Month: June 2018

Your life is about to get a whole lot easier! If you haven’t embraced the smart home revolution maybe it’s time to dip your toe in the world of home automation.

With gadgets like the Roomba (robot hoover) celebrating over 16 years on the market, home technology is advancing faster than ever, devices such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri are introducing us to a whole new world of automation.

Founded in 2010, Nest was the brainchild of two former Apple engineers, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers. Fadell, one of the creators of the first iPod was frustrated about the limitations of thermostats as he built his energy-efficient home in California. In May 2010 Fadell and Rogers co-founded Nest Labs and began prototyping the first smart thermostats.

By 25^th October 2011 Nest had launched to the public and the first Nest thermostat hit the market. Over the last seven years three generations of thermostat have been released, growing smarter with every evolution.

Nest Thermostat: A ‘Learning’ Thermostat

Whereas most thermostats rely on you to set the temperature, the Nest Learning Thermostat aims to set it for you. This device goes beyond simple temperature detection and learns your behaviour patterns and desired settings. Nest starts learning from you straightaway using sensors and advanced algorithms to create a custom temperature schedule that saves energy and keep you comfortable. Built around an operating system that is very similar to the Apple products we all know and love Nest allows interactions with the Nest thermostat via spinning and clicking of its control wheel. Users can also access the Nest thermostat controls via the app when you don’t want to leave the sofa. To date Nest has allowed users to save over 8 billion kWh in electricity across 190 countries, averaging a 10% saving on customers heating bills.

Nest Protect carbon monoxide and smoke detector

In October 2013 Nest launched its second product the Nest Protect – a smoke and carbon monoxide detector. Available in both black and white, this product can be both mains and battery powered. The Nest Protect features a multi-coloured light ring which is colour coded to indicate each operation. For example, yellow would indicate an early warning whereas it would flash red if the alarm was sounding. The ring also comes with motion detection to provide illumination should someone pass underneath. It is the first smoke alarm to bring Split-Spectrum Sensor in to the home. This commercial grade photoelectric sensor uses two wavelengths of light to spot different types of smoke and therefore catching slow and fast burning fires. A feature called App Silence allows you to silence the alarm in the event of a false alarm or some burnt toast. Another clever feature is the ‘self test’, the smoke detector will use a built in microphone to test itself when you’re out of the house.

Other Nest products include the camera range and the Nest Hello – a hardwired smart video doorbell with facial recognition and with 300 patents to the company’s name we’re excited to see what Nest comes up with next. Contact us to find out more about Nest and how we can get it working for you.

In an age where staying in is the new going out, home cinemas are becoming the latest must have for property owners. From luxury sheds to basement conversions, you can be transported in to movie heaven. As cinema attendance continues to decrease, more people are investing in their home movie experience, with streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime delivering high quality viewing directly to your TV. Home cinema technology has come along way from the Kodak 8mm film projector in the 1950s and 60s.

Locations for home cinema rooms generally come in 3 categories; basement, shed and existing family room. It’s important to use a room that can be closed off to other parts of the house to help avoid noise and light saturation from other locations. For a fully immersive experience, viewers want to lock themselves away from everyday life and become part of the onscreen action.

Getting the atmosphere right in your cinema room can be a fine balance of lighting and audio. A combination of LED downlights and LED strip is the most common trend at the moment. Recessed spotlights help provide a true movie feel, whilst the dimmable feature on LED lighting means you can change the light levels seamlessly and without the risk of flicker. The centrepiece of the room is of course the television or screen, so draw attention to it. You can continue with LED strip lights here if you wish to outline it or you could use it to backlight it which can provide a really cool effect which provides a great sense of depth. Matching all of this technology with a smart integration system such as Rako means your room can be movie-ready at the touch of a button.

