When we talk about home lighting systems, we are actually referring to a group of Lutron products that have the ability to automate the lighting on a whole-house level. Home lighting systems differ from home lighting controls in this manner, because one may conceivably use lighting controls in only a single room, and not the entirety of the house per se. Such a strategy is rare however, in residential settings, because today’s homeowner tends to expect a great deal more from his or her residence than the homeowner of 30 years ago. Most clients of Lutron vendors like Illuminations Lighting and Design choose to implement a comprehensive home lighting system that will give them one-touch control of everything both within and around the house. Depending on the size and age of the house, there are three Lutron home lighting system options available to clients throughout Houston and Greater Texas.
HomeWorks Lighting Controls
Lutron HomeWorks® is a popular home lighting system that is very well-known and that has witness a great deal of success over the past few years. Lutron HomeWorks features conditional logic that allows the home lighting system to be programmed for intuitive behavior. For example, the HomeWorks home lighting system can sense when it is beginning to get dark outside and turn on the architectural and landscape lights automatically. Most people report that they more secure after we install their HomeWorks system, as the lights are still on when they leave for work in the morning and have already come on by themselves when they return home at night.
This level of precision and comfort is made possible by a combination of programming and light sensitive sensors that enable the home lighting system to “sense” changes in external lighting. Interior lights, meanwhile, can be preset using Lutron GRAFIK Eye or Spacer System controls to come on at the push of a button. These effects can be further augmented by integrating controls with various other aspects of home automation, including whole house audio and home theater integration.
RadioRA® Lutron Controls
Unfortunately, many older homes cannot be fitted with the latest home automation systems due to the fact that older wiring will have to be replaced completely for newer home automation and lighting control technology to work. For these houses, ILD recommends Lutron’s RadioRA home lighting system. This system requires no new wiring for installation, and proves ideal for older historic homes and larger homes built in the late 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s.
The RadioRa has been engineered to seamlessly integrate with any floor plan and unobtrusively blend into interior structures and architecture. RadioRA home lighting systems uses wireless, RF radio signals instead of wires when communicating with its various components. They can be configured to control a portion of the home recessed lighting fixtures, specific groupings of fixtures, or the entire indoor and outdoor lighting system within and around the house. RadioRA also remotely controls lighting from your car visor with the push of a button, and it can be used to manipulate lighting around the deck or pool outside via hand-held remotes. Aficionados of eclectic home-based entertainment and cinema particularly value this benefit, as it enables them to a party at home that is better than nightlife any night of the week.
AuroRa® Lighting Dimmers
This is Lutron's latest and greatest innovation in home lighting systems. It expands the previous wireless technology of the RadioRA into new arenas of comfort, intuitive control, and advanced home automation. With the AuroRa system, you can press a button and create a safe path of light to, through and around the home with wireless control of 5 areas of outdoor lighting. One of the greatest advantages AuroRa offers the eclectic homeowner is pre-programmed capability. The system literally works straight out of the Lutron factory box.
The AuroRa system truly takes a whole house approach to lighting, unifying the functionality of indoor and outdoor lighting into an intuitive, user friendly command interface. This home lighting system can do everything from raise and lower outdoor lighting at dawn and twilight, turn off exterior lights at midnight, activate preset landscaping themes for weddings, birthday parties, and family gatherings, and light a path to the front door when you get home late at night.
Inside the house, the AuroRa home lighting system can open and close shades and control such elements as light pollution and energy conservation, sequence different lighting scenes automatically, and turn on any light or group of lights inside the home or home theater instantly with the push of a button. Every activity from dining, to movie watching, to games and social interaction can have its own specific, supportive lighting theme for optimal mood stimulation and mental focus.
Illuminations Lighting is Your Texas Lutron Source
The added value we can offer any home automation or lighting systems client is determination of exactly which system will best fit their needs, and which components and programming features need to be used to build that system. Click here to learn more about our multi-specialization in electrical services, lighting design, and home automation, and call 1-800-864-1133 for a free consultation today.Labels: AMX Lighting Control Systems, Home Automation Lighting Systems, Lutron Dimmer Switches, Lutron Electronics, Lutron Homeworks Lighting Controls
Imagine having your landscape lights slowly fade when the sun comes up as your bathroom lights power on with a soft, gentle glow to greet you as you rise. As you prepare for work, the lights in your bedroom and kitchen come at increasingly higher levels, helping you get into gear for a morning in traffic and a day in the office. While you read the paper over morning coffee, you can touch a remote and raise the shades to let the sunlight in. When you leave, simply turn everything off with a single button, and after a hard day’s work, turn them back with a visor control as you pull into your driveway.
Regardless of the time, day or night, Lutron HomeWorks gives you total control and optimal convenience in programmed, user-friendly task, decorative, and security lighting control.
Consider the benefits that this lighting control system can offer to your home, and how it will enrich your lifestyle by making your interior and exterior lighting systems a virtual extension of your thoughts, will, and desire. Illuminations Lighting and Design can equip you with this skillful blend of user friendly interface and state of the art software with a Lutron HomeWorks lighting control system. Built upon a foundation of 40 years in lighting control innovation, Lutron HomeWorks represents a true home automation lighting solution that is fully compatible with home security systems and home entertainment audio/visual devices. Not only will HomeWorks give you more freedom and choice when it comes to manipulating lighting effects and levels, but it also filters out externally induced voltage variance in order to stabilize lighting levels at the desired settings. This in turn helps to buffer your home’s electrical systems from intermittent power spikes and better protects your equipment from power spikes.
