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Seven Benefits of Motorized Shades

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For anyone building or remodeling a home, energy efficiency is a key factor. From insulation to location, how you build a home can have a direct impact on how much energy it uses. While a Passive House, one that can remain comfortable through all seasons without employing an active heating or cooling system, may be a lofty goal for many people, there is something relatively simple you can add to your home to help passively control its temperature: motorized shades.

Smart, motorized shades can help control the solar gain and heat loss your home experiences naturally throughout the day simply by opening and closing at pre-programmed times. With the addition of smart home technology, the blinds can actually learn when they need to open and close based on temperature and sun light, maximizing the energy efficiency of your HVAC system.

Here’s a look at the benefits of motorized shades to help you decide whether they are a good fit for your home.

1. Convenience
Motorized shades can be opened and closed simply by touching a button, a remote control, or an app on a smartphone. Window coverings are a proven way to reduce solar gain and prevent heat loss, and if they are this easy to open and close, it’s much more likely you’ll remember to do so to benefit you and your environment. Additionally, the ability to set schedules to open and close them at specific times means you may never have to worry about them at all.

2. Energy Savings
Connecting motorized shades to a smart home hub can help minimize the amount of energy your HVAC system uses by allowing the blinds to react independently to readings from temperature and sunlight sensors also connected to the smart hub. Consequently, the blinds will actually know when to close during the hottest part of the day to reduce HVAC usage or whether to open during a sunny day in the winter to allow the sun to heat a room naturally.

3. Smart Home Integration
Smart thermostats have a trove of data to use to determine whether opening or closing the smart blinds will help reduce energy use, such as what time of day it is, what the weather is like outside, and what the temperature is in the home. Using all these data points, the thermostat can sense a room is getting too hot and close the shades instead of turning on the air conditioning or do the reverse when it knows a room is cooler than it should be.

4. Smart Lighting
When paired with smart lighting, motorized shades can help maximize the amount of daylight in your home to cut down on electricity usage. For example, opening the blinds can trigger smart lighting to turn off, and vice versa.

5. Add R-Value
Even without smarts, motorized shades can add a significant insulation value to your windows. The traditional roller and honeycomb blinds offer an R value of 4.3. (A typical double glazed window has an R value of 2.0.) You can also get motorized drapes that will add an insulating layer to your windows.

6. Safety
As any parent will know, the lack of cords with motorized shades is a major safety bonus—you won’t have to worry about keeping them out of reach of your children. However, in a smart home, motorized shades can also provide additional safety benefits. Lutron’s shades will connect to Nest’s Protect Smoke Alarm to automatically open them when a fire is detected inside, allowing emergency responders to see into the home.

7. Security
By remotely controlling or setting a schedule that makes it look as if someone’s home, motorized shades can help fool would-be burglars into thinking a home is occupied. Similarly, when connected to a smart home system, the blinds can shut when the occupants leave and open when they return, courtesy of geo-fencing and a smartphone.

Compared to many retrofit or new-build energy-saving solutions, installing motorized shades is a relatively inexpensive way to control solar gain and heat loss in a home. This makes them something any green builder or would-be green homeowner should seriously consider. Additionally, the integration of smart technology increases the ability of motorized shades to reduce energy use and is an excellent example of how the smart home can be put to good use helping protect our planet.

Article Provided By: EnvironmentalProtection

Design Lighting Group offers a large variety of lighting systems, Decorative Fixtures, Recessed/Track, Outdoor Lighting, LED Lighting, Antiques, and more. If you would like to discuss your lighting needs please do not hesitate to call us at 404-351-5010 or                                                               email us at info@dlightinggroup.com.

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How Lighting Affects Productivity and Mood

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Flick of a Switch: How Lighting Affects Productivity and Mood

Lighting — the good, the bad, and the ugly — can have a significant impact on your concentration and your productivity.

In fact, your overall feeling of health and well-being can change with just the flick of a switch.

Recent research highlighted by Philips Systems shows a significant link between light and circadian rhythms, otherwise known as the “built-in clocks” that determine your sleep cycle, stimulation, and relaxation.

Lighting has also been found to decrease depression and improve mood, energy, alertness, and productivity.

Given that a study conducted by the American Society of Interior Design revealed that 68 percent of employees complain about the lighting situation in their offices, how can businesses design their workspaces with lighting that delivers the optimal place for employees to think, create, and collaborate?

To learn more about the costs associated with not addressing lighting issues in the workplace, we turned to HOK, a top global design firm. Here are three examples of lighting projects HOK has designed that have provided lighting conducive for a productive workplace environment.

The Flexibility of Lighting Controls Affects Productivity

HOK transformed an abandoned 1930s power plant in Lansing, Michigan, into a new national headquarters for Accident Fund Holdings, Inc., in 2011.

There they installed lighting controls for individual workstations and shared multi-occupant stations. Natural daylight that flows through the building’s energy-efficient windows, which were also installed by HOK, allows electric lighting systems to be dimmed down.

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“We have found, based on the work that we have done, that control of an environment, whether it be lighting or temperature, helps people feel better about their perceived productivity,” said Emily Dunn, a senior consultant based in HOK’s New York office.  This lighting flexibility allows employees to create the atmosphere they need to be productive at work.

Daylight Enhances Human Performance

In collaboration with Dechert Law Office in Washington, D.C., HOK designed a flexible environment that allows attorneys to practice law more productively. The design firm used glass partitions for all offices and soft indirect lighting to “create airy volumes that blur the distinction between interior and perimeter space.”

