Is your home ready for a brain transplant? Adding individual smart plugs is quick, easy, and inexpensive, but the benefits are limited to one plug at a time. Leviton‘s new Load Center and Smart Circuit Breakers go deep in your home’s infrastructure, connecting your entire home to the internet and the cloud. Leviton’s intelligent home electrical service was introduced at the 2019 NAHB International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas.
Installing a new load center, commonly called an electrical panel, isn’t a DIY task. You’ll need a qualified electrician for the installation to protect your home and anyone who ever enters it. The load center is a metal electrical service box that connects to a local utility power source and distributes electrical current throughout the home via individual circuits.
The new Leviton Load Center connects to the internet and the Leviton Cloud via Wi-Fi and your home router. Leviton’s new Smart Circuit Breakers install in the load center the same as in regular electrical panels. Each Smart Circuit Breakers also connects to the internet via a wireless or Ethernet-connected data hub.
With a Wi-Fi-connected Leviton Load Center and a full complement of Smart Circuit Breakers installed, you can use the My Leviton smartphone app to monitor power usage to view usage trends and electrical bill. You also can configure alerts for each circuit breaker to you’ll be notified if, when, and why an individual circuit breaker has tripped.
Each circuit in the Load Center can be customized with one of four different circuit breaker options. Users can select from standard breakers, AFCI breakers, GFCI breakers, or AFCI/GFCI Dual-Function breakers. For example, GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) breakers cut electrical power in one-fortieth of a second if a fault in an electrical ground occurs. Ungrounded circuits can destroy appliances, start fires, and injure or even kill people.
If you think of adding smart plugs and smart hubs to our homes as installing a layer of intelligent mini appliances, installing a connected Load Center and Smart Circuit Breakers is a whole house brain transplant.
“Today’s homebuyers want a smarter home and we’ve answered the call with the Leviton Load Center,” said Daryoush Larizadeh, Leviton president and COO. “The enhanced version of the Leviton Load Center is a groundbreaking milestone in our long history of innovation, integrating intelligence and efficiency into the nerve center of the home. It is easy to install for contractors, provides home builders with a smart, safe and aesthetically pleasing product for their customers, and simplifies the daily lives of homeowners.”
Updated February 20 with additional information about circuit breaker options.
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