Part of the general trend towards connected "smart" homes and the Smart City, WallyHome is a system of sensors designed to protect your home against water hazards and the structural consequences of damp.

Every time there is a water leak at a home in the United States, it costs the occupants on average $6,965 (5,190). This is the figure quoted by Seattle, USA-based SNUPI Technologies, which has just come up with Wally, a detection system designed to spot water leaks or any major changes in humidity levels or temperature at your home. Rather similar to the Phone Alert Fire system developed by Alcatel, the Wally system works on the basis of embedded sensors plus wireless technology, which will trigger an alert whenever a problem arises. The main argument for purchasing and installing this type of system is that it will alert the occupant fast, enabling him/her to react in time to reduce the impact of any incident or even prevent it happening. In addition to forestalling any actual water or damp damage however, in the longer term home owners who install WallyHome may be able to benefit from lower insurance premiums.

The complete kit comprises a base station and six sensors. It is relatively easy to install and seems a worthwhile investment, especially for second home owners who are not always in residence. Having created a user account and downloaded the mobile app on to your smartphone, you simply place the sensors close to your various household appliances or in hazard-prone spaces, name them according to their location in the house, and then activate the sensors with your phone. From then on, if one of the water detecting zones of the sensor one on the horizontal part of the sensor and another on the vertical detects moisture, this information will be transmitted to the base station via WiFi and the user will immediately receive an alert on his/her smartphone. Apart from detecting water leaks, the sensors also measure humidity levels and note variations in temperature, displaying this information in real time, remotely and at a glance. The product is easy to use, and boasts a long active life.

One key aspect which differentiates this very first SNUPI Technologies product from other alert systems is that it is free of the constraints of battery life. WallyHome arose from a research project run by the University of Washington called Sensor Nodes Utilizing Powerline Infrastructure, whose abbreviation, SNUPI, became the name of the company. The engineers set out in search of an alternative to the high power consuming WiFi and Bluetooth connections and found the answer in the electrical wiring in the walls of the home, which they use as a huge antenna network. As soon as the sensors are placed close to the basic household wiring network, they require very little power to communicate with the base station and the system will then run for an estimated period of ten years. There is also potential to exploit the SNUPI technology used for the humidity sensors in a similar way for other connected, smart home systems. If the Wally system becomes more widespread, the data gathered could also be aggregated and used to develop generalised models as part of the Smart City movement.

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Smart homes stay dry thanks to a low-energy sensor system

Electrical Safety First and Shelter are calling on the Government to change the law after a joint report revealed dangerous wiring is putting the lives of private renters at risk.

The report, Home Improvement: Tackling Poor Electrical Safety in the Private Rented Sector, reveals homes in the private rented sector are worse than in any other.

In Reading, more than a quarter of households are private renters.

The report says current regulations are not fit for purpose because there is no legal requirement for landlords to ensure the electrics are safe before renting out a property or to check the wiring and any electrical appliances they have provided on a regular basis.

Every year 70 people die from electrical accidents and 350,000 people are seriously injured.

Electrical Safety First and Shelters report concludes the easiest and most efficient way to protect tenants is to introduce mandatory five-yearly checks, by a competent person, of the electrical wiring and appliances.

Phil Buckle, director general of Electrical Safety First, said: This change in law would be very easy to implement as the primary legislation already exists and our research shows that the majority of MPs would support a change in law.

Electrical inspections by a competent person can cost as little as 100, which is less than 2 a month or 6p a day over a five year period.

Another concern is the significant imbalance of power in the private rented sector. Nearly 6,000 people in the South East were evicted or served notice in the last year because they complained about a problem in their home and nearly one in 10 have not challenged their landlord because they fear this could happen to them.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: As our shortage of affordable properties pushes home-ownership further out of reach, more of us are facing the prospect of settling down and bringing up a family in a rented home.

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Electrical faults 'putting private tenants at risk'

CLEVELAND COUNTY, Okla. Its a story weve been following for weeks. A mobile home has been blocking a portion of a Cleveland County road. It was a headache for residents, even causing one womans home health care to stop service.

The mobile home was abandoned on their road. It was falling apart.

The neighbors tried for months to get help, eventually calling KFOR.

Weve been working with Cleveland County officials for weeks now regarding the issue. The sheriffs office repeatedly told us there was nothing they could do, but then the county commissioner for that district and a company out of Enid stepped in to help residents take their road back.

The company which stepped up to help is ECO Alliance, out of Enid.

Charles Dague, one of the residents, watched as the mobile home was demolished.

He said, He had it smashed down in not very long, down to the ground.

Dorian Williams heard the sounds of the crews at work.

She said, Its gone. I went down there. Its fantastic.

For Dorian, who is battling cancer in her liver, her lungs and her intestines, this means her home health care can now reach her.

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Mobile home blocking neighborhood road now cleared

By M.E. Jones, Correspondent

SHIRLEY -- James Thibault's account of what happened when he retired as wiring inspector with expectations to keep the job town officials instead gave to his former assistant could be a cautionary tale or a story about the end of a small-town era.

