Lighting Control
Arriving home late one evening to an empty house, you pull into the driveway and depress the garage door opener. Immediately your home transforms to provide you with a comfortable "occupied" feeling by conveniently lighting pre-selected rooms throughout your home before you enter. As you exit your car, the path from the garage to the kitchen is already lit and you can quickly and safely unload your belongings. Later that evening as you prepare for bed a single touch of the "goodnight" button on the keypad in the master suite extinguishes all unnecessary lights throughout your home and gently illuminates a nighttime path from the bedroom to the kitchen to safely accommodate any nighttime cravings you may have.
Lighting Control offers a convenient method of controlling the many lighting fixtures throughout your home from any location. In addition to eliminating the need for unattractive large banks of switches by replacing them with simple-to-use and elegant looking keypads, a typical system has the ability to create and store "lighting scenes". These scenes consist of pre-determined lighting levels for multiple fixtures throughout your home and are pre-programmed for specific events such as entertaining, vacationing, or watching television. Once stored, they can easily be recalled via the touch of a single button.
However, convenience and improved aesthetics are not the only pluses of lighting control. The added benefits of reduced energy use, improved safety and security, and the ability to control the lights in your home when you aren’t even there are all great reasons to consider adding lighting control to your home.
Not only can the benefits of a great lighting system be seen but the effects can be felt in the wallet as well. According to the American Lighting Association, household lighting accounts for 12-15% of our household utility bill. With the steady rise in energy costs, most homeowners would agree that it's fiscally savvy and environmentally responsible to control usage. Heating and cooling systems are typically use a tremendous amount of energy too. CentraLite systems can be configured to include thermostats and window blinds controls, ensuring optimum temperature settings, day or night, anytime of the year.
Central Vacuum System
Central Vacuums can be installed in any existing home without the inconvenience of knocking down or damaging any of your walls. And did you know that the installation normally will take just one day?
There are several reasons why you may want to consider a central vacuum system:
- Less Noise Cleaning your home or workspace with a central vacuum system can be a life-changing experience. Loud, life-depleting noise is no longer a part of vacuuming.
- Ease of Use & Versatility Homeowners will appreciate the ease and versatility a central vacuum provides, because no other vacuuming system lets you clean every nook and cranny of the house, including the garage, so fast and effectively!
- Power & Deep Cleaning Central vacuum units have powerful motors that are up to ten times stronger than regular uprights or hand-helds. Central vacuums clean deep down into the carpet grabbing dust, pet dander, mites, allergy causing particles, and other unwanted filth, helping you save your flooring and improving your family's health.
- Allergy Relief A major benefit that central vacuum owners don't realize, until they've owned a system, is how much cleaner the air is in their own home. Allergy sufferers always notice a reduction in their symptoms after using a central vac system. Central vacuums pick up allergy causing dust and remove them from the living area, unlike common portable vacuums which recycle the air.
- Cost Savings & Value Added Installing a central vacuum adds instant value to your real estate. In addition to the instant increase in value, central systems are more durable and longer lasting than common home vacuums. You'll spend less time and money replacing inexpensive vacuums and more time living, while enjoying the high quality of a central vacuum system.
FutureSmart Wiring
(Also known as "Smart Home Wiring")
If you're considering opting out of prewiring based on the wide availability of wireless devices today, remember that, despite industry pushes toward standardization, many wireless devices still use proprietary communication protocols, making them incompatible with other manufacturer's products. -for this reason, we still recommend hardwired homes for the simplest application and use of today's-and tomorrows home... most home systems products are designed with structured wiring in mind. Remember also that prewiring is a permanent upgrade to your home, increasing its value at sale time.
Some of the home systems that require prewiring are security; home theater and entertainment; phones, door-phones and intercoms; PC and internet networks; surveillance cameras; driveway vehicle detection; communicating thermostats; motorized window treatments; entry systems; and irrigation systems. In addition to installing access ports for these systems, you should (remove 'also') decide upon at least two locations for centralized controls, i.e., one in the living room and one in the master bedroom.
FutureSmart wiring will provide wiring for all of the applications you are going to use, plus we provide an bonus cabling for applications that some clients will take advantage of in the near future. The extra wire and labor cost is minimal in comparison to installing more at a later date-and with technology on an ever increasing march towards doing more electronically, now is the time to install.
Green Technology
MD central vacuums help you be green (read more)
- MD Central Vacuum Systems improve the air quality of a home
- Spraying harmful indoor chemicals is unnecessary to completely dust your home with MD
- MD vacs last years and years and are recyclable
- MD vacs cost 25 cents or less to operate per hour, and you'll have to vacuum less often
An MD vacuum is a better choice when thinking about the energy consumption and health of your home.
Energy-Saving Products from CentraLite (read more)
At CentraLite, we are proud that we have a role in helping people manage energy. Conservation is more important to our national and global health than ever before. CentraLite's line of intelligent products provide an affordable way to easily manage our valuable energy resources at home and work.
Home Distributed Audio
Nothing does more to enhance your living environment than having your favorite music playing while you go about your day. Today’s distributed audio systems allow different music selections to play in different rooms simultaneously. This means that you can listen to talk radio in the kitchen while preparing lunch as the kids are listening to pop music out by the pool.
Entertaining guests? You can easily pick the perfect satellite radio station or iTunes playlist for the evening, and have it all playing at the appropriate volume in each room. At the end of the night a single button turns it all off.
There are a number of distributed audio systems available, and each of them have different attributes. We know the questions to ask that will allow us to choose the right one for you.
Home Theater
These days the words “Home Theater” encompass everything from a compact bedroom system to a large, dedicated room with a projection screen and seating for your guests or more. Regardless of scale, what home theater means to us is a place where movies, TV shows, and music can be fully enjoyed. This means that each word spoken by an actor on screen comes through clearly and distinctly, and you are able to just relax and enjoy what unfolds on the screen. When the time comes for sound effects and explosions, our systems can easily provide those, too.
Sound and picture are only two parts of the home theater equation. Proper lighting, temperature, and ambient noise control are all equally important aspects of the viewing experience. If this sounds like too much to think about don’t worry because Mike Gunther Industries, Inc. can tie all of these elements together and make them easy for you to control.