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The latest and greatest building products.
These have been heady months for the Z-Wave Alliance.
There's no doubt this house has a lot of wide-open spaces, room to satisfy any size gathering. But it also allows for private pursuits and passions, from a boat ride on the lake to some quiet time in the library above the study; from fiddling with a Harley in the fully equipped workshop/garage to...
AS 2005 RECEDES, EXCITEMENT IS brewing among consumer electronics companies that 2006 could be the year vendors finally start making some headway with production home builders.
PLUMBING, ELECTRICAL, AND MECHANICAL systems are among the most expensive and labor-intensive parts of a house.
CHAD AND JAN WILSON HAVE been married for 16 years. They were college sweethearts. He's an electrical engineer; she's a marketing executive.
A recent merger whittles down the structured wiring market to a handful of major players: On-Q Legrand, Honeywell, General Electric, Leviton, and UStec.
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THE NEW AMERICAN HOME 2005 WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE without the generous support and contribution of products and services by the members of the NAHB's National Council of the Housing Industry (NCHI)/Supplier 100 and other consultants, contributors, installers, suppliers, and trade partners.
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This laboratory provides academics an opportunity to work with industry manufacturers, designers, and home builders to test ideas and bring the next generation of home technologies and home medical applications to market.
For years, home technology has been more about selling structured wiring panels and integrated security systems than explaining the real benefits of the high-tech lifestyle to homeowners.
In years to come, electrochromic (EC) windows, which control the amount of solar heat that passes through window glass, are likely to change the way consumers think about the function of windows.
The wireless world that technology experts have predicted for years is finally emerging. So where do builders fit into all this technology growth? The short answer: Most don't ... yet. We looked at three projects that offer wireless networks to new-home owners.
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With conventional wiring, you turn on the lights by flipping a wall-mounted switch that completes a 110-volt electrical circuit. The system is easy to fine-tune, so light levels can be raised or lowered at any fixture, and new lighting scenes added as they are needed.Equipment maker AMX in...
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Recent NAHB surveys document an ongoing trend toward subcontracting by single-family home builders. There's been talk for a long time about the need for cooperatives of small builders to exert buying power in the markets for building materials/components, and in recent years the Internet has been...
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One area for Progress Lighting in Spartanburg, S.C., is landscape lighting. "Landscape lighting is one of the things that builders often overlook because they feel it is too costly," says James E. Decker, Progress' vice president of brand management.
In response to the uncertainty, some major builders, such as Shea Homes and Pardee Homes, have begun including solar-power systems in their houses, especially in California, where favorable tax laws help make solar technology affordable. In Woodlands, Texas, outside of Houston, a fuel cell system...
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Hardware manufacturers Linksys (www.linksys.com) and Netgear (www.netgear.com) now both offer power-line networking products that use existing 110-volt electrical wiring to carry computer data.
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The process that new home buyers go through to select options and upgrades has evolved over years of practice. "So far this year, 30 percent of our profit comes from our design centers," says John Rymer, vice president of sales and marketing, Morrison Homes in Atlanta.
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Outdoor lighting has come of age. "People want to create outdoor rooms for entertaining at night," notes Randall Whitehead, author of The Art of Outdoor Lighting. $6 to $18 per string These party lights feature "Nomex" shades, a type of flameproof paper cone, but there are myriad styles available...
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How much is a Web site worth? We asked Village Homes in Littleton, Colo. The company spent $1.2 million redesigning its site, which it launched two years ago. One feature is an online version of Village's Tech Touch Showroom, a physical showroom where customers can choose electrical and electronic...