Nectar Innovation of the Year Award 2016
Naiem Dakri, founder of Essex business, Switched On Products, has beaten off hundreds of UK small businesses to be shortlisted in the eighth national Nectar Business Small Business Awards.
Switched On Products is just weeks away from finding out if it will win the Innovation of the Year category, for its flagship product, the Light Switch Timer. It will be judged by a panel of business experts and led by one of the UK’s leading business women, consumer champion and BBC ‘Dragon’, Sarah Willingham.
The Essex-based company behind the Light Switch Timer has been shortlisted for the innovation of the year – After its initial launch the product has been widely received winning industry awards and gaining Police Secure by Design Accreditation via the Association of Chief Police Orifices (ACPO) crime prevention initiative.
With recent Home Office crime figures revealing that four out of five burglaries take place when no-one is home, the advice by police and security experts is to fit homes with timer lights when they’re empty and in darkness.
“The problem I personally found with using lamps on timer plugs was that the light given off didn’t look realistic, making it look more obvious that no one was home”, says Naiem Dakri, director of Switched-On Products. “Unfortunately, the timers which fitted onto wall light sockets needed to be wired in, usually by an electrician, which certainly put me off bothering to buy one”.
It was this observation which led inventor Naiem Dakri to create a product which could be fitted to the existing light switch on the wall without the need for any rewiring.
The battery-operated “Light Switch Timer” can be used in any living space which gives off the most light, deterring would-be intruders. It works by sliding a cradle over the wall light switch, into which is slotted the control unit, making it ready to operate in seconds. It includes program on and off times for different days, to suit the individual’s lifestyle.