Standing between the centralized smart home and the "new normal" is a barrage of hardware, software, and integration options.
Installing integrated smart home packages—which put security, entertainment, and comfort controls in a homeowners pocket—seems like an obvious next step for new-home builders. But it remains a challenge for companies looking to future-proof their operations with a repeatable, profitable process.
For Tucson, Ariz.-based Pepper Viner Homes, the ClareHome Builder’s Program offered a predictable model to bring into the builder’s high-performance homes. The integrated hardware, software, and business solution from Clare Controls will be installed as standard in every new home in the builder's Stonebridge community outside Tucson, Ariz.
Clare Controls was started in 2009 with a direct-to-builder marketing strategy.
“We’re not selling gadgets, we’re selling solutions,” says Clare Controls' founder Brett Price. “We apply discipline to the smart home integration process to create packaged solutions for builders. It’s about sanity and structure.”
By communicating tiered pricing, purchasing, and profit levels clearly, Clare Controls sells home automation systems in the same way other manufactures might sell appliances. Homeowners select packages to add comfort, convenience, security, and entertainment features to the integrated system.
Connecting the system is a cloud-based user interface designed with simplicity in mind. Price says Clare Controls specified middle-aged women as their test market.
“The woman is the gate keeper," he says. "Make her comfortable, then it’s sold."
Chad Williams, Pepper Viner's director of operations, said the Clare system aligned with his company's mission of providing high-performance homes that do the right thing for buyers and the environment.
Clare Controls works with integrators across the country to install its hardware. Pepper Viner partnered with local electronics engineering and consulting firm Area 51 to bring Clare Controls into every home in its Stonebridge community.
“The efficiency of the cloud-based Clare system makes it ideal for this type of project," said John Cento, owner of Area 51, in a statement. "We can deploy with unbelievable ease, even cloning system configurations for a quick start on every project. And using Clare’s secure remote access for maintenance and system updates is a win-win-win: we roll fewer trucks and both our end users and Pepper Viner get a whole lot of peace-of-mind.”
Each home in Pepper Viner's Stonebridge community will include Clare’s CLIQ controller—the “brain” of the automation solution—plus a programmable thermostat, whole home Wi-Fi, several circuits of automated lighting, and other features. Homeowners may then select package upgrades to add to their homogenous user interface.
Pepper Viner will include an iPad mini and charging dock station with each home, though Clare’s lifestyle applications can also be accessed securely through the homeowners’ personalized interface on additional iOS and Android devices.
Learn more about markets featured in this article: Tucson, AZ.
