Features
- Hot Wired
- The construction boom is continuing to ignite the structured wiring market, especially among high-end builders. But despite growing numbers of builders that are making structured wiring a standard feature in their homes, many others are slow to get on board.
- Enlightened Integration
- Based in the small New England town of Hopkinton, Mass., starting point of the famous Boston Marathon, few local custom builders are as willing to go the extra mile at installing home tech features as Ed Tarca. But the most important ingredient to Tarca is overall mood and environment, so the electronics are largely invisible.
- Building with Anticipation
- The International Builders Show and the home-tech exclusive portion of it, tecHOMExpo, are moving to Orlando this year. The move brings a dramatic change of scenery, and a continued strong demand for more information on the latest products in this space. This month we take a sneak peak at some of the new products that will be unveiled at the January show.
- Music to Your Ears
- Demand for distributed audio systems is growing at a dramatic rate, which is good news to the home electronics integrator you work with as a homebuilder. But you need to be up on what's happening in the market as well. We profile the manufacturers and products in this area that are candidates for the annual Distributed Audio Awards, announced at the Electronic House Expo (EHX).
Departments
- Avoiding Communications Systems Breakdowns
- When Kimball Hill Homes in Rolling Meadows, Ill., adopted a Nextel in-the-field phone system three years ago, there was some initial push back to the idea. After all, equiping 400 field personnel with new phones isn't a cheap proposition. But the move paid off handsomely, with the company being able to reduce cycle time by 5 percent, a sizeable chunk of change.
- A Call for Certification
- Few relish cetification, but is it exactly what tech-savvy builders need?
- High Regards for Low-E
- Home prices aren't the only things going way up in cost. So is the cost of heating and cooling our homes. With that in mind, homebuyers want builders to reduce the size of their energy bills as much as possible. Once simple way to do so is with low-e glass, or low-Emissivity glass. Embedded or layed with microscopically thin metal or metal oxides, low-e glass reduces radiant heat.
- Craving That Sinking Feeling
- Builder Ed Tarca's high-end custom home at Cranberry Cove features a luxurious designated home theater. There's nothing unusual about that. But what is quite uncommon with this theater room is that it descends down as you enter from the rear of the room. The true-theater effect is achieved by pouring a separate foundation for the theater room, and coordination closely with the foundation contractor and plumper.