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HOK also incorporated daylight features to help employees regulate their circadian rhythms. When these rhythms are offset, people experience stress, but a building that incorporates daylight can enhance human performance. In fact, a report by the World Green Building Council found that workers exposed to daylight are 18 percent more productive.

Lighting Design Depends on the Atmosphere You Want to Create

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution to lighting in the workplace. According to HOK Lighting Director Tom Kaczkowski, lighting design “depends on the atmosphere that we are trying to create within the work environment.”

In King Abdullah University of Science and Technology’s case, the graduate-level research university in Saudi Arabia wanted its interior to promote innovation and creativity. HOK delivered by tailoring each space to its intended use.

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For example, the conference space was situated in a “shaded, passively cooled outdoor concourse” with a hint of sunlight to produce an inviting environment that keeps workers alert. The academic library, designated as a room to keep people relaxed, was fitted with warm lighting to instill a sense of comfort.

Smart organizations know that enhancing the performance of their people keeps companies growing and actively innovating. Thoughtful lighting design can be a powerful tool to increase employee performance. There are real costs associated with not addressing lighting issues at work and they could be fixed with the simple change of the bulb.

Article Provided By: business.com

Design Lighting Group offers a large variety of lighting systems, Decorative Fixtures, Recessed/Track, Outdoor Lighting, LED Lighting, Antiques, and more. If you would like to discuss your lighting needs please do not hesitate to call us at 404-351-5010 or                                                               email us at info@dlightinggroup.com.

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Design Lighting Group, Design Lighting Group LLC, Lighting, Decorative Fixtures, Decorative Hardware, Track Lighting, Recessed Lighting, Outdoor Lighting, Led Lighting, Motorized Shades, Ceiling Fans

Our Prayers

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With near-hurricane force winds lashing the Florida Keys, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned that “Irma is forecast to restrengthen” as it approaches mainland Florida. Hurricane Irma has hit the Keys with a Cat. 4 Storm on September 10th, destroying homes and, knocking out power to more than 6.8 million people. There was an order of 6.3 million people to evacuate the southeastern coastal regions, at least 25 people have died from this storm. The damage estimate from the Irma is up to $100 billion according to data modeling firm Enki Research, more than the last hurricanes that have hit the Flordia coastline.

The Red Cross is providing relief in Flordia which has been affected by Hurricane Irma. Supplies include: Food, Water, hygiene supplies, and other relief items. Design Lighting Group would like to ask our friends to pray with us for those affected by Hurricane Irma. Please know you and your families are in our thoughts. Remember to donate to the Red Cross to aid all those affected by the hurricane.

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Design Lighting Group, Design Lighting Group LLC, Lighting, Decorative Fixtures, Decorative Hardware, Track Lighting, Recessed Lighting, Outdoor Lighting, Led Lighting, Motorized Shades, Ceiling Fans

Prayers for Las Vegas

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Prayers and Condolences

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of the Las Vegas shooting and their loved ones. And also, to the first responders, medical professionals, counselors and others who have spent and will continue to spend countless hours caring and helping the victims and their families.

Want to Help?

The County Commissioner has set up a page where donations are being collected. Funds will be used to provide relief and financial support to the victims and families. If If you’d like to support them, please contribute to this fund.

Our community is grateful for the outpouring of support from folks all across the nation and all around the world. Tens of thousands of people have made their voices heard and are standing up to hate and standing together to support the victims and their families during this difficult time. We want to thank you for your generous contributions.

Later this week, we will make an announcement about the process to distribute the funds. We are working in lockstep with all state and local officials, GoFundMe, the Direct Impact Fund, and the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) to ensure the funds get distributed directly to the victims and families. We will provide additional information about this process in the coming days.

We want to thank all of you who contributed what you could to support the victims following this heinous attack. We also want to thank MGM, Cosmopolitan, Steve Cloobeck and Diamond Resorts International, Wayne and Kathleen Newton, the Raiders, the NFL Foundation, and GoFundMe for their large contributions to our fund. Our work to help rebuild our community is just beginning and we want to thank you for standing with us during this difficult time.

We have been in touch with GoFundMe since the beginning and they have been a trusted partner from the moment this campaign launched. The support for this campaign has been extraordinary, and donors have had understandable questions about GoFundMe’s fees. GoFundMe has committed significant resources to the management and distribution of these funds in the most ethical, effective, and timely way, and they have also donated $150,000 to directly help victims and their families.

If you’d like to support the victims and their families, we encourage you to contribute to this fund.

If you cannot financially support the victims, here’s some additional information on other ways to help:

Give Blood –

United Blood Services will take donations by appointment only.

Physical Donations –

If you would like to donate water, canned goods, or non-perishable items, please visit Three Square and Catholic Charities: https://www.threesquare.org/ orhttps://www.catholiccharities.com/. We appreciate the outpouring of support, but the substations cannot currently manage the physical donations and we kindly ask you donate them to the organizations to ensure their distribution.

As we have stated, if you are missing a loved one, please call 1-800-536-9488.

For additional information visit:

https://redrock.clarkcountynv.gov/FAC/index.html

https://www.fbi.gov/resources/victim-assistance/seeking-victim-information/assistance-for-victims-of-the-harvest-music-festival-shooting-in-las-vegas

 

Article Provided By: Las Vegas Victims Fund/GoFundMe

 

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