One of my dirty little secrets is my love affair with Starbucks...I love supporting local businesses but when it comes to coffee, I just can't help it- I love Starbucks. And it isn't just because the baristas at my local one not only know my order but know my name; Starbucks jumped on board on energy savings by bringing LED technology to their stores (look at the bulbs in their track lighting), they know a little something about creating atmosphere...But really who ever thought so many people would pay so much for coffee? But to top that off who thought a coffee store could sell so much music- did you know they used to have a channel on xm radio?
As avid promoters of saving energy almost every Starbucks has adopted occupancy vacancy technology for their rest rooms...you know the lights are off till you walk in- then like magic they turn on and somehow go off when you leave. Being a Starbucks junkie I expect such magic to happen when I stop in there...well yesterday when I was driving back from DC I stopped in to get a fix and ran in the restroom and was literally stopped dead in my tracks as I busted into the bathroom and it was totally dark! And I couldn't find the light switch! I was stuck in the dark and having to rub across the wall to find the stupid switch!
The rest of the drive home I laughed to myself at just how lazy I am that I expected the lights to come on for me but also got to thinking about how convenient the occupancy vacancy sensors are...it was kinda muddled up with my earlier experience that morning at the hardware store where I helped a man with some switches since the guy that worked there didn't have a clue what he was talking about.
But the reality is I love occupancy vacancy senors and timers! I work with quite a few customers with young children and husbands- the two least energy conservation aware demographics ( please note I have no scientific backing to this statistic- I mostly made it up based on my own observations...) So I digress, I love light switches- how nerdy right? but really there is a while world of "lighting control" as Lutron Electronics calls it. Lutron has brought the commercial technology of occupancy vacancy sensors to the residential market. The Maestro dimmer on the left combines a dimmer with an sensor on the wallplate! and yes it comes in over 20 colors, finishes and metals! This is the best thing for a bathroom or hallway where lights are always left on. For a bigger space like a play room, garage or office you can use an over head sensor that has different sensitivity settings so you can have it sensitive enough to know if you are sitting at a desk typing or have it less sensitive so house hold pets don't turn it on. and PS- this is a retro fit product meaning no wires! the ceiling sensor has long life batteries and it communicates wirelessly to the wall plates (yes they have wires but if you are mildly handy you can do it yourself).
The other thing I love using with kids is Lutron's line of timers- I mean how Nanny 911 can you get! yes you can over ride the timer but what a perfect bedtime motivator- the lights turn them selves out! Actually I like using them in the bathroom for kids, both with a vent fan and the lights. With the vent fan it lets it run long enough to really pull the impurities out of the room without wasting a bunch of energy by staying on. But also with the lights because kids are notorious for leaving the lights on and if you are blessed enough to not have to share their bathroom then you are going to be none the wiser that it has been on for hours.
So yea, I might be lazy that I would rather lights come on like magic and be smart enough to turn them selves off but it also makes me a bit of a techy tree hugger too! And if you want to take it a step further and get really technical and sexy with it as well as extreme laziness (warning you will need an electrician for this!) you can upgrade to Lutron's whole home systems and run it off your iphone! That's right- control your lights from anywhere with your iphone- you know it's sexy cool! I can't wait to trick out my house with one of these but I really guess I should achieve owning an iphone first... Oh well one can dream of extreme technological induced laziness...off to Starbucks!
photos from: Starbucks, Lutron, Dark Room the film
"Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it."-Russel Baker
