Sunnyvale, CA (PRWEB) January 13, 2014

iSmart Alarm Inc. today announced that the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) TechHome Division has named iSmartAlarm the Home Technology App of the Year as part of its 2014 Mark of Excellence Awards at International CES. iSmartAlarm was also one of three finalists for the Residential Security Product of the Year award. The CEA awards recognize the best in custom integration and installed technology. Nominees were judged and selected by independent experts within the industry and an awards ceremony honoring the winners was recently held in in Las Vegas.

iSmartAlarm was recognized as Home Technology App of the Year for its ability to allow every user complete control over their homes security utilizing the iSmartAlarm smartphone app. With the app, users can easily and affordably monitor, manage and secure their home, property and family, regardless of location.

It is a great honor to be recognized as Home Technology App of the Year by CEA, said Raymond Meng, co-founder and CEO, iSmart Alarm. From the very start, weve set out to put home security and control in the palm of our users hands, utilizing smartphone-enabled technology. To be chosen for this coveted award by experts within the industry is very gratifying and will fuel us as we continue to make home security and control safer and smarter.

The iSmartAlarm home control ecosystem offers users advanced home control, security and automation using their iPhone or Android devices at a fraction of the cost of traditional security companies. The companys flagship product, iSmartAlarm, puts a 21st century spin on traditional systems by offering a self-monitored, self-controlled home security system that is designed to be expandable, mobile and DIY, with no wiring necessary. iSmart Alarm has also recently introduced iSmartAlarm Doorfront, which alerts users via their smartphones when someone comes to the front door or rings the doorbell, and iSmartAlarm Smart Switch, which allows users complete control over their homes lighting, appliances, security and electrical bill through their mobile devices.

For more information on iSmart Alarm and its products, visit https://www.ismartalarm.com/.

For more information on CEAs Mark of Excellence Awards, visit http://www.ce.org/Events-and-Awards/Awards/Mark-of-Excellence-Awards.aspx.

iSmart Alarm Social Media: Twitter: twitter.com/iSmartAlarm Facebook: facebook.com/iSmartAlarmInc

About iSmart Alarm, Inc.: iSmart Alarm, Inc. was founded in Silicon Valley in 2012 on the principles of safety, beauty, and intelligence. They designed and developed the best smartphone-enabled home security and home control system. The iSmartAlarm puts a 21st century spin on traditional security systems. The sleek, sophisticated system utilizes Apple devices to put home security and home control in the palm of its users hands. Their products are cool, simple to use, and affordable to everyone. iSmartAlarm protects your home intelligently.

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iSmartAlarm Wins Home Technology App of the Year Award From the Consumer Electronics Association

Photo by: Rantoul Fire Department

The scene of a fire on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2014, in Rantoul.

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RANTOUL - A couple who lost their home to the tornado that struck Gifford Nov. 17 lost a second home in Rantoul Sunday morning.

This time fire was the cause of the blaze at the home of Harley and Shirley LaBounty. Also living there was her mother, Emma Carpenter, at 1700 Eater Drive.

Harley LaBounty and Carpenter were at home at the time of the fire. They were not injured. Shirley LaBounty was at the home of her daughter recuperating at the home of her daughter following surgery.

The LaBountys had moved to the Eater Drive address after the devastating tornado that destroyed much of Gifford.

Rantoul Fire Chief Ken Waters said Harley LaBounty was trying to start his car in the garage. LaBountys son, Mike, said a wiring problem in the car is believed to be the cause of the fire.

He went back in the house ... and the fire ignited under the hood, destroying the garage, the car and causing smoke and heat damaging throughout the house, Waters said.

Read more:
After losing home to tornado, second home lost to fire

James Suehs and his adult son had planned to move to Bryan at the end of the month before their Burleson County home went up in flames on Monday night.

The bodies of 70-year-old James Suehs and 49-year-old James Suehs Jr. were discovered as firefighters battled the blaze around 11:30 p.m. on County Road 101 in Deanville, 10 miles southwest of Caldwell.

A preliminary autopsy found that their deaths were fire-related.

The State Fire Marshal's Office has not released the cause of the fire, but Kenya Suehs, James Suehs Jr.'s daughter, said investigators told her it was an accidental fire that had to do with wiring in the aging home.