Sonos Playbar

Audio is just as important as lighting when being immersed in a film. Our friends at Sonos have created a home theatre package based around their version of a soundbar called a Playbar. The Playbar has six mid-woofers to cover the low frequencies and three tweeters to cover the high, all driven by nine class-D amplifiers. More importantly, it’s a smart component making 24 million calculations per second, adding, subtracting, equalizing, and otherwise intelligently adjusting each element to keep the system balanced perfectly. Sonos also integrates with Rako and can controlled with Amazon’s Alexa.

When is comes to décor, comfort is everything. Best to avoid a noisy wooden floor in favour of a luxuriously thick carpet. And of course you’ll need plenty of places to sit, with the seat of choice varying between recliners, sofa and beanbags. Our upholsterer can design the perfect seating to match your room’s identity and colour scheme. Another fabric you will also need to consider is black out blinds or curtains, should your film rooms be above ground. Our Kent based suppliers Silent Gliss produce revolutionary electric blinds and curtains, that can be controlled with a remote or integrated into your Rako lighting system. They have created both battery and mains powered roller and roman blinds which can be retro fitted into your home with minimal fuss.

For the ultimate in cinema luxury, air conditioning is a must. Balancing the temperature and humid can be pivotal for you viewing experience. Proving both cool and hot air, you can easily change the temperature to ensure comfortable viewing for all.

Whatever your design, our team are on hand to assist and recommend you with the perfect home cinema for every budget.

With a potential 3-month heat wave looming, one advance in technology I think we can all be grateful for is air conditioning. Keeping many of us cool at work, the artificial breeze has been around much longer than you think. This American invention wasn’t created as a result of seeking improved comfort, but was the result of a paper stock problem in New York.

The Sackett and Wilhelms Lithography and Printing Company (S&W) based in Brooklyn, was having problems with its paper shrinking and expanding due to the varied humidity with in the different print rooms. This became a major issue for the company as they were trying to print multi coloured documents. At the time colour printing required each colour to be layered one as a time, so small changes in the dimension of the paper could misalign the image, causing a misprint. The comprise in quality was leading the factory to having huge levels of wastage and a back log of production.

S&W commissioned upstate company Buffalo Forge Works to come up with a solution. A young Cornell University graduate called Willis Carrier was sent to the factory to engineer what would become recognised as the world’s first modern air conditioning system. Existing technology at the time allowed engineers to control air temperature and alter humidity, but this was not precise enough for S&W requirements.

Carrier developed a system that could carry out four basic functions

Control temperature
Control humidity
Control air circulation and ventilation
Cleanse the air

The precision heating and cooling coils were capable of regulating the air temperature more precisely, therefore helping control the moisture in the air. The drawings detailing this plans are dated 17^th July 1902 and resulted in the production of the worlds first electrical air conditioning system. Installed and fully operational in early 1903, the system kept the factory at a steady 55% humidity, resolving the paper issues.

In the last 100 years air conditioning technology has improved and the units producing magical cool air are become smaller and more energy efficient. Advances in filters mean that AC filters can ward off some allergies and asthma attacks, as they are capable of filtering out airborne pollen from circulating internal air. With our dependence of keeping us and our computer cool it is more important than ever to look after your system. By regularly maintaining your air condition system you can increase its lifespan by 5-8 years. Contact us to find out more!

The highly anticipated General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced on 25^th May 2018. This new European Union privacy law aims to bring all EU members states under one umbrella by enforcing a single data protection law. The law is intended to provide guidelines and regulate how data is processed, used, stored or exchanged. It applies to any organisation which sells goods or services to citizens of the EU and process or monitor the personal data of EU residents. Whilst we all received a mountain of emails from companies want us to confirm we’re happy with their correspondence, there seems to be a knowledge gap surrounding the CCTV aspect of GDPR.

With harmful penalties such as 4% global annual turnover fee being enforced, businesses need to ensure they are cooperating with the new ruling. The GDPR introduction means that building/business owners now require a valid reason for the placement of cameras. Employers are not allowed to use CCTV to watch their employees, but can use it to protect employees when it comes to health and safety. The law protects an employees’ right to privacy meaning that your staff have to be comfortable with the placement of cameras and can object to CCTV being fitted into certain areas. However, if the camera is minimising a potential security risk, this can be used as a valid reason to carry out the installation.