Or both.

Thibault was a newcomer when he built a house in town in 1975. At 20, he was doing well professionally, he said. Norman Albert and "Hack" Noyes were selectmen then and Ray Gagnon was the wiring inspector.

When Gagnon went into business for himself a few years later, he reached out to Thibault, a fellow electrician. Was he interested in the job?

Thibault accepted the part-time position in 1979.

"I asked to have Ray assist me," Thibault recalled in a recent interview at Lambert's True Value Hardware Store in the village, which he has owned and operated since 1983.

The two worked together until Gagnon retired four years ago, Thibault said. Then, he looked for an assistant, or alternate wiring inspector. "I reached out to Mark" Prokowiew, with the selectmen's blessing. "There was no issue," he said.

Nor have there been problems with selectmen since and only one formal complaint during his 35-year tenure, Thibault said.

Citing a protocol he initiated and selectmen endorsed that requires a licensed electrician to do wiring in homes or businesses, he said a resident renovating his home objected to the rule and complained to the board because he wanted to do it himself.

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Retired wiring inspector decries appointment

206 BATHURST ST., TORONTO

ASKING PRICE $750,000

SELLING PRICE $855,000

TAXES $3,319 (2014)

DAYS ON THE MARKET Three

LISTING AGENT Lucais Shepherd, Right at Home Realty Inc.

The Action: This semi-detached house fronts onto Bathurst Street, which suited a large group of buyers, from large families to entrepreneurs. As a result, offers came from nearly every visitor, but the most tempting proposal came from one doling out a $105,000 premium.

What They Got: This century-old house is set up on a 17-by 84-foot corner lot with two living spaces updated with new oak parquet floors, wiring and roof, plus a basement with one of three bathrooms.

There are 10-foot ceilings on the main floor, where there is one bedroom, the living and dining areas and a kitchen with access to a southwest-facing deck, garden and private driveway.

The second floor could double as a three-bedroom suite with a second kitchen.

Continued here:
This Bathurst Street home drew bids from almost every viewer

Posted: Friday, August 8, 2014 3:00 am

Red Cross provides aid for victims of attic fire By LIZ MCCUE liz.mccue@nptelegraph.com nptelegraph.com |

Two renters were displaced from a North Platte home Wednesday night after a fire began in their attic around 11:10 p.m.

Fire marshal George Lewis said the fire at 1220 W. Ninth St. was caused by an overloaded electrical circuit. The home used knob-and-tube wiring connected to an old fuse panel, and the fire started above the back door. However, both occupants of the home were unharmed and the building has minimal damage. Firefighters did have to cut a hole in the roof of the home.

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Red Cross provides aid for victims of attic fire

Hills Home Hub Video
The Hills home wiring video.

By: Brad Sherry

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Hills Home Hub Video - Video

By Geoff Williams, U.S. News & World Report

So you're thinking of buying a fixer-upper? Maybe you're a do-it-yourselfer, or you just love this home so much that you don't mind lavishing extra TLC on it in the years to come. Or perhaps you're enthralled with home renovation television programs where every home has a camera-ready happy ending.

But there is a reason movie plot lines have been based on the darker idea that rehabilitating a home can result in disaster. Sometimes fixer-uppers turn out to be dismal downers. So if you're weighing the pros and cons of purchasing one, here are some thoughts to put in your mental toolbox.

Some projects are fun; others aren't. If you're going to lay down $10,000 to turn an outdated kitchen into a modern marvel that will be the envy of the neighborhood, that's fun. But if you need to spend $10,000 on a center beam in the foundation of the house that no one will see or care about, the joy of fixing up your home might start to fade.

And future buyers may not be impressed, either.

Post continues below.

That was the scenario Christopher Rither found himself in several years ago when he was working in due diligence services in real estate, including inspecting residential homes. "I bought an old plantation home in a great location in Hawaii and decided to fix it up, live in it for a few years, and sell it," says Rither, who now teaches conversational English at Myongji University in South Korea and runs a lifestyle website. "I thought restoring the entire house would make it a cinch to sell.

It didn't. Rither moved from Hawaii in 2010 and just sold the home a few months ago. As he found, "People really only care about what they can see. Nearly all buyers didn't seem impressed that I spent well over $25,000 ripping out and replacing all the plumbing, electrical lines and fixtures. What eventually sold the house was the clean exterior and the appearance of the interior. This could have still been achieved without new wiring and plumbing. A few upgrades would have been just fine."

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Can you afford a fixer-upper?

The final frontier of the connected home has nothing to do with thermostats, fancy doorbells, or smooth jazz coming out of your credenza.

If your domicile is large enough to also house a car or two, then the first and last portal you pass through every day is most likely your garage door. And when you and your Porsche (or Chevy Impala) roll to work or come home from the gym, youbeing the owner of a fully-connected homeexpect more than just an old-school remote-controlled garage door opener. You want something smarter. Something that not only opens and closes the door, but a device that can be controlled by your phone no matter where in the world you are. Such a device should also know when you switch off the lights and lock the front door, then anticipate your next move and open the garage door for you (and your Impala).