Kenya Suehs didn't see her father often but talked on the phone several times a day and had been looking forward to driving down from the Tyler area to introduce her father to a daughter he had never met. She described both father and son as "homebodies" who loved to make jokes.

James Suehs Jr. enjoyed spending time with his 11-year-old grandson and was always with his chihuahua named Little Bit, who died at his side during the fire, Kenya Suehs said.

"If he loved someone, he loved them with everything he had," she said of her father.

Having suffered a heart attack recently, her father had shared his last wishes during one of their last conversations, Kenya Suehs said. He asked that Ozzy Osbourne's Mama I'm Coming Home be played during his service in honor of his mother.

Services for James Suehs Sr. will be handled by Phillips & Luckey Funeral Home in Caldwell. James Suehs Jr. will be cremated and taken to Hilliard Funeral Home in the East Texas town of Van with a memorial service scheduled for 4 p.m. on Jan. 18 at the Church of Garden Valley.

See more here:
Father, son died in Monday's Burleson County house fire

In our on-demand world, being connected to information and entertainment around the clock with is practically a given. To get that, youll need a high-tech home wiring system that can deliver the infrastructure youll need for a connected world.But how do you bring this 21st century convenience into a home from a completely different era?

New homes offer the best opportunity for integrating high-tech home wiring systems, but many manufacturers offer smart products to retrofit existing homes. As a result, you can now improve your homes automation, security, and value with options ranging from in-room conveniences to household-wide systems easily controlled from a single touch screen.

Heres a sampling of solutions to mix and match in the creation of your very own high-tech wired home.

Entertainment on demand:If youre entranced by your HDTV/DVR combination or cant go a day without your personal MP3 playlist, there are ways to add even more convenience to their entertaining delivery. Whole-house high-tech wiring systems allow you to centralize all audio and video delivery equipment, load up your favorite music and movies, and then enjoy them from any connected point in the home any time. Zoned controls also mean that different folks can enjoy a range of entertainment simultaneously: jazz can serenade a casual gathering on the patio while a childrens movie entertains in the living room and a vacation slide show rolls in the kitchen.

Lighting for mood, effect and safety:The advent of wireless home lighting control systems has made it easier than ever to integrate convenience, luxury and security into a homescape. Without tearing down walls for wiring or rerunning electrical wires, RF technology can make use of existing 110-volt home wiring for a retrofit as brilliant as the custom designs built into new homes. Convenient features for setting the scene include one-button vacation/alert, all on/all off and soft on/soft off modes, and security can be enhanced by setting indoor and outdoor lights to go on and off automatically. Even better, you can save money with dimming and overload detection that extend bulb life and conserves energy.

More:
Home Network Wiring | High-Tech Home Wiring System | The Money Pit

Knob and tube wiring (sometimes abbreviated K&T) was an early standardized method of electrical wiring in buildings, in common use in North America from about 1880 to the 1930s.[1][2] It consisted of single-insulated copper conductors run within wall or ceiling cavities, passing through joist and stud drill-holes via protective porcelain insulating tubes, and supported along their length on nailed-down porcelain knob insulators. Where conductors entered a wiring device such as a lamp or switch, or were pulled into a wall, they were protected by flexible cloth insulating sleeving called loom. The first insulation was asphalt-saturated cotton cloth, then rubber became common. Wire splices in such installations were twisted together for good mechanical strength, then soldered and wrapped with rubber insulating tape and friction tape (asphalt saturated cloth), or made inside metal junction boxes.

Knob and tube wiring was eventually displaced from interior wiring systems because of the high cost of installation compared with use of power cables, which combined both power conductors of a circuit in one run (and which later included grounding conductors).

At present, new knob and tube installations are permitted in the US only in a few very specific situations listed in the National Electrical Code, such as certain industrial and agricultural environments.

Ceramic knobs were cylindrical and generally nailed directly into the wall studs or floor joists. Most had a circular groove running around their circumference, although some were constructed in two pieces with pass-through grooves on each side of the nail in the middle. A leather washer often cushioned the ceramic, to reduce breakage during installation.

