoid the wet tea-towel dance when you burn the toast – nuisance tripping is a thing of the past now, so no excuses!