The connected house
Home automation with the wiring done right.
County Line Electric builds whole-home automation systems: lighting, shades, security and cameras, multi-room audio and video, networking and climate on one system the owner actually uses. On new construction the backbone goes in at rough-in. On an existing house, the survey comes first.
Plan Your Smart HomeWalk through a connected home
Call (805) 499-0823. CA Lic. #949580.
- 7Systems on one platform
- Rough-inIs where it starts
- 30 yrsIn the trade
What it is
A smart home is a wiring plan before it is an app.
The difference between a smart home that works and one that gets abandoned after a year is almost never the brand of the control system. It is the infrastructure underneath it: whether there is a wired network drop behind every television, whether the cameras have power and a clean path to the recorder, whether the shades have power at the pocket, whether the audio amplifiers have a rack with real ventilation and clean electrical, whether the lighting runs through a proper control system instead of a drawer of smart bulbs. That infrastructure is electrical work, and it is what County Line brings to automation.
The company has installed lighting control, security, shading and audio and video systems in custom homes for years, usually as part of wiring the house. The control platform is chosen with you and your integrator if you have one. The backbone, the power and the pathways are County Line's, and they are built so the system can be upgraded in ten years without opening walls.
The systems
Seven things a connected house does.
Lighting control
Lutron HomeWorks scenes, keypads and schedules. The foundation of every system County Line builds.
Lighting and shadingMotorized shades
Lutron shades on the same keypads and schedules as the lights, moving with the sun.
Security and cameras
Alarm, door locks, gate and intercom, cameras you can watch from anywhere, with the wiring to make them reliable.
Multi-room audio and video
Music in every room from any source, video distributed to every screen, a media room or theater done properly.
Networking
A wired, enterprise-grade network with access points placed for the house, because everything above depends on it.
Climate and energy
Thermostats, pool and spa, the generator and the EV charger visible and controllable from one place.
Voice and remote control
Keypads, touch panels, the app and voice, chosen for how the household actually lives.
Outdoor
Landscape lighting, outdoor audio and video, the gate, the pool. The house does not stop at the back door.
On new construction
Automation starts at the plan review.
- 01
Design
Which rooms do what. Television, speaker, camera, keypad and shade locations on the drawings before framing.
- 02
Pre-wire
Structured wiring, conduit to every screen and the roof, shade power at every pocket, the head end and rack location with power and cooling.
- 03
Trim and commissioning
Devices, racks, programming and a walkthrough. Every keypad does what its engraving says.
On an existing home the sequence is a survey, an honest conversation about what can be wired and what should be wireless, and then the same trim and commissioning.
- 30 yrsIn the electrical tradeJeff Tucker has run County Line Electric in the Conejo Valley since the 1990s.
- #949580California contractor licenseLicensed, bonded and insured. Check it on the CSLB site any time.
- 24 hrsGenerator estimatesA written standby generator estimate within a day of the site visit.
- $600Twice-yearly generator serviceBoth visits, for the year. Jeff's comparison: the large installers quote the same service at about $1,000.
Walk through one
See a connected house room by room.
The smart home demo walks through a luxury home from the garage to the theater: surveillance, lighting control, motorized window treatments, multi-room music and video, networking, voice control, outdoor entertainment, hidden audio and video. It is the easiest way to understand what the systems do before talking about which ones you want.
Automation questions
Does County Line Electric install home automation systems?
Yes. County Line Electric designs and installs whole-home automation: Lutron lighting control and motorized shades, security and cameras, multi-room audio and video, networking, climate and energy monitoring, with keypad, touch panel, app and voice control. It pre-wires the systems during rough-in on new construction and surveys and retrofits existing homes.
Which automation platform does County Line use?
Lighting and shading are Lutron. The whole-home control platform is chosen with the owner and, where there is one, the owner's integrator or designer. County Line builds the electrical and low-voltage backbone so the house works with the platform chosen today and the one that replaces it later.
Can automation be added to an existing house?
Yes. County Line surveys the house first. Lighting control, shades, audio and cameras can almost always be added; the question is how much can be wired cleanly and where wireless makes more sense. The survey answers that before anything is quoted.
Why hire an electrical contractor for automation instead of an integrator?
Because the reliability of an automation system is in its wiring, its power and its network, and those are electrical trades. County Line does the automation on houses it is already wiring, which means one contractor, one plan and nobody arguing about whose conduit it was. Where an integrator is on the job, County Line works alongside them and builds the infrastructure they specify.
Automation by area
The part nobody sees
The network is the house.
Every automation system runs on the network, and the network is where most systems fail. A consumer router in a closet, a single access point for a 6,000 square foot house, cameras on the same wireless as the televisions: these are the reasons a smart home stops being used. County Line builds the network the way a commercial electrician builds one: wired drops to every fixed device, enterprise access points placed from a survey of the house, separate traffic for cameras and for guests, a rack with real power and cooling, and conduit between buildings where there is a guest house or a gate.
That network is also what makes the system replaceable. Control platforms change every few years; a wired backbone does not. A house County Line pre-wires can change its control system without opening a wall.
Decide this before framing
The automation questions a builder should ask at plan review.
- Where is every television, speaker, camera, keypad, touch panel and shade going, on the drawings, not in a later conversation
- Where does the rack live, and does that room have power, cooling and a path to the roof for antennas
- What runs on the generator: the network, the cameras, the gate and the head end should
- Which buildings need to be connected, and is there conduit between them
- Who owns the control platform decision, the owner, the designer or an integrator, and when is it made
- What does the owner actually want to do from a phone, and what should just happen on its own
Official references
Where the facts on this page come from.
County Line links to the authorities rather than restating them. Rules change; these pages are current.
- Lutron: the lighting and shading half of every system
- CSLB license check: license #949580
Next step
Tell us how the house should work.
New construction or existing, which systems matter most, and whether there is an integrator or designer involved. The office sets up a visit.
Or call (805) 499-0823. Monday to Friday, 8 to 4.