CCTV installation: GDPR If you currently have CCTV installed into your work place or home is it important to inform those who operate in and around your location that cameras are in use. The most common resolution is to display clear signs declaring “CCTV is in operation”.

Whist your DVR may have the capacity to record more, GDPR now means that captured footage can only be held for a maximum of 30 days. A risk assessment would need to be carried out if you need to hold the footage for longer. Some locations such as pubs and hotels maybe required to hold their footage for longer by the local council as part of their premises license. The storage of this footage should also be considered. Screens displaying the footage should only be visible by authorised individuals and not by members of the public. Regardless of format all CCTV should be encrypted and locked away.

Overall GDPR does not discourage CCTV installation, but instead encourages companies to use it for protection and monitoring whilst avoiding an invasion of privacy.

If you want to find out more about installing and maintaining CCTV systems, please get in touch!

With bricks and mortar shops becoming more than a buying location and much more of an immersive shopping experience, retail maintenance is becoming more important than ever. The dramatic transformation in the retail experience has lead to an increase in interactive technology and has created an in-store environment focusing on customers testing and trying products, rather than purchasing. Traditional shop displays are disappearing in favour of installations to engage the customer physically, tangibly and through all the senses. With over ten years of experience in retail maintenance and electrical services, Opulous Innovation can help your store stay at the top of its game.

Lighting can create a huge difference to your stores atmosphere, and having lights out on your shop floor can have a negative effect on the overall ambience. One of our commercials team’s main retail maintenance roles is to carry out lamp replacements across many locations in Central London. Both planned and reactive visits keep your store well lit, whilst our office ensures that the same or similar lamps are always available for when engineer visits your store – so there’s no waiting for materials to come into stock.

Retail Maintenance and Electrical Contractors: Opulous Innovation Electricians

Opulous carrying out planned retail maintenance for a client

We also specialise in LED upgrades for retail and hospitality locations. As older fittings such as fluorescent lighting becomes obsolete, stores are struggling to find suitable replacements that give the same feel as their older products. Over the last year our team have been working with retailers to come up with bespoke solutions including the latest in LED technology to meet the specification and avoid any disruption to the customer shopping experience.

Our electrical services don’t stop at shop-floor lighting. Emergency lighting is essential to keeping customers and staff safe in case of an emergency. The law requires it to be tested monthly and logged to allowed any damaged lighting to be repaired. Maintenance of emergency light systems is essential to ensure the backup batteries are correctly holding their charge and in good working order.

Whilst lighting is considered the glamorous side of retail maintenance, there are lots of other electrical services that need to be carried out monthly and annually to keep your shop running smoothly. Although not a legal requirement, most insurance companies require portable appliance testing to be carried out in any commercial location. This annual test is to ensure that small appliances and their safety features are working correctly. It’s not just small appliances that need to be tested an electrical installation condition report should also be carried out every 5 years in a retail setting. The purpose of an EICR (also known as periodic inspection and testing of an electrical installation), is to determine, so far as is reasonably practicable, whether the installation is in a satisfactory condition for continued service.

Keeping your shop well lit is one priority of retail maintenance, but keeping it the correct temperature is another – especially if you want to encourage customers to try on seasonal clothing. Air conditioning can be the bane of many operations manager’s lives. There’s so much that can go wrong with a device that combines water, gas and electricity and maintaining them is essential to avoid any problems. Depending on the environment your air conditioning filters should be cleaned a minimum of twice a year, units that have more exposure to dust or fibres should be serviced more regularly. Since 2014 the EU has regulated G gas, one of the main components of an air conditioning system. This needs to be checked annually by a trained professional to check for any leaks in the system that could be dangerous to the environment and to ensure that your installation has the correct levels of gas to run efficiently. Regular servicing saves you money and prevents bigger problems from occurring.

