Red Acorn Builders

As builders with over 30 years of combined experience, Russell Crosby and Dev Patel, founders of Red Acorn Builders in Paramus, N.J., are always looking toward the future. “We are constantly studying, studying, studying…always seeking out new products and innovations. Anyone who is not doing that is a dinosaur,” said Crosby. This desire to learn more so they can give customers a quality home and living environment exemplifies the three-pronged foundation of Red Acorn Builders:

• Modern design 
• High performance, low energy construction 
• Smart home automation

A visit to the Leviton booth at the International Builders Show (IBS) introduced Crosby and Patel to Second Gen Smart Circuit Breakers for the Leviton Smart Load Center they were installing at a new residential home being built in New Jersey. They immediately wanted to upgrade to the Gen 2 circuit breakers. Crosby said, “My initial thought in choosing the Leviton Smart Load Center was to give homeowners the ability to turn off individual circuits using the My Leviton app to better maintain and manage their energy, particularly during storms and outages, so they could choose to easily turn off non-essential circuits. It gives total control of energy usage. As for the Gen 2 circuit breakers, the capacity is awesome because you can turn them ON and OFF from anywhere using the app on your phone. And they are safe because a tripped breaker will not turn back on remotely, only manually.”

During construction, Crosby and Patel discovered two additional benefits to using smart breakers. The first is directly related to their mission of low energy performance homes. By viewing the history of the energy usage data generated by the smart breakers on the My Leviton app, they were able to more accurately spec out the number of solar panels and battery backup required for the house. “The live data provided the information we needed to avoid overspending on solar panels and battery backup system,” said Crosby.

The second benefit found for the smart breakers is rather unique and directly related to the future occupants of the home they were building. The family has a special needs child and there was a concern that the child could access and switch on the oven. Crosby said, “The oven is on a 30A smart breaker. Safety for the child was a concern for the family. The smart breakers give all family members with the My Leviton app the ability to remotely switch off the power to the oven when it is not in use.”

In addition to the Leviton Smart Load Center, the house is fully outfitted with Leviton Decora Smart® switches, outlets and lighting controls. A particular highlight is the use of Decora Smart Scene Controllers throughout the home. Crosby refers to them as the backbone of the home, installing one in every room “because it gives homeowners the ability to create smart home automation scenes and automate their smart home devices such as lighting, security, climate control into specific events or tasks such as “movie night,” “bedtime” or “home”. Also, 2nd generation switches and dimmers are programmed to work with Matter, a new common communication language between devices and controllers that unifies smart home devices from different platforms which allows each device to work on one platform or another thereby opening up the smart home system to a multitude of devices.”

The ability to integrate all smart functionality is paramount to Crosby and Patel because they use Apple HomeKit® in the home to coordinate over three hundred smart devices. “All Leviton products are juxtapositioned to other high-quality brands (locks, air quality system and more) and are part of a Net Zero, low energy, modern style construction,” said Crosby. The inclusion of Leviton EV Smart Chargers in the garage is another future-forward smart solution he offers his customers. The unit works with the My Leviton app to manage electric vehicle charging sessions and notifies users of any fault experienced during charging for added safety.

This very special home was over three years in the making and exemplifies the commitment Crosby and Patel have made to the cutting-edge science of Passive House Construction. For these builders, it was time well spent. Crosby said, “Today people expect a certain level of smart technology – it creates the cutting edge for sales.”