It's night and you pull into your driveway and reach for the remote -- no, not the remote control for the garage door -- the remote for your home's lighting system. One click turns operates a radio-controlled network that makes the lights both inside and outside your home respond to your command. Sound like the house of the future?

This is just one cutting edge product introduced for the first time at this year's Pacific Coast Builder's Conference for homes being built from the ground up. It's the Verve Living system, Masco Corporation's innovative product for lighting control.

Verve relies on a unique technology developed by European manufacturer EnOcean, a spin-off of Siemens Corporation and is a breakthrough in energy-harvesting, radio frequency science. EnOcean engineers discovered a way to gather energy from the simple act of clicking a switch -- energy that can be used to transmit a small, compact radio signal wirelessly and at astonishing speeds. The little transmissions from a clicker sends instructions through a ten-channel controller to lighting fixtures and outlets throughout the house.

For homebuilders, this is a huge breakthrough. The lighting system eliminates wires, batteries and -- best of all -- change orders when building a home. This saves them thousands of dollars during the build itself.

Want more? Nothing is hardwired. Verve switches can be mounted on virtually anything, anywhere within the house. Want to place switches low so your little ones or wheelchair-bound homeowners can reach them? How about on a sliding glass door? Homeowners can also lower the intensity of any light in their home from any switch or combination of switches, creating ambience while saving on energy costs and bulb life within their homes.

The technology has already become popular in Europe over the past five years and now it's here for the American market. For more information about this wireless lighting control system, go to www.vervelivingsystems.com.

Published: July 8, 2008

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.