Two top trends over the last 10 years are starting to merge: Kitchen Renovations and Technology. Considering the time you spend in the kitchen cooking and entertaining, and the integration of technology in our lives, its a natural marriage of ideas. In todays post we look at 5 kitchen renovation technology trends.
Five years ago people doing a kitchen remodel were discussing stainless steel appliances, natural stone surfaces, islands and storage options. These items are still important and any kitchen renovation will still include discussions about these items. But working its way into the conversation is how technology can be integrated into the kitchen to make the time spent more efficient and enjoyable.
Five Kitchen Renovation Technology Trends
Touchscreen Cooktop
At CES 2014 on January Whirlpool conducted a mockup demonstration of an interactive cooktop. The touchscreen cooktop allowed you to display information from a smart phone or tablet on the surface. You could view recipes, make notes for example on a grocery list, check email, twitter or Facebook …pretty much anything that could be done on your devices.The surface would use induction heating elements, which generate heat only when sensing metal, keeping the rest of the surface cool to the touch.This was only a mock up and there are some significant hurdles to overcome before it becomes reality. Still its interesting to see where some manufacturers are heading in regards to integration technology into the kitchen.
WiFi Enabled Refrigerator
Samsung T9000 features a 10” touch screen and comes with apps including Epicurious to find recipes and Evernote to key in notes like your grocery list. You can check the weather, keep your calendar, listen to news, play music with the Pandora app and more. You can even tweet from it.There are also ways to manage your refrigerator settings like temperature, and you can even control the temperature in each of the four compartments separately.
Ventilation Hood and Media Center
Kitchens have long featured radios and tv’s for entertainment in the kitchen while cooking or entertaining. The days of the TV on the counter disappeared with the appearance of flat screens. In addition smart phones and iPads have allowed internet connectivity and music streaming to replace the radio/cd player. This takes things to the next level.The avantGarde media center hood vent by Siemens incorporates a 17” screen allowing you to watch dvd’s or listen to cd’s.
U-Sockets And Device Charging
The -socket is like your normal wall outlets, it just contains two built in usb ports to power devices such as your iPhone, iPad, kindle, digital camers, etc. While its true your could just use your ac adaptor and plug your device into the wall, but if you have multiple devices now you don’t need to worry about grabbing the right ac adaptor.Another concept that is developing is the use inductive power sources. Integrated into kitchen counter top, they power your device when it is placed on it. This technology can be extended further to power cordless appliances such as blenders, toaster, etc.
LED Lighting
Ligthing in your kitchen is both a design and function feature. Good lighting can make a kitchen shine, highlighting design elements and creating a natural glow. It also can help in food prep from overhead lighting to under the cabinet lights, LED lights are helping us save money, see clearer and visually connect to the space.Led lights produce less heat, last longer and are more flexible than than traditional can lights. Incandescent lights typically use 40 – 60 watts verse 6 – 8 watts used by LED lights. The average life span of the incandescent light is 1,200 hours verses 50,000 hours for a LED light. Finally LED lights can be used in a variety of ways including single lights or lights strings.
We’re clearly in an interesting time when it comes to kitchen renovation technology trends. For the express purpose of cooking most of these ideas are not necessary. But “necessity” and “want” are two different concepts. The only question is will some of these ideas be able to be produced at a price that allows them to move from early adoption to mass adoption. We’ll see.
Ready to update your kitchen with the latest kitchen renovation technology trends? Call Glazer Design and Construction at 404.683.9848, email Randy@GlazerConstruction.com or complete our Fast Form below.