06·GLO
Glossary
Every technical term this manual uses, defined in plain language — no term appears in the manual without being explainable from here.
956 N Noble Loop · Showing Edition · Rev A · Aug 2026
You should never have to leave this page to look something up on your phone. If a term used elsewhere in the manual isn’t here, that’s a gap to report.
| Term | What it means, in the context of this house |
|---|---|
| 4K / HDR | Video terms for the media room. “4K” is a high picture resolution (about four times 1080p); “HDR” (High Dynamic Range) is a wider range of brightness and color, so bright and dark parts of the same scene both show detail. |
| Access point (AP) | A device that broadcasts WiFi. This house has several, mounted around the house so you get a strong signal everywhere instead of from one central router. |
| AFCI (Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupter) | A type of breaker that detects the electrical “arcing” that can happen from a damaged wire and shuts the circuit off before it starts a fire — different from a GFCI, which protects against shock. |
| Atmos (Dolby Atmos) | A surround-sound format that adds “height” channels — sound placed above you, not just around you — using ceiling or up-firing speakers. The media room’s in-ceiling speakers are what deliver this. |
| Backflow preventer | A plumbing device that only lets water flow one direction. It stops water (and anything in it — fertilizer, chemicals) from ever siphoning backward from the irrigation system into the clean drinking-water supply. Required and tested annually — see the Irrigation page and Maintenance calendar. |
| Backup gateway | The Tesla hardware that manages the flow of power between the grid, the solar array, the Powerwalls, and the house — including the automatic switch into backup power during an outage. |
| BTU (British Thermal Unit) | A unit of heat energy. Furnaces, water heaters, and gas ranges are all rated in BTUs to describe how much heat they can produce. |
| CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute) | A measure of airflow. The kitchen range hood is rated at 1200 CFM — a high figure, appropriate for the BlueStar range’s output. |
| Credentials sheet | The single sealed, print-only page (handed over at closing) that holds every password, WiFi key, and access code for this house. This manual deliberately never contains a real password — wherever one would appear, you’ll see a pointer to the credentials sheet instead. |
| Cross-connection | Any point where a home’s plumbing could connect to a source of contamination (an irrigation system, a hose in a bucket of chemicals, etc.). Backflow preventers exist specifically to protect against this. |
| Descaling | Removing mineral (“scale”) buildup from inside a water-heated appliance — the tankless water heater and the steam shower generator both need this periodically, more often in hard-water conditions. |
| DHCP | The network protocol that automatically hands each device (phone, laptop, TV) an address on the network so you never have to configure one by hand. |
| FTTH (Fiber to the Home) | Internet delivered as fiber-optic cable all the way to the house, rather than over copper phone or cable lines — this house’s internet connection type. |
| GFCI (Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter) | An outlet or breaker that instantly cuts power if it detects electricity taking an unexpected path (like through a person) — required near water (kitchens, baths, garage, exterior). Test these quarterly — see the Maintenance calendar. |
| Grain (water hardness, gpg) | “Grains per gallon” — the unit used to measure how hard (mineral-heavy) water is. It’s what a water softener is sized and tested against. |
| Guest network | A separate WiFi network for visitors that reaches the internet but is walled off from your own devices, cameras, and smart-home gear. |
| HDMI | The standard cable and port used to carry both picture and sound between devices — sources, the Denon receiver, and the projector are all connected this way. |
| HEOS | Denon’s multi-room audio and streaming platform, controllable from a phone app — lets the receiver stream music independent of the projector/TV. |
| Islanding | The mode a home’s electrical system enters when it disconnects from the utility grid and runs on its own power (here, the Powerwalls) — this is what automatically happens during a grid outage. |
| Kilowatt-hour (kWh) | The standard unit for both electricity usage and solar production — it’s what your utility bill and the Tesla app both measure in. |
| Lumens | A measure of brightness, used for projectors and light bulbs. A projector’s lumen rating (alongside room darkness) determines how big and bright a watchable picture it can throw. |
| MAC address | A unique hardware ID built into every network device (phone, laptop, access point). Used internally by the network for identification — different from an IP address, which can change. |
| Mesh network | Multiple WiFi access points working together as a single network, so a device switches from one to the next automatically as you walk through the house, without ever re-connecting by hand. |
| Net metering | The utility billing arrangement where solar power you produce but don’t use is credited against power you draw from the grid at other times — the mechanism that makes the solar array’s excess production valuable rather than wasted. |
| ONT (Optical Network Terminal) | The box where the fiber-optic internet line terminates and converts to a signal the network gateway can use — the “fiber box.” Nearly every whole-house internet outage traces back to either this box or the gateway. |
| PoE (Power over Ethernet) | Delivering electrical power to a device over the same cable that carries its network data — no separate power adapter needed. This house is wired 100% PoE: every access point, camera, and the doorbell is powered this way from the switches. |
| Powerwall | Tesla’s home battery. This house has two, which store solar production for use later (including automatically during a grid outage). |
| PSI | Pounds per square inch — the unit for water pressure (and for things like an irrigation system’s operating pressure). |
| R-value | A measure of how well an insulating material resists heat flow — higher means better insulation. Used for attic, wall, and window insulation ratings. |
| Resin bed | The part inside a water softener that actually removes hardness minerals from the water via an ion-exchange process; it’s periodically recharged using the salt in the brine tank. |
| Smart lock | A door lock (here, the Schlage Encode deadbolt) that can be locked/unlocked and monitored remotely over WiFi, with codes assignable per person instead of physical keys. |
| SSID | The name a WiFi network broadcasts — what you pick from the list of networks on your phone. This house’s SSID and password are on the credentials sheet, not in this manual. |
| Steam generator | The appliance (in a closet, out of sight) that produces the steam for the master bath’s steam shower — distinct from the shower itself. |
| Subnet | A logically separated section of a network that shares its own addressing — a building block used (along with VLANs) to keep, say, the guest network isolated from the main one. |
| Tankless (on-demand) water heater | A water heater with no storage tank — it heats water instantly, on demand, as it flows through, rather than keeping a tank of hot water always heated. This house’s water heater is this type. |
| UniFi | Ubiquiti’s brand of networking hardware and software (gateway, switches, access points, and the app/dashboard that manages them) — this house’s entire network is built on it. |
| Uplink | The cable connecting one network switch “up” to another switch or to the main gateway, carrying the combined traffic of everything plugged into it. |
| VLAN | A “virtual” network that shares the same physical wiring as other networks but is kept logically separate — a way to segment traffic (e.g., smart-home devices from personal devices) without running extra cable. |
| Wall Connector | Tesla’s home EV charging hardware (Gen 3, installed here) — a dedicated, hard-wired charger that charges far faster than a standard household outlet. |
| Z-Wave | A wireless communication protocol used by some smart-home devices (separate from WiFi) — the garage controller uses this alongside WiFi. |