Explore the Technology That Will Have the Biggest Impact in 2020

No technology in the world is older than lighting control, but that doesn’t mean it is not constantly evolving. Ever since humans created fire, they’ve been looking for new ways to illuminate their spaces and improve their lifestyles. Dimmers may have introduced the modern lighting control movement in the late 1950s, but innovation hasn't stopped there.

In the following decades, there's been the advent of color-changing bulbs, whole-home systems, and even intuitive mobile apps. Valuable additions were made in 2019 as well, whether it was brand new technology or existing one finally finding its way to residential applications in Newport, RI, Old Saybrook, CT and throughout New England. Explore our latest blog to learn about the latest and greatest in home lighting control, including tunable fixtures, voice control, and more.

Embrace the Power of Smart Shading No Matter Your Budget or Space Limitations

Motorized shades are one of the most versatile smart technology options for your home. Their list of benefits includes added privacy, style and comfort and you can choose from a wide range of models, fabrics and colors to fit any environment. But despite their vast potential, many homeowners still believe they're not the right fit for them. 

For existing homeowners, the phrase “retrofit” can be a loaded one. Thoughts of contractors making holes or tearing down walls, pulling hundreds of feet of wire or sheetrocking, repainting and refinishing a space can be a homeowner’s worst nightmare.

Fear not because Lutron’s wireless and battery-powered shading solutions are the perfect option to add shades to your home without turning it into a construction zone.

Designed for simple and affordable application, these products are a great entry point into the world of motorized shades. Enjoy all the perks of motorized shading without having to deal with invasive wiring. Are you interested in adding shades to your condo in Hartford or your beach house in Westerly, RI, but not sure where to start? Then keep reading and let us show you how this can all be possible with the power of Lutron.

These Entry Level Options Are Ideal for Any Budget

Custom smart home solutions are often considered a luxury item compared to their DIY counterparts. With some comprehensive systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s no surprise that many families think this technology is out of their reach. But not all smart home systems need to be extravagant to improve your day-to-day lifestyle.

Smart home technology is more affordable than ever. As your go-to smart home company, we offer a wide range of solutions for middle-class families that want to get in on the smart home movement. Although there are more options available, below are four we've recommended most for families from Old Saybrook, CT to Newport, RI. These are not only more affordable, but also involve less invasive wiring, making them ideal for existing homes.

Enhance the Performance of all Your Devices with Fast, Reliable Signals

As smart home devices become more popular, there’s a growing need for enterprise-grade networks that help them communicate efficiently in your home. Relying on your Internet service provider’s standard installation won’t be enough to deal with all of your connected devices. Before you can get more from that new thermostat, camera or speaker, you first need to focus on your home’s network.

Our home network setups, available from Groton, CT, to Westerly, RI, help you truly embrace the connected home. Expanding your network capabilities will help your devices collaborate better to serve your needs. Likewise, you ensure your signal reaches every corner of your residence to avoid any dead spots that could ruin your smart home experience.

Different hues simulate certain moods and enhance your overall well-being

Sunlight is vital to our well-being, which is why there’s been a growing trend of using tunable LED fixtures to create more human-centric lighting. Tunable LEDs adjust their hues throughout the day to mimic sunlight. Natural light patterns help regulate your sleep cycle to fend off stress and depression, as we’ve previously discussed in the blog linked below. 

As the days start getting shorter in the fall throughout New England—from Westerly, RI to Hartford, CT—it’s the perfect time to embrace a more health-conscious lighting solution. There are a variety of manufacturers that offer tunable lighting, but we recommend Lutron home lighting control for their wide range of fixtures and control options. 

But out of all their features, the one we want to highlight in this blog is their day/night conditional program. Rely on just one keypad in the kitchen, bedroom or living room to get the ideal lighting no matter the time of day. The space will illuminate differently using the same button, whether its 6 a.m. or 6 p.m. In this blog, we’ll show you how that feature plays out in a typical day. 

Embrace Technology That Will Improve Your Lifestyle

Homeowners are always looking for new technology to improve their way of life. The latest study from Parks Associates states that 31 percent of consumers will buy a connected device in 2019. As new technology becomes available, the question is no longer whether to invest in smart devices, but how to figure out which ones to use. 