By wrapping electrical wires around the knob, and securing them with tie wires, the knob securely and permanently anchored the wire. The knobs separated the wire from potentially combustible framework, facilitated changes in direction, and ensured that wires were not subject to excessive tension. Because the wires were suspended in air, they could dissipate heat well.

Ceramic tubes were inserted into holes bored in wall studs or floor joists, and the wires were directed through them. This kept the wires from coming into contact with the wood framing members and from being compressed by the wood as the house settled. Ceramic tubes were sometimes also used when wires crossed over each other, for protection in case the upper wire were to break and fall on the lower conductor.

Ceramic cleats, which were block-shaped pieces, served a purpose similar to that of the knobs. Not all knob and tube installations utilized cleats.

Ceramic bushings protected each wire entering a metal device box, when such an enclosure was used.

Loom, a woven flexible insulating sleeve, was slipped over insulated wire to provide additional protection whenever a wire passed over or under another wire, when a wire entered a metal device enclosure, and in other situations prescribed by code.

Other ceramic pieces would typically be used as a junction point between the wiring system proper, and the more flexible cloth-clad wiring found in light fixtures or other permanent, hard-wired devices. When a generic power outlet was desired, the wiring could run directly into the junction box through a tube of protective loom and a ceramic bushing.

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Knob and tube wiring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have a junction box in my house where all the coaxial cables come in and go out. Most of it is pretty straight forward. There is one cable that comes in from the dish and connects to a 4-way green splitter. One port of the splitter goes out to the PI and the H24 receiver, another port goes out to the DECA BB and the last used port goes out to a DECA and my HR23. There are several other cables in the cabinet that are not connected that go to various other rooms in my house. The thing that has me confused is that there is a cable that comes in and is hooked to a 2-way splitter with a white label, used because I believe the CSR didn't have a better connector, that has another cable hooked to one of the out ports that then leaves the box. I have no idea what either end of those cables are hooked to. Can anyone give me an idea of what that connection is for? I only have two receivers that are connected for Whole-Home-DVR. I'm pretty sure that was done when the CSR came to hook up my WHDVR system. My father-in-law appears to have the same sort of connection in his box and he only has one receiver.

Thanks

Originally posted here:
House wiring question | DIRECTV Technical Forums

A motorist may have saved two lives when he alerted residents that their East Hempfield Township home was on fire late Tuesday night, fire officials said.

The 11:36 p.m. fire struck a home at 39 Bimini Drive, near Manheim Pike and Lititz Road, just north of East Petersburg, said Trooper Dustin Shireman, a state police fire marshal.

The home is owned by 79-year-old Jacqueline Ditzler. She and her 40-year-old grandson, Christopher Axe, may have been sleeping at the time of the fire, officials said.

Flames were going through the roof, but they safely got out after a motorist pulled in front of the home and blew his car horn, alerting them something was wrong, said East Petersburg Fire Company Chief James Rohrer Jr. He did not know the motorist's name.

"The people heard (the horn) and got out," Rohrer said. "If he wouldn't have stopped, the outcome could have been a loss of life."

"The fire was burning above them and they didn't even know it," he said. Ditzler and Axe had gone to bed. He didn't know if they were asleep.

A neighbor also went to the home to help, but the occupants walked out on their own, Rohrer said.

About 65 firefighters from area companies fought the fire, but couldn't save the home from being destroyed.

They attacked the fire in the attic for about 15 minutes, but were unable to extinguish it, Rohrer said. They were ordered to evacuate and then fought an exterior attack, including using an aerial ladder truck to stream water onto the fire.

When the blaze was mostly extinguished, firefighters went back inside with a hand line and finished the job, Rohrer said. It all took them about 45 minutes.

Continued here:
Fire destroys home near East Petersburg

Paula Shipley with her cat Mittens outside her Cherryville home that was destroyed in a Sunday fire.

Friends of a Cherryville woman who lost everything she owns in a house fire Sunday morning have set up a fund for others to provide help.

Paula Shipley was asleep about 12:30 a.m. when her kitten woke her up, alerting her to a fire that was consuming her mobile home. She and the cat escaped, but two of her other pets died and the home was a total loss.

Fire investigators say the cause is undetermined, but believe faulty wiring may have been to blame.

