Catch up on the latest news.

June 3, 2009 – iHabitat recently completed an energy saving lighting and climate control system for Habitat For Humanity of McHenry County home located in Harvard, IL. The system is designed to integrate lighting & climate controls and the homeowner's lifestyle to help reduce monthly lighting and heating expenses.

The new homeowner, a single mother and her son, will be able to move in at the beginning of July '09, once the driveway and all the landscaping is completed.
This was the third Habitat for Humanity home iHabitat has completed and donated all labor and materials.

The Control4 home automation system uses four wireless three-button keypads, a six-button keypad, seven dimmers, a switch, a thermostat and an HC200 home controller.

The home is programmed with five energy-saving modes: Home, Away, Wake Up, Good Night and All Off. Selecting the home's mode by your real life schedule, not a programmed timer, helps save energy by ensuring the proper light and temperature settings are in affect per your lifestyle.

• The Home mode turns on lights as you enter the home and sets the thermostat to your desired comfort level.
• The Away mode turns the thermostat down and turns off all the lights, while leaving the entry and garage lights on for an additional two minutes.
• The Wake Up mode sets a mid-level light pathway down the hall to the kitchen and turns the thermostat setting up.
• The Good Night mode turns the temperature down to a comfortable sleeping temperature, turns the lights off, and slowly dims the hall lighting down over a period of two minutes.

• The All Off mode turns off all the lights while leaving the entry and garage lights on for an additional two minutes. This mode is used when you will only be gone for less than two hours.
• Keypads located near the bedroom, foyer and mudroom doors provide convenient Everyday Easy™ home mode selection. The keypads also turn off area lights and allow dimming functions of loads.

• All dimmable lighting loads are pre-programmed at 90%. This saves 10% on energy usage and increases lamp life by 10%. All lighting levels can be temporarily overridden by using the dimmer or keypads to adjust levels.
• The exterior coach lights are programmed with an integrated astronomical timer to turn on at sunset and 5 am and turn off at 11 pm and sunrise, eliminating the need to adjust for seasons and time changes. The coach lights can also manually be controlled by the switch located at the front entry.