Which are the best ones currently available? Even more importantly, which will have the most immediate impact? Reading this blog, you’ll see some of our suggestions, starting with a comprehensive home automation system. Enhance your lifestyle with these upgrades and reach out to find out which other smart tech updates might be useful for your unique needs.

Should You DIY or Use A Smart Home Company?

If you’re a handy man, a fixer-upper, or someone who prefers to do things their own way, it’s entirely possible to assemble a smart home system by yourself. Devices like Amazon’s Alexa and Samsung’s SmartThings are available in stores, and with video tutorials and blogs like this one, DIY installations are more accessible than ever.

The downside? Doing it yourself is not easy. If you want a truly integrated home, you will need to mount cameras, install thermostats, wire your speaker systems, and trickiest of all, get your separate devices working and communicating with each other. You don’t want to juggle different remotes and phone apps; everything should work in unison together automatically. To achieve that, you’ll need the assistance of a smart home company.

To decide if the professional or DIY route is best for you, continue reading to discover how a smart home integrator can help your Guilford, CT home.

Everything You Need to Know About Getting Your Outdoor Spaces Connected

It is finally spring in New England, and we're ready to enjoy the sunshine and warmer temperatures. The summer is not long in Rhode Island, so we need to make the most of it. One way to maximize our time outside is to bring our entertainment with us.

And it’s not all TVs and screen time- you might also want enjoy some relaxing music along with your summer read. Most of us stream music now for the sheer convenience of having millions of songs at your fingertips, and that requires internet access. Is your network installation up to the demands of servicing all the devices in your outside spaces?

The outdoor spaces are often neglected when setting up a home network. And there’s nothing worse than not having access to your apps and services outdoors. But C&T Systems can help!

 As experts in networking and smart home technology, we understand that a robust network is a critical element underpinning the modern home’s technology. Read on to learn more about what we can do to ensure your Westerly, RI home is always connected, no matter where you are, indoors and out.

Adjusting Your Circadian Rhythm Starts with Your Home

As people grow increasingly more concerned about the effect technology and social media have on mental health, it may seem counterintuitive to suggest technology can improve your well-being.

But tunable lighting (lights that allow you to adjust the color and hue) is proven to have several mental and physical health benefits. If you’re considering a new home lighting control upgrade in your Guilford, Connecticut-area home, continue reading to discover how tunable lighting is transforming personal wellness.

From Nautical to Neoclassical in Newport, You’ll be in Style

No one can say that we don’t have varied weather on the East Coast. From bone-chilling winters to humid summers and everything in between, we’ve got it all. Fortunately, the waterfront location on the Rhode Island coast tempers the weather just enough to make the snowstorms slightly less worse and bring the cool sea air in the summer.

In the winter, when the light is at a premium, we might want to let in as much of it as possible. In the summer with a hot sun, we may want to control it better and minimize the use of air conditioning.

What’s the solution? The easiest way is with motorized shades, where you can touch a button – or issue a voice command – and raise or lower window treatments in seconds. Shades can be lowered when the sun is fully streaming in but can be raised to enjoy the view later, especially if you happen to have one of Narragansett Bay or the Atlantic.

Many people think that to get this automated convenience you need to limit yourself on style. That may have been true in earlier days, but there are a plethora of options now with motorized shades. C&T Systems works with Lutron for motorized shading as well as their lighting control systems because both offer a wealth of possibilities. Read on to learn more about Lutron Sivoia QS and Serena shading to see if they're right for your Newport-area residence.

A Robust Home Network is More than Just a Good Wireless Signal

The number of smart devices that are being connected to home networks is exploding every year. We dare say that you won't likely remember how many devices are connected to your home's network. Smart lights, cameras, speakers, thermostats, appliances, streaming devices, and TVs all need reliable networking for proper operation. When the network is faltering, you’ll likely notice.

If you stream high definition and 4K video from services like Netflix, your show may annoyingly stutter, pause to buffer or fail to play at all. Your smart thermostat may not keep the temperature settings you wanted. Beyond annoyances, more severe issues can happen if a spotty network doesn't inform you of an alarm from a water sensor or suspicious activity captured by a security camera.