Anyone who wants to help can make a donation to the Paula Shipley Fire Fund at any Woodforest National Bank, which has branches inside the Wal-Mart stores in Cherryville, Shelby and Belmont.

Shipley is sleeping on the couch at her nephew and nieces home in Kings Mountain but said she is still in need of clothes and other basic necessities. She had to cut off much of her hair because it was burned while she was escaping her home.

She had insurance, but said shes learned shell only receive a nominal amount to replace all the things she lost.

Im very optimistic, said Shipley, who has a history of helping others and of fostering abused animals. I look at the fact that Im just blessed to have the kitten and blessed that Im alive.

Shipley can also be reached directly at 704-802-4004.

Reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.

Read more here:
Fund to help woman who lost home in fire

What you should know

Fires tend to be more common in the winter when we spend a lot of time indoors trying to stay warm and cozy.

Winter fires often start with heating devices, cooking, smoking, candles, and matches. Cooking fires are the primary cause of home fires and fire injuries. The most common time for winter fires is 5 to 8 p.m. Holiday insurance claims are often tied to dry Christmas trees, turkey fryers, fireworks, and candles. Over one-third of candle fires start in bedrooms

The most common disaster response by the American Red Cross is for single-family house fires more than 52,000 U.S. home fires and helping 226,000 people. The Red Cross responds with shelter, food and emotional support.

Space heaters cause one-third of home heating fires and four out of five home heating fire deaths.

Winter electrical fires may start if circuits and receptacles become overloaded or there are shorts in cords or devices.

You could be at a high risk for fires, especially if you live in a home over 30 years old or with fuses. Todays lifestyles often require a large electrical supply all in one place. For example, your desk may have a heater, digital TV, cable box, lamp, and radio nearby. But you might also have a computer with screen, desk phone, printer, modem, mobile phone recharger, speakers, coffee warmer, phone, fax, scanner, and shredder. Many old homes were not build for such high demand in just one room. Some older homes have dangerous aluminum wiring as well.

Working smoke alarms are extremely important for helping you react and escape from a potential fire.

What you should do

Develop a fire escape plan. Practice your plan at least twice a year with everyone, including young children. Ask everyone to meet outside in a specific place in case of a fire. Everyone should know two ways to escape from each room.

Originally posted here:
Healthy Memphis: Make home cozy without risk of winter fire

An electrical problem started a fire that caused damages totaling $175,000 at a North Lebanon Township home Thursday afternoon, a fire chief said.

The fire was sparked by the electrical wiring of a water filtering system, said Weavertown Fire Chief Donald Steiner.

The fire caused damages of $100,000 to the home at 614 E. Maple St. and $75,000 to its contents, he said. The basement sustained fire damage, and the rest of the house had heavy smoke damage. Steiner said smoke detectors in the house did not go off, possibly because of dead batteries.

Firefighters from nine fire companies were dispatched to extinguish the fire.

aggravated assault >> Julie Graham, 25, Harrisburg, was charged with having unprotected sexual intercourse with a 25-year-old Swatara Township man at his home between June 1 and 30, knowing she was HIV positive and not telling him, state police at Lickdale said Saturday. They also had sex at Graham's home in Susquehanna Township, Dauphin County, during that time, police said. Police said Graham also lied about her HIV status.

She was arraigned Friday before District Judge Kim Wolfe, who set her bail at $25,000, police said. In addition to aggravated assault, she was charged with sexual assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person, police said.

Burglary >> Two people broke into the Schubert Best gas station, 5836 Four Point Road, in Bethel Township by throwing an object through the front door and shattering glass at 4:50 a.m. Saturday, state police at Hamburg said. The pair entered the store and took a cash register and cigarettes.

One of the burglars wore a white, hooded sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers, police said. The other wore a checkered hooded sweatshirt believed to be black and white, jeans and sneakers. The gender, height, weight and age of the burglars could not be determined. The suspect wearing the white sweatshirt fled from the store with the cash register, and the other took the cigarettes. The two split up and headed in opposite directions when they left.

Anyone with further information should call police at at 610-562-6885.

Water investigation >> Two adults and a child were displaced by a water supply line break Friday night in the first block of East Pine Street in Cleona.

Originally posted here:
Police blotter, 1/5