The farming market offers custom installers huge potential to make money, and not just from wiring houses or installing irrigation systems with moisture sensors.
Local installation outfit HomeSmart’s owner, Jim Brunen, was in charge of this project.
“We had done AV and automation work in the owner’s previous home, and when he moved to this equestrian community he asked for a rather large installation of AV and automation technologies,” he says.
“At the time the main house was done, the barn had not yet been built. We were actually hired to install automated awnings, a TV hidden behind a mirror that only became visible when turned on, a TV hidden behind motorised shutters that are painted to match the stone of the fireplace, automated HVAC controls, automated irrigation controls, lighting control, and 11 HDTVs throughout the main house that could each display any of eight sources.
“Then when the barn was being built, the owner asked us what we could do to add the benefit of automation to it. This is the first time we had been asked to install this level of technology in a barn, although we have also done one with much simpler automated lighting.”
Jim explains that in being familiar with the benefits of home automation, the owner was eager to have them simplify the routines of managing the barn, including making it easier for him to be away from the property so that the groom needn’t worry about the basic routines.
The barn installation included:
• Five circuits of lighting (both interior and exterior), which can be automated by time or turned on from inside the main house.
• Two separate circuits of high volume fans (one set for the stalls to blow on the horses, and one set of two fans at either end of the barn to move air through the structure). The stall fans are activated automatically when the temperature rises above 26ºC.
• Four CCTV cameras that can be viewed on a variety of touch screens throughout the house, including one by the bed in the master bedroom so that the horses can be monitored at night if necessary. (Interestingly the cameras can be disabled when the owner is in the barn so that he has complete privacy while there.)
• Two sets of speakers, one set inside the tack room and one set in the main stable area.
• A 4” Crestron touch panel.
“A high-pressure misting system (1200psi) was used to reduce the temperature when it became too high and humidity too low,” Jim says.
“The typical humidity for much of the summer is between 2% and 15%. However, during our monsoon season, humidity can rise to as much as 50%, hence the controls that monitor both temperature and humidity to determine when to turn the misting system on.”
Further, a fly spray system that incorporates a 300psi pump and micro-nozzles at each stall was installed into the structure.
“The fly spray is dispersed every hour during daylight hours. Further, the system is programmed to activate only during the months that flies are a problem.
“In order to be effective, the system must first turn off the misting system and stall fans, wait five minutes for the air to settle down, then spray the fly repellent for 60 seconds, wait again until it settles into the stall, and then turn the fans and misting systems back on, but only if the temperature and humidity criteria are met.”
Overall, Jim says the owner is incredibly happy with the results. And that’s straight from the horses’ mouth.
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