The Iris Z-Wave Garage Door Controller, available from Lowes stores for $99, is such a device. Its part of the Iris connected home platform. The controller itself is a small device you connect to your garage door opener. That in turn connects wirelessly to a central Iris hub (another $99) which you connect over Ethernet to your Wi-Fi router. A companion smartphone app gives you total garage door control, and lets you tie the openers actions to other devices running on the Z-Wave protocol you have installed. There are a number of protocols for home automation on the market, and Z-Wave is one of the most popular. Major manufacturers like GE, Schlage, Trane, and Utilitech make devices that can talk to Iris equipment.

Recently, I installed one of the first Iris production models to see if it lived up to my connected garage door dreams. To compare, I also installed a couple of non-Z-Wave, but still smartphone-connected openers, the Chamberlain MyQ Garage ($130) and a pre-production version of the new BTMate GarageMate ($50) controller.

Most of us have had totally reliable remote-controlled garage door openers for decades. So if theres any hassle at all with a smart garage door opener, people will balk. It has to make everything about opening and closing a garage door more convenient than the current one-button norm. Luckily, installation was dead simple. First, I connected the Iris controller to the metal opener mounts, then connected two wires to the opener. There are three screws on my opener for connecting wires, but one of them is for the safety triggerthe common garage door feature which detects something blocking the door and prevents closing. Otherwise, the two wires from the Iris can go in either of the remaining two ports. Lastly, I attached the tilt sensor to the upper inside part of my garage door using the included mounting plate.

On my MacBook, I registered for an Iris account at IrisSmarthome.com. Then, I connected the Iris hub into my router. To add the garage door controller, I clicked Add Devices in the web app, found the controller in the list, and pressed a button to pair it. Slicker than silk. I then installed the Iris app on my iPhone 5s and logged in. Up popped the garage door controller under the Control tab. It took 20 minutes, including the time to mount the controller and install the app.

My first tap on the app to open my garage door worked perfectly. The Iris controller beeps loudly and flashes a light as a warning. Inside the app, theres a tab called Control and then a tiny icon with an up and down arrow. You press it to open and close the door. It worked, but I wanted a bigger and more obvious button.

In the web app, I set a rule to close the garage door automatically each night at 11pm. It worked like a charm. You can even set a rule to close the garage door when you lock your front door if you install the Iris lock. One downside: Driving up at night, I had to fish out my iPhone, find the app, and click the small button open/close button. The Iris does not sense when I pull up in the driveway. However, I was able to open and close the garage door from my office downtown. Once, I opened the garage door for a friend so he could grab my lawn mower when I wasnt home. He texted me and I hit the button again to close the door. I was impressed.

To test the safety feature, I put a large box in front of my garage door and tried to use the app to close the door. After two attempts, the app stopped sending the command. It turns out this is a UL safety feature. To close the door, I had to push the garage door button manually at home. Also, I never saw any warning messages in the app.

Iris does let you grant access to friends so they can open and close your garage door from their phones. And, you can connect the app to multiple garage doors. However, you pretty much have to set a lock code on your phone. Otherwise, anyone who steals your phoneeven for a momentcan use the app to open your door.

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The Ups and Downs of an Internet-Connected Garage Door Opener

Typical home electrical cable has a bare ground wire and two insulated wires inside.

Home electrical wiring can seem mysterious, but have no fear: This helpful guide will help you understand how wiring works and how to work with wire.

Electrical wire is a catchall term that refers to conductors that route electricity from a power source to lights, appliances, and other electrical devices.

Wires and cables of various sizes bring electricity to a house and route it to all the lights, switches, receptacles, and electrical appliances. Generally speaking, large cables deliver electricity to the house and smaller cables and wires distribute it throughout.

Nonmetallic cable is routed between wall studs; switches and receptacles fasten to electrical boxes.

Nearly all household wire is copper, though aluminum is occasionally used. A rubber, plastic, or paper-like coating, called insulation, serves as a barrier to keep the electrical charge (and heat) where it belongsin the wire (this insulation is stripped from the ends of the wires where connections are made). Bare (non-insulated) conductors are used for grounding.

Wire is a comprehensive term commonly used to refer to all types of cable and wire. Technically, an individual wire is called a single conductor; several single conductors twisted together or combined together in a sheath make a cable.

Just as highways can handle more cars than small streets, large conductors can handle more electricity than small ones. The diameter of a metal conductor is indicated by an AWG (American Wire Gauge) number; the smaller the number, the larger the wire. Most household lighting and receptacle circuits are wired with AWG 14 or AWG 12 conductors.

In addition to standard electrical wire, a house has several other types of wire needed for the telephone, cable television, stereo speakers, and so on. Most of these wires do not carry a dangerous electrical current because they operate on very low voltage or carry only sound or picture signals, not electrical power.

In this section of HomeTips, you will learn more about the Types of Electrical Wiring and the Types of Wires & Cables.

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Home Tips - DIY - Electrical Wiring - HomeTips | Expert ...