Networking is a very technical area of computing. Features that are familiar to networking professionals like port forwarding, VLANs, and WPA2 security are practically meaningless to the average homeowner. Consumers rely on the wireless router option supplied by their Internet Service Provider (ISP), and in many cases, they do not even know how to change the default password that lets one manage the router – which is a security hole left wide open for hacking.

If you have a smaller property or perhaps can tolerate the occasional network hiccup because you don't entirely depend on it, maybe you can get by without professionally installed and optimized networking equipment.

But if you want to run a smart home with many devices, you rely on your network for security features and essential automation that has dependencies on many things working in tandem, and you need high bandwidth for work and entertainment at home, you should consider professional home network installation services and equipment for your home in the Guilford, Connecticut area.

Smart Home Features Will Simplify Our Lives This Year

Every day seems to bring another new smart device to the market.  Several key technology areas are driving the innovation – the availability of inexpensive, powerful chips, cloud-based software platforms, multiple wireless technologies, and machine learning – are enabling the addition of intelligent features to a slew of home devices.

Earlier this year at the CES consumer technology show, we saw a host of new smart devices introduced.  Smart lights, speakers, thermostats, coffeemakers, washing machines, irrigation controllers, refrigerators, ranges, and even toilets are getting injections of smart technology.  The technology in your home is accelerating from interesting novelty to genuine usefulness. Automation will bring about a change in how we use and manage our homes.  The functionality of smart home devices and systems is only getting better every year, and as it matures, we will become more accustomed to it and grow to depend on it in our daily lives – much like the smartphone.

Since we're early in this new year, we want to highlight the trends that will be driving the new smart products you will see in 2019.  This is the year when smart home automation becomes mainstream.  If you haven't yet invested in a home automation system for your Groton residence, there is no better time. 

Read on to learn more about the smart home automation trends you’ll be seeing this year. 

Introducing Sonnen EcoLinx: Here’s What You Should Know

Until recently, the possibilities for storing energy in your home were very limited or nonexistent. What do you do when an ice storm knocks out power in your Stonington home? If power is out for more than a few hours, you might resort to a propane-powered generator. But that isn't the most eco-friendly or efficient solution.

Recent advances in battery technology have now made it feasible and cost-effective to store energy in your home. Why might you want to do that? If there's a power outage in an icy Connecticut winter, you can have your own source of energy. Moreover, these new systems are more than just a battery – they are intelligent energy management systems. They can help reduce your energy costs by storing power from the electric grid when it is abundant and cheapest, as in overnight hours. Electric utilities are also instituting energy management programs that are called demand response. These are ways to reduce power demand during peak times, which could be during a particularly cold Connecticut snowstorm or the occasional New England summer heat wave. Demand response allows utilities to control consumption by getting opt-in access from consumers to reduce their demand through control of smart thermostats and other means. 

C&T Systems is ready for this new intelligent energy management future. We are proud to announce that we will be working with Sonnen, the leader in smart energy management systems. Why Sonnen?  Because it is also the first product of its kind that can also be linked to smart home automation systems. With smart home automation and energy management systems working together, you can efficiently manage your consumption and prepare for the unexpected.

Keep reading to learn about the benefits of Sonnen energy management systems for your Connecticut property in the Stonington area or beyond.

Comparing Lutron RadioRA2, and Homeworks QS

A lighting control systems are more than just a luxury item; it is a lifestyle enhancement. While the aesthetic aspect may be the initial impression it imparts, a lighting control system also brings the benefits of convenience, security and energy savings.

You may think that you need a large house or property for an investment in lighting control to pay off,  but you’ll be happy to know that you don’t need to be a Vanderbilt to afford it.

For the past 15 years we have exclusively used Lutron for lighting control systems.  For decades, Lutron has been the industry leader in lighting control, making residential and commercial systems that scale from apartments and condominiums to the largest homes and buildings. Lutron makes several lighting control systems that can cover one or two rooms all the way to a home comparable to the famous Newport mansions. So, which one might be right for you?

Keep reading to learn about two different Lutron lighting systems and what they can do in your home.

