Restrained ornamentation and a refined decorative look is the order of the day for Crystal lighting. Fixtures in this class usually have a smaller scale compared to the more Baroque-era grandiose fixtures with more excessive design elements.

Often times; Crystal lighting styles will have distressed tones that resemble their vintage-style lighting counterparts, but with heavier design elements and more intricate detail while using crystal as an accent to project the light in a visually pleasing pattern. An intricate pattern in an antique bronze finish with crystal inlays without invoking the more flared styling that is typical of earlier period lighting is a great example of Crystal lighting.

Nowadays, most people are walking around with what is essentially a fully functional computer in their pockets. We’re speaking, of course, about their smart phones. Whether you are a real technophile, only a casual user, or something of a Luddite, there is no denying the fact that having these devices on our persons all day long can benefit us greatly. If you are just using your smart phone to get directions or to pass the time with your favorite games, though, you are not using it to its full potential. With the integration of a home automation system in Wellesley, MA, you can start using your phone for so much more.

A home automation system is a system custom tailored to your user preferences and living space that basically serves to make your home a more efficient and convenient place to live. As it stands now, all of the appliances and systems in your home stand alone. Your thermostat, for instance, is used to control your heating and cooling systems. Your outdoor lights may be on a timer, but your indoor lighting system must be controlled manually. When you allow us to design and install a home automation system in your residence, though, we can tie the home together neatly, and you can use an app on your smart phone to control the various systems and appliances upon which you depend so much.

We recommend home automation systems for a few different reasons. Chief among these are efficiency, convenience and security. When you are able to adjust the HVAC system that you forgot to turn down when you left the house from your phone, you won’t have to just let it run its course throughout the workday. When you can control your door locks and lights from your smart phone, you can ensure that your house is secure, while also granting access to your home in the event that someone without a key needs to get in and feed the family pooch for you. And don’t forget about your poor neighbor Jim, who needs to borrow your lawnmower because his broke down right before his cookout. With a home automation system, you can even let him into the garage to borrow what he needs!

Automation lies at the core of much of our modern lives. However, it evolves at radical speeds. The simple concept, to build a machine to perform a task without human intervention, was the engine of the industrial revolution. Now that concept is the driving force behind robotics, self-driving vehicles, and a wide range of advanced technologies.

Most automated tasks are part of a closed-loop system. This system is designed so that the outputs are monitored and fed back to the controller. The controller changes its operation as needed. An example of a closed-loop system is a home thermostat, which monitors the air temperature. When the low set-point is reached, a contact closes in the thermostat, beginning a furnace lighting cycle. As the furnace runs, the room air temperature increases until the high set-point is reached. The contact opens and ends the furnace burn cycle. This is automation.

With electrical relays, it is possible to achieve a variety of automatic functions. A motor starter uses a relay to close a contact that sends electrical power to a motor. In addition, it closes a set of auxiliary contacts that keep the main relay closed. A control mechanism, such as a temperature input or a stop button, can be wired in series with the auxiliary contact. This allows for control of the motor. An expansion of relay logic is the programmable logic controller or PLC. Instead of mechanical relays, a PLC uses a set of input and output contacts connected to a computer controller. Software in the controller then dictates how the inputs and outputs interact. They additionally execute specific patterns of operations, based on programmed ladder logic.

Are your customers getting hot under the collar about rising energy costs? If so, suggest they buy a ceiling fan.

Although ceiling fans do consume electricity, experts say the amount of money homeowners can save on air conditioning greatly outweighs the cost of running the fan itself.

“Ceiling fans provide year-round comfort and efficiency,” says Barb Wright, a ceiling fan product manager at Westinghouse Lighting.

Wright says the cost of operating a ceiling fan varies based on how often they’re turned on and how much the electric company charges, but on average, she says a standard ceiling fan costs less to operate than an incandescent light bulb.

Experts say ceiling fans reduce energy in two ways.

First, fans circulate the air in the room, preventing hot air from accumulating at the ceiling.

“A ceiling fan helps equalize the temperature throughout the room, so your air conditioner doesn’t have to work as hard to keep the room cool,” says Scot Wetmore, marketing director at Dan’s Fan City, a ceiling fan retailer with more than 50 stores in the United States.

When people are in the room, Wetmore says ceiling fans have the added benefit of making people feel cooler.

“Ceiling fans cool by evaporation, like a wind chill factor,” he says, adding that fans will make it feel like it’s about 6 degrees cooler in your home than it actually is, allowing you to set your thermostat 6 degrees higher. According to Progress Energy, an energy company that services North and South Carolina and Florida, homeowners can save 7 to 10 percent off their cooling costs for each degree above 78.

And ceiling fans don’t just save money in the summer. Ceiling fans run counterclockwise in the summer, but many ceiling fans are equipped with reverse switches which allow you to run the fan clockwise in the winter, thereby reducing heating bills, too.

“[Changing the direction of the fan] makes the air column go up toward the ceiling, and what it does is it drives air currents up on the ceiling to the wall and down the wall, and that helps redistribute heat from the ceiling. So it helps lower your heating bills by re-circulating the heat,” Wetmore explains.

If a ceiling fan also includes a light fixture, Wright says customers can maximize their energy savings by replacing the incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.

Wright says homeowners should also consider buying Energy Star-rated ceiling fans. “They are about 50 percent more efficient than conventional fan/light units with an estimated energy savings of $15 to $20 per year,” Wright says.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Web site, Energy Star-rated ceiling fans move air up to 20 percent more efficiently than conventional models due to advanced blade and motor design, and Energy Star-rated ceiling fans that have light fixtures are about 50 percent more efficient and produce about 75 percent less heat.

Several ceiling fan manufacturers make ceiling fans that meet the government’s Energy Star requirements, including Casablanca, Kichler, Minka Aire and Savoy House.

Click here to shop hundreds of decorative and functional ceiling fans at Capitol Lighting’s 1800lighting.com and start saving on energy today!