Residential

 

With the growth in the market for the interconnected, electronic smart home, to the care and attention needing to be paid to retrofits of aging houses, there’s never a shortage of information in the residential market. Below you’ll find the residential articles from ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR, covering the full residential spectrum. 

It’s been said that, if you talk to three economists, you will get no less than four different and equally plausible explanations for why the economy is the way it is. This same principle could be applied to recent observations about the nation’s housing market.

Since the days of thomas Edison more than a century ago, electricity has flowed through the grid in one direction. Power is centrally generated, transmitted, distributed within cities to buildings and consumed immediately.

Freddie Mac’s September U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook Report showed that consumers and businesses have become more energy-efficient, thereby dampening the negative impact of recent fuel-price spikes on the economy.

With efficiency now occupying a top-tier status in the effort to transform energy use, it was only a matter of time before the spotlight trained on waste and building construction. An architectural firm in Brighton, England, has taken that concept to the extreme.

More on Residential

 
Outside the Box: Wind, Solar, Heat and More
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Homeowners have often dreamed of small-scale devices that can be installed on their roofs to provide all the energy needed for the operation of their household. That day has arrived.

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Aging in Place: The New Imperative
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Baby boomers have never been satisfied with the status quo; they challenge everything in their paths, including retirement. While boomers can’t escape aging, it will be on their terms. Staying in their homes and maintaining their independence is a central goal.

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Solid State of Lighting
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Some of the most dramatic lighting performance gains can be achieved by adopting solid-state lighting in the home, where incandescent lighting has met its match with products that combine the efficiency of compact fluorescent and the quality of halogen.

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All Grown Up? Home Automation
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Even though home automation technology has been around for decades, the opportunity it represents for electrical contractors right now is phenomenal.

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Research Forecasts 6 Million Homes With Smart Meters by 2012
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The market for residential energy management will increase significantly over the next four years due to increased consumer demand and new government and industry initiatives. The number of U.S. households with a smart meter will grow to more than 6 million by 2012, according to Parks Associates.

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Construction Forecast 2009
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At a time when things could not look much worse economically, there is some good news to accompany the overwhelming bad. First, the bad news. “The economic outlook is a disaster,” said Michael J.

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Clocking In
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One of my junior estimators asked, “What is a clock outlet?” So I wrote her back a simple answer. Yeah right. Me? A simple answer? Ha!

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