Las Vegas Home Expo showcases traditional trappings, high-tech options for homes

The usual suspects were front and center Sunday at the Las Vegas Home Expo.

Those ceramic pans that pitchmen swear nothing will ever stick to? There. The knives that never need sharpening? Check. A rubber broom that claims to pick up everything in its path? You bet.

The three-day expo at Cashman Center may not have been CES — the international consumer electronics show that brings a gadgetry wonderland to Las Vegas every January — but the small showing of home automation systems suggests high-tech offerings for the home are not just for techies anymore.

“Alexa, turn the party on,” Kevin Kelly said into an Amazon Echo, a Bluetooth speaker that connects to other home electronics.

On his command, the motorized window shades at his booth lifted, lights illuminated the area and party music pulsed from speakers.

Kelly and his wife, Stephanie, work for Power Up Nevada, an electrical contractor that mostly deals in commercial work, but recently expanded to offer tech that makes residential homes “smarter.” For a flat fee, Power Up Nevada will send an electrician to your home to install a system that connects your electronics to an app on your smartphone.

The technology has existed for years, but it is just starting to go mainstream.

“After CES, everyone is really getting into the smart home features,” Stephanie Kelly said.

Gregg Luckner, a real estate agent who also had a booth at the show, set up an appointment with the company to tie his Amazon Echo to his home theater gadgetry. He said it is worth it to make the upgrade before he puts his home on the market.

“If you’re going to have home automation, it better work,” Luckner said.

Home security companies ADT and Vivint joined Power Up Nevada to offer the ability to control home systems with the tap of a smartphone screen.

ADT was selling a service at the show called Pulse, which it has offered for a couple of years. For a monthly fee, ADT will arm your home with automation technology such as a doorbell camera, locking system and thermostat controls, salesman Cade Childs said.

“You can kind of tell your house what you want it to do, when you’re there and when you’re not there,” Childs said.

You can even program your house to “vacation mode,” which will set the thermostat, lock your doors and turn your lights on or off.

Vivint offers the same systems as ADT, salesman Joseph Edwards said. Once you pay off your equipment, you get to keep it. The company charges users $50 per month to keep their services running.

“It’s an easy conversation because there’s a pretty high demand for all of this,” Edwards said.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.