What are the major advantages to using a lighting control system instead of wall box dimmers?
You're wise to be considering a lighting control system - there are many advantages! One of the main features that our clients like is that with a dimming system you can potentially control ANY of the loads on the system from ANY of the controls or keypads. Additionally you can CHANGE though programming what each keypad controls at any point in the future should your mind change - not something you can do with hardwired switches. This may seem somewhat frivolous at first, but can actually be an excellent tool for both convenience and safety. For example: You can program a button at the top of your stairs to turn off all of the lights downstairs - handy for coming to bed at the end of a long day. Likewise you can have a button by your garage that will turn off any lights that have been left on throughout the house - great for convenience and energy savings! Or turn on a pathway of lights when you come home.A lot of people like that they can have a "panic" button in their bedroom that, when pressed, will turn on all the lights on the house (or a select pathway), a comforting feature should you think you hear an intruder or have a medical emergency. You can even have, for instance, your front porch lights flash when this button is pressed to guide authorities to the correct house in the event of an emergency. A one-button-control for multiple loads is handy aesthetically too. Assuming your lighting design includes circuits for ambient lights, multiple accent groupings, decorative lights, task, lamps, etc, you will have many loads in each room. To have to turn on, let alone "set," each of these loads every time you walk in the room would be a huge disruption. Instead you can have one keypad at the door with preset scenes that will bring up all the right loads to the right level.
An additional benefit to a lighting control system is that it has several built in features. Among them is an astronomical time clock that allows you, for example, to set your landscape lighting to come on at sunset everyday and turn off at sunrise. No more having to change a time clock from 5 to 6 to 7 as the seasons change, dealing with faulty photocells, or worse, having to remember to turn switches on and off.
One of the favorite benefits of a Lutron Radio Ra lighting control system, from an aesthetic standpoint, is simply that you have much less wall clutter. As I mentioned, once you get several circuits in a large room (and often multiple entries from which to control them) you can literally wind up with banks of wall box dimmers a foot or more in length at each door. That's neither convenient nor attractive! Putting all those loads on a control system will allow you to have one sleek keypad the size of a single switch or (smaller) in any location that you want control.
For more information on lighting control systems please contact the home automation department at Illuminations Lighting Design or call toll free at 800-863-1184.
Labels: Austin Lighting Control Systems, Electrical contractor Houston Texas, Lutron lighting controls, Radio Ra
posted by xinger at
5:42 PM
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