Auto Off
Specify occupancy sensors to shut off lights that are not needed. The sensors can be motion based like PIR's or pressure based like carpet sensors. Locate them in areas like games rooms, bedrooms, garages & laundries. An Ecomation sensor will detect the ambient light level and not activate the lights if there is sufficient ambient light.

Goodnight
The Goodnight button can turn off things you forgot you left on - that light under the house, the flouro strip under the stairs. Put a few Goodnight buttons around the house and you will find yourself regularly pressing it to turn off all those unwanted lights and loads.

Goodbye
Where the Goodnight button is great when you go to bed, the Goodbye button will shut off loads you don't need while the house is unoccupied during the day or weekend. Activated by the alarm being set, the Goodbye will turn off any lights, towel rails, fans, mirror demisters etc.

Warm Welcome
The opposite of the Goodbye, the Warm button will detect your arrival and depending on the time of day turn on the bare minimum of loads / open doors to get you from the garage to the kitchen.

Coming home in the dark, rather than flick a switch that floods the halls with 1000 watts of inefficent tungsten light, the system may illuminate a row of ankle level LED fittings to provide plenty of light for you to carry the shopping in. 10 LEDs would use less power in a year than one tungsten bulb for an hour.

Vacation
Pressing the Vacation button when heading away for a week or month will turn off all underfloor heating, hot water cylinders and everything in the house but the clock radios and fridges. Heading to the airport - you never have to wonder if you left the oven or the hair straighteners on - your know they're OFF!

Timers
Putting the towel rails and underfloor heating on timers mean that they are only on as required. Commonly the underfloor heating in an ensuite would only be required between 6am and 8am and then only in winter. Timers provide a massive saving for these types of devices that we simply forget about but which make a massive impact on our homes quiescent consumption.

Sensor Switch
Adding a sensor to the light in the cupboard means the light is only on for the time it is required, adding a Daylight Detect as above will further reduce energy consumption

Controlled Power Points
Most devices still use power even when switched off. The average NZ house uses approximately 500w of power with nothing turned on! This is the power used, for example, to keep indicator lights on, or cellphone chargers warm. A controlled power point kills the socket dead and puts an end to wasted power.

Screen Savers
A typical 17" CRT computer monitor will use around 5 amps of current when running, where the same size LCD screen will use around half an amp! If you have been looking for a good time to swap your old monitor or TV for a LCD screen - now is the time. What does this have to do with Ecomation? It's the structured wiring side of an Ecomation system that will enable you to pass your HiDef 1080p content from the source equipment to all the LCD's in the house over the Cat5 or Cat6 structure.

Online Order
One Woolworths truck delivering 20 peoples groceries is far more efficient than 20 people driving their cars. Using a structured cabling system and shared internet connection to the kitchen laptop, order your groceries online and save both time and fuel. You can save common shopping lists and take the hassle out of shopping forever.

ExoFridge
Now you have ordered your groceries online - install an ExoFridge.  Your delivery company can put your groceries in the fridge or heater compartment at your front fence so you don't even have to be home. Afraid of ordering boxes of wine online because your neighbours kids are the pinot type? An ExoFridge eliminates the worry.

Auto Awning
The electric awning has been around for a long time, but connect it to a thermostat inside the house and the home can extend awnings automatically to reduce the heat load through the windows and hence the amount of cooling or airconditioning required. Remember to ask for a wind speed detector as well, you might not want to donate your awnings to your neighbour on the next gusty day.

Soil Sensors
Soil humidity probes connected to your Ecomation system can ensure the correct amount of water is delivered to your garden via your watering system and no more.

Water Watchdog
Adding a solenoid to the incoming supply at the batch will mean when you set the alarm, no matter what may have been left dripping, running or ready to burst, no water is going to be wasted (or flood the house)

Gas Watchdog
Adding a solenoid to either mains gas or bottled gas means you can be sure that when the house is unoccupied the gas supply is deactivated.

HVAC Setback
Many homes have central heating or air conditioning. Take the example of gas heating during winter - you may desire a setpoint of 21 degrees during the day, but overnight it is perfectly acceptable to drop the temperature back to 17 - 18 degrees. This overnight temperature is known as a setback point, and automation systems thermostats can be programmed to initiate setbacks at the appropriate times.

HVAC Kill
An Ecomation system will sense that the alarm has been set and shut off the HVAC system - even if the owner has forgotten to turn it off.

Smart Kill
Most automation systems can detect that the house alarm has been set and take actions based on that such as, for example, shutting off lights or other loads. However this is not always the best course of action, for example, there is no point shutting off the hot water if you are just heading down to pick up some milk.

A system with Ecomation programming can move a step further and use amount of time the alarm is set to make decisions on what to shut off. For example, alarm set, shut off lights, music etc immediately. If the alarm is still set after 10 hours (a standard working day) then also kill any underfloor heating, towel rails etc overriding any automatic timers that may be in place. If the alarm is still set after 48 hours (a standard weekend) then it's time to put the house into Hibernation, turning off everything but essential loads, refrigeration, alarm systems, clocks etc.

Go to Ecomation Hardware