After a fab 100% Design show, I was blessed with another complementary ticket to the Homebuilders and Renovation show today at the London Excel. It was so informative.
They had many exhibitors from large window manufacturers to the small entrepreneurs of the Robot Vacuum Cleaner. See below.
As part of my next project I was keen to see what new ‘green’ innovation was around. The exhibition was flooded by renewable sources heating companies- each claiming to be the best in the market. I asked for a few quotes and so let’s see what I come back with. What was really insightful was the different types of renewable ways to source energy- from air, wind, ground and water. There was one seminar dedicated to that- we were given information on the government incentive schemes which you could apply for. In principle, the payback period on the material and payment due to you for selling your energies back to the grid was approx 7 years for air and approx 10 years on ground source. I think they are worth thinking about when you plan to stay in the property for over 10 years but there is never that guarantee.
There was a lot of hype about smart homes. This is not really a new innovation. Many providers have started to build in smart home features like Hive, Nest who provide an app to control your heating systems wherever you may be. The company Loxone which is an Austrian company is being supplied by many smart home installation companies. They not only integrate your heating systems, it controls you home security like alarm and intercom systems. I am waiting for my quote to come back to me and so, will let you know how big the damage is.
It was a great show to go to in terms of understanding what new materials and what is the latest trends. I believe they also travel around the UK too and so, check it out. http://www.homebuilding.co.uk
