The other day I asked my 9-year-old nephew what he wants for his birthday. He responded with the usual list of toys and games, but when I asked his mother the same question, she summarized her desires with one phrase: “I wish life could be more convenient.”

What she needs is a lighting control system.

Lighting control can range from a simple outdoor light fixture with a built-in light sensor to programmable systems that can control and coordinate hundreds of lights within a home. A lighting control system not only makes it easier to control your lights, it can actually anticipate what lights you would want to turn on and off and perform the task for you. And what’s more, it makes it possible to design your home’s lighting schemes in ways that would have been completely impractical before this technology emerged.

Lighting control opens new possibilities in design through the concept of lighting scenes. Technically, the core idea in creating a lighting scene is to program various light levels for multiple fixtures in a room. The levels are memorized, and different sets of light level settings can be recalled at the touch of a single button. The button can be on an in-wall keypad, which combines the function of potentially any number of dimmers into a single device on the wall. The button can also be on a touchscreen, as part of a complete home automation system. “If you were to try to mimic the same effect with wall mounted switches and dimmers, it would be practically impossible” according to Derek Jensen, marketing communications manager for Vantage Controls.

Most of the home theaters we feature in Home Entertainment use lighting scenes, but you don’t see the effect of it because we show only a single lighting scene. Fortunately, the lighting control specialists at Vantage Controls recently sent us a series of photographs that perfectly illustrate the concept of lighting scenes. In the photos that accompany this article, you see the same room illuminated with four different lighting scenes—creating four dramatically different effects.

The lighting scenes may be adjusted for practicality or to achieve a desired ambiance. For instance, the homeowner may want the installer to program a “nap mode” in which all of a room’s lights turn off except for indirect background lighting dimmed to 25 percent, creating a nice environment for a relaxing siesta.

Other scenes could include a romantic atmosphere, where all lights in the room are dimmed to set a nice mood for a romantic evening of champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries. Also, when a lot of light is needed for hosting parties with friends and family, a bright and cheerful lighting scheme utilizing all of the lights in the room might be best.

When watching T.V., light is the enemy, therefore the installer can tailor the lighting controls for the optimum lighting configuration for enjoying that new movie that just came out on DVD. In this scenario, dimming the lights in the background is essential. As well as any luminosity that may reflect unwanted light onto the T.V. screen affecting its performance should be dimmed or turned off.

One important point is, having scenes eliminates the need to have, say, six dimmers for one room. You don’t have to deal with the “wall acne” and you don’t have to remember which dimmer works for which light. Without lighting control, scenes – and in fact lighting design itself – are impractical.

Security is another feature attributed to automated lighting controls. Such as in the case of being startled awake from a noise in the middle night, instead of fumbling around for several light switches, you can turn on all of the lights in your home with the touch of one button.

Also the lighting system can be set to detect motion or sound in any room and can provide additional security against evil late night stubbed toes and is more energy efficient. “It’s simple really, if there is someone using the room the lights will turn on, but if the room was to remain empty for say 2 minutes the lights would automatically adjust and turn off,” Jensen claims.

In essence, a home fitted with Vantage lighting controls is as efficient on energy as a hybrid car is on gas.

All of Vantage Control’s automated lighting systems are installed and programmed by Vantage trained installers. Once installed, lighting controls will need to be programmed by the installer to fit the home-owner’s needs. If further programming is needed after installation, the home owner can call or email Vantage for smaller desires like customizing the buttons on the touch controller, or they can contact the installer for advanced programming, such as coordinating dimmed lights for custom lighting scenes.

Automated lighting control systems may be wired or wireless, but all systems have some wiring – i.e., the AC wiring that supplies power to each light. Although the control interface between the system’s central control module and each light switch or dimmer can be wired or wireless. The wireless approach is great for retrofitting purposes because there is no need to run new wire, the system can be added to the existing wiring. For new homes the wired systems are more prevalent since the system is installed while the home is being constructed.

With such technology available, the possibilities are endless. Whether the system is wired or wireless, Vantage Controls offers convenience, additional security, and energy savings for as little as 3.5 dollars per square foot, but that price will climb dramatically depending upon the customers needs and wants.

Vantage Controls, Inc.
VantageControls.com
800.555.9891