Three Signs That You Might Need an Upgrade

Diagnosing networking problems is often challenging.  Since almost everything we do with our devices requires network connectivity, it’s difficult to pin down a specific problem. If your computer is loading web pages slowly, it might be related to your hardware or software. If your smartphone or tablet apps are not responsive, it could be related to the device itself or the software it’s running. 

Occasionally problems are temporary. Perhaps a website you’re accessing is slow for a period of time, and the experience is the same on all of your devices. Sometimes while streaming a show on Netflix, the video quality slows and reminds you of old standard definition quality with bad reception. It could be that your internet connection just slowed down temporarily.  And there’s always the possibility that it’s not your network or any device. The truth is, internet connectivity can suffer in many parts of the Rhode Island countryside. 

Refining the Home Automation Experience

We have long been proud partners with Elan Systems for home automation solutions.  Their systems make even the most complex automated homes easy to control and live with everyday.  The company is not resting on its laurels, and it continues to develop new products aiming to make home automation systems as intuitive as possible.

CEDIA is the trade association that puts on the biggest show devoted to smart home technology. At the annual show earlier this month, Elan debuted three new products that show their acumen for making home control easy.  All these products showcased the refining of intelligent communication and control experiences in the home, with a new remote control, video doorbell, and wall-mounted touch panel. 

What’s new and different about these devices?  Read on to find out how Elan can make your home control experience that much simpler in Old Saybrook—and anywhere else in Connecticut. 

Explore Lutron’s Many Home Technology Integration Options

We are living in a world awash with smart devices. Every day, something new comes out that adds intelligence and connectivity to an everyday device or appliance. Would you like a coffeemaker that can be turned on via Amazon Alexa voice control?

We Rhode Islanders are sometimes skeptical. Perhaps we don’t need a connected coffee maker, or maybe we think it’s a great idea. Regardless, what we do want in smart devices and home automation is the ability to make that automated functionality work well with other features in our home in the Westerly area. There are quite a few “connected” light bulbs and electrical plugs out there, but they only connect to one app on your phone. 

When it comes to lighting systems and control, there is one undisputed leader in the field – Lutron.  Lutron originated the first solid-state lighting dimmer way back in 1959, and has not stopped since, creating sophisticated lighting control systems for both residential and commercial use. 

Lutron has invested heavily in integration with other systems. If you are looking for a lighting control system, you want to be able to integrate it with other home control solutions, either now or in the future. 

Let’s take a look at some of the ways Lutron lighting systems play well with others. 

Explore the Advantages of Smart Technology

Home automation systems have been taking the Guildford, CT area by storm lately. As more and more homeowners upgrade their properties, you may be asking yourself if it’s time for you to dip your toes into the smart technology pool.

The truth of the matter is that smart home automation is not for everyone. That said, today’s modern platforms are incredibly easy to use and offer a wide range of benefits. Below, we walk through some of the signs that it’s time for you to embrace smart technology in your home. If, by the end of this article, any of the signs match your goals, then give us a call.

Access Your Favorite Movies, TV Shows and Music with a Home Network Setup

As we’ve mentioned in previous blogs, your home network affects the way your smart home technology functions. It can make or break your automation technology as it is the system through which your products communicate and function. But what exactly does that mean for your Newport, Rhode Island home?

Your home network setup is linked to your basic internet services (web-searching, email, etc.) as well as your more sophisticated technology products like your smart thermostat, lighting control, speakers and more.

One of the most important aspects is your suite of streaming services. Streaming any media — like movies, TV shows or home — places a large burden on your network to carry all that data and broadcast it uninterrupted across your network on your devices.

In order to understand how to get the best streaming quality, we’ll break down how exactly your network handles traffic and what kind of traffic your streaming services brings to your network.

Find Out the Importance of a Strong Network Setup

Whether you’re in the new-build construction phase of your home or you’re planning out renovations, it should go without being said that you need to consider all aspects that contribute to the success of the renovation.

What this means is that your home upgrade is more than just selecting the addition you’re interested in and calling it a day. In fact, any addition — especially when it comes to smart technology — needs to have the right foundation. That’s why when moving forward with a smart home automation system, it’s imperative that you consider the network setup in your Westerly home.

In this blog, we will look at why a proper home network setup helps your smart home communicate efficiently and what to consider when moving forward with your setup.