One of Opulous’ retail maintenance clients Bulgari

Opulous also offers a range of more specialist services, such as upholstery, smart integration and visual installations. Our upholstery team can reupholster displays onsite with the latest fabrics. We regularly work in Heathrow overnight updating the fabric window display in Bulgari stores to each season’s specification, as well as create bespoke products for pop up displays.

As the level of technology within a store grows, smart integration is becoming more and more common in-store. With a variety of systems such as Lutron, Rako and Control 4 being utilised to help showcase products and displays, it’s essential to ensure that these are programmed correctly and that additions can easily be made to the system. From diagnoses to reprogramming, our retail maintenance technicians can ensure a seamless and subtle transition between lighting moods for your store.

Other services integrated within our retail maintenace offering include plumbing, CCTV and data. We also work alongside various other trades such as emergency glaziers, IT specialists and locksmiths that share our values and work with us on a regular basis. If you have a question or query relating to a retail maintenance issue you may have, please get in touch with the team. If it is not a service we offer, we will help find you a reliable contractor that can assist with your location.

Electric cars are booming and with Opulous’s expertise in installing an electric car charger at home or work, we’re better placed than most to tell you what’s hot and what’s not in electric cars. Here’s our round-up of seven of the best

Renault Zoe

1. Renault Zoe continues to rule the roost as Europe’s number 1 selling EV in 2017. This year Renault have launched a new model with an updated motor, improved
performance and android compatibility. This five door car can achieve 160 miles on a full charge and costs less to buy than most other electric cars. If buying from a
dealership the price will also include a wall mounted 7kW electric car charger to be installed at
your home.

2. The British built Nissan Leaf hit the market in 2010 and has sold over 300,000 cars
worldwide, beating the Renault Zoe for the title of most popular EV worldwide. Far
from a milk float, this electric car can do 0-60mph in 8 seconds out sprinting the VW
e-Golf. The Leaf has undergone a remodel this year, giving it a sportier feel.

3. With Zipcar introducing over 300 all electric VW e-golf to its users across London, it’s easy to see why placing an order for one is difficult. Unlike most EV’s, the e-Golf is
based on the much-loved standard fuel chassis, with the only difference being the
engine. It is easy to see how this car will become a popular family EV.

4. The BMW i3 is available in an all-electric form or as a range extended petrol/electric version, falling back on a 2-cylinder petrol engine when the battery is depleted.
BMW has rolled out the ChargeNow services offering 5000+ public EV charging
stations and for charging at home customers can have the BMWi wallbox installed.

5. Of course the big boys in the EV market are Tesla and the Tesla Model S leads the
luxury electric car market. By far one of the most expensive EV’s on the market, the Model S does offer significantly most miles per charge than any other electric car.
Owning a Tesla puts you in an exclusive club, allowing you free use of Tesla’s own electric car charger – the Supercharger, a high speed charging infrastructure, charging your car to full in
30 mins.

Nissan e-NV200

6. One of the biggest players in the electric vehicle industry are stepping up its game,
introducing the Nissan e-NV200 pop top. Far from just a concept, Nissan showcased this smart new camper as the Madrid Motor Show in May 2018. This revolutionary
vehicle leads the pack as competitors such as VW are yet to bring their electric I.D
Buzz to market.

7. Another vehicle type being electrified is HGV’s, Tesla will launch the Tesla Semi in
2019. Currently being tested on the road, the Tesla Semi will be capable of travelling up to 600 miles on a single electric car charger charge – even when fully loaded. With supermarket giants such as Walmart placing orders, it is very clear that will we be seeing many of these electric lorries on the road in the next decade.

To find out more about installing an electric car charger point for any of these models, or for any electric car of your choice, get in touch!

Month: June 2018

The Nest Thermostat: Your Smart Home Solution

Hooked to the silver screen? Install a home cinema!

Air conditioning, a pretty cool invention

How does GDPR impact CCTV installation?

Your one stop shop for all your retail maintenance needs

7 vehicles leading the electric charge

Maintain Your Edge