Protect Your Home Through an App
More and more products for the home can be monitored and controlled by an App. Some are for convenience, such as an app for your coffee maker; while others are for your piece of mind, like Roost’s family of products.
Smoke Alarms
Roost’s Smart Smoke Alarm has advanced features, such as a Wi-Fi connection. Powered by a Smart Battery (see below), alerts are sent to your smartphone via the Roost App. Depending on which model of smoke alarm you choose, alerts for smoke, fire, carbon monoxide, and/or natural gas detection are in the palm of your hand!
Water and Freeze Detection Alerts
Water and Freeze Detection AlertsToilets, bathtubs, and sinks that overflow…water heater tanks that rupture…washing machine hoses burst…such “contained water leaks” in homes (as opposed to flooding due to heavy rains) cost insurance companies more than residential fire damage. Sure, insurance can help with repairs and replacement costs, but you’re responsible for the deductible and then there’s all the disruption and the associated hassles. Roost’s Wi-Fi enabled Smart Sensor detects water leaks and sends an alert to your smartphone (and family and friends’ phones) so you can address the problem before it becomes catastrophic. In addition, should temperature and/or humidity in your home fall outside predetermined levels, the battery-powered Roost Smart Sensor will alert you to these dangers as well, helping you avoid damage from freeze or excess humidity.
Wi-Fi Battery and Alerts
If you’re tired of being startled awake to smoke detector “chirps,” the Roost 9 volt Wi-Fi battery is great technology for standard smoke/carbon monoxide detectors. Roost sends “low battery” alerts to your smartphone to call attention to the need for changing the battery. But you won’t get those alerts very often, as the Roost battery lasts five years (then just replace the lithium battery pack). Everyone at work/school? Roost sends emergency alerts to your smartphone as well as family and friends’ phones.
To learn more, visit: www.getroost.com
(Note: Product spotlights are for informational purposes only; we do not formally endorse any product or service.)
Great communication is at the center of Heritage Homes’ customer journey. Heritage Homes knows you can’t have a great home without having had a great homebuilding experience. Following visits to the company’s website, their journey typically begins in one of Heritage Homes’ furnished model homes, where visitors can come to appreciate amenities they just won’t see in other new homes. They are greeted by one of Heritage Homes’ New Home Specialists who take great pride in educating prospective home buyers, so that the buyers are empowered to make the best decisions. “We listen. Our New Home Specialists know what can and can’t be done, which is a tremendous benefit for our customers,” Steve Larson, Sales Manager for Heritage Homes
Sometimes placement of the laundry room presents a unique situation for venting the dryer. Maybe your vent needs to run up before it can exit the home. This can cause energy and safety problems as lint can become trapped in in the vent and more frequent cleaning is needed. Introducing a ventless dryer!
the need for a dryer vent. Even if you are disciplined in cleaning out the lint filter regularly, dryer vent hoses/pipes typically clog over time, lengthening dryer cycles, wasting power, and shortening the life of your dryer. Some vent hoses snake around the home’s framing and are very hard to clean out, a leading cause of the 2,900 home clothes dryer fires reported annually (U.S. Fire Administration). Whirlpool’s HybridCare™ True Ventless heat pump dryer offers a large, 7.4 cu. ft. capacity and dries clothes in about the same amount of time as the company’s traditional vented models.
Natural light is an important design element. Not only does it make us feel good, natural light also provides many health benefits such as increased vitamin D production and improved calcium absorption, lowers blood pressure, improves concentration, and reduces irritability and headaches. You can increase the number and size of windows in your home, but think about how great it feels to bask in the sun coming from above!
One such new feature is from VELUX®, the world’s largest manufacturer of skylights. VELUX raised the bar with Solar Powered “Fresh Air” Skylights. Rather than having to hire an electrician to run power to the roof, the skylight’s solar panel uses daylight to recharge its concealed battery that opens and closes the skylight (the practical side of ushering in fresh air and exhausting warm air trapped near the ceiling). It can also power an optional skylight shade.