Z-WAVE OF ZEE FUTURE

A truly automated home is within the affordable reaches of everyday consumers, and there are more sensors and devices to make your smart home the most intelligent house on the block.  From door locks to thermostats, motion sensors to mobile device geo-fencing, the future is here.

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REMOVING THE HAZARD OF HOLIDAY LIGHTS

Remember that scene in A Christmas Story where dad is decorating the christmas tree?  After getting all the lights strung he desperately looks for an extra outlet in which to plug his holiday decorations.  He lifted cords and moved wires, and upon finding an open spot he inserted the plug and everything goes dark.  Pandemonium ensues as the family struggled to find their way in the dark and his son Ralphie’s commentary praising his old man’s prowess in changing a burnt fuse.Continue reading

USING AN ALARM.COM IMAGE SENSOR LIKE A BABY MONITOR

Ever since our fourth child was born our two-year-old has had a difficult time going to bed at night. Sometimes she’ll come into the living room and tell us things like “I need a drink” or “I’m not tired.” Of course when she says this she’s rubbing her eyes and yawning. We started making deals with her. To get her to stay in bed, like “go to sleep and you can hold the baby tomorrow.”  She must be incredibly intelligent, because she’s now figured out that any time she comes to us after getting out of bed, we’ll just pick her up and put her right back under her covers.Continue reading

ENERGY SAVINGS USING THE IQ SMART SOCKET

Our family has a room in my basement we’ve made into a modest home theater.  Its just a TV mounted on a wall and an inexpensive surround sound system, but its a great place for the kids to play video games or for the family to watch a movie together.  Being down in the basement it can get chilly,especially in the winter, so we have a space heater we purchased from Costco in the corner of the room.  Having the room heated that way has always worried us a little, since space heaters are notorious for causing fires.  To keep our home safe I’ve gotten in the habit of making a trip all the way downstairs to make sure the heater is off before we leave the house.Continue reading

BLAST OFF

My phone buzzed on the bedside table and I reached over to read the text message. “Site launched. Looks awesome.” Even though he’s only an hour north of our corporate headquarters in Cupertino, CA, my web designer often prefers to work through the night. A text message first thing in the morning meant that he’d been up all evening.Continue reading

A NEW DAY IS DAWNING

I’m on a plane looking out the window at the Salt Lake City airport tarmac and everything looks like Qolsys. It’s been cold for weeks, and the snow that fell just before Christmas has yet to melt away. It gives the world a white-grey look, the same color I’ve been working with our design team to achieve for our new website. The lights guiding us across the path to our runway are a green and blue, a paler version of the exact shades we’ve selected for our company, and I smile as I see the golden hues we chose as accents twinkling in the morning lights of the city beyond. Yes, everything looks like Qolsys.Continue reading