The strength of Lutron HomeWorks lies in three key elements integral to the system control software. These key elements handle the intuitive, timing, and personalized control elements of your lighting control system. Conditional logic allows the HomeWorks lighting control system the ability to behave intuitively, activating certain features of your program only after specific conditions have been fulfilled. Exterior low voltage lighting, for example, will only come on when system sensors determine it is dark. Different lights can be set to turn on at the push of a single button, indicating that it is time for lunch and dinner. They can even add music to the lighting theme to set the mood for guests! This blend of user control and automated functionality is enabled by flexible programming at the keypad control level and an astronomical clock that knows when sunrise and sunset will occur on any given day in your particular location. This tells the system to when to turn outdoor garden lights on at specific times before or after dark, and to turn them off again at a certain point at or around daybreak. Most clients feel this provides them with an additional layer of security lighting, because the lights can be set to turn themselves on before a person drives home after dark in the evening, or to come on just before sunrise when the homeowner goes outside to water the plants, work in the garden, or sweep the patio.
In spite of the high-end lighting technology that constitutes a HomeWorks control system, ILD makes the interface so user friendly that even children and guests can use the system. Lutron keypads can be engraved with labels that allow you to quickly remember, giving you quick, one-touch access to a 2-way command system that causes lights to respond in a fraction of a second. Because today’s eclectic homeowner centers so many of his or her activities in and around the home, Lutron HomeWorks is engineered on a custom, per client basis for multi-functionality and maximum flexibility. Lutron Home works controls are aesthetically pleasing and designed to blend into a multiplicity of decorative themes and interior designs. With simple commands to low profile wall units and remotes, you can change the brightness and tone of everything from art lighting in the living room to task lighting in the kitchen. When movie time comes, a single command can lower your projector screen, dim the lights in your home theater, and close the shades for an evening at home that rivals the spectacle of public theater.
ILD is a reputable, established, licensed Lutron installation vendor who will customize your Lutron HomeWorks system to the interior architecture of your house and the core activities of your personal lifestyle. It doesn’t matter either if your home is a newly planned dwelling pending construction, or an older, historical home with character and established personality of its own. With Lutron RF HomeServe technology, even homes with older wiring designs can be retrofitted with wireless Lutron Radio Ra technology that controls everything from chandeliers, floor lights, desk lamps, bathroom lights, and utility lights over washroom and work areas.
Click here to read more about ILD’s lighting control and home automation services, and call us Illuminations Lighting Design now for a free consultation and proposal of custom Lutron HomeWorks system tailor made for your personal lifestyle. Feel free to call 800-863-1184 for a lighting control specialist!Labels: Lutron Dimmer Switches, Lutron Electronics, Lutron Homeworks Lighting Controls
Wallbox dimmers are the basic building blocks of modern day light controls.
Wallbox dimmers by Lutron can be installed to replace standard light switches in every room of the house. This will place total control of lighting and power levels directly into the hands of the individual, and it will allow the homeowner to immediately begin saving money on electrical costs without having to replace every light in the home. This is important, because every homeowner only has two choices: retrofit the lights themselves with led or fluorescent fixtures now, or install wallbox dimmers and a lighting control system that will make incandescent lights less expensive to use and generate a return on investment that can be reinvested in new lighting fixtures when the new ban on incandescent lighting takes effect in 2010.
With the growing popularity of fluorescent lights as energy saving alternatives to incandescents, many people will opt to take the easy path of simply replacing their light bulbs rather than first considering the advantages of a Lutron wall box or Lutron Radio Ra light dimmers can offer them as the first step toward a whole new level of light. ILD encourages you to consider these options before spending money on new bulbs. It is important to realize that truly livable and enjoyable home environments depend greatly on aesthetics. While it is an established fact that one 13watt fluorescent bulb will give you the same amount of light as one 60-watt incandescent light, it is also a fact that standard fluorescent recessed lights are not compatible with dimmer switches or low voltage wallbox dimmer control units. The cause of this incompatibility lies within the design of a fluorescent bulb itself.
A fluorescent bulb requires less energy than an incandescent bulb because a magnetic ballast controls the flow of current that powers the bulb. This ballast allows the bulb to produce more light with less electricity, making it a very cost effective alternative to incandescent. Beyond cost benefits, though, fluorescent bulbs are limited in a number of ways. As we have stated, standard ballast technology is incompatible with wall box dimmers and therefore prohibits direct control of lighting levels. This is why fluorescent lights are mostly used in utility rooms and commercial buildings where decorative effects are not needed and a fixed level of functional light is all the facility requires. However, even in some commercial lighting projects, fluorescent lights have their limitations. They are not appropriate for green retrofit options, and they offer little aesthetic to homeowners unless fitted with very expensive dimming ballasts and matching fluorescent dimmers to make them work in tandem with wallbox dimmers.
Fluorescent lights add little or no aesthetic to home lighting design unless they fitted with very expensive color correcting lamps. Again, such exorbitant expenses are better spent on a lighting control system and Lutron wallbox dimmers that can reduce your power bills today now and still be compatible to any new lamps, fixtures, bulbs, or lighting control system software upgrades you invest in over the next two years.
Line voltage dimmers will make incandescent bulbs more energy efficient by performing a very similar function to that of fluorescent ballasts. At the same time, they enable you to turn existing home lights into an aesthetically pleasing lighting control and home automation system that will give you the ability to manually adjust the light to whatever levels he or she desires.
When the ban on incandescent lights becomes effective in 2010, all house lighting fixtures based on incandescent technology must be replaced with either LED and hybrid fluorescent equivalents. By that time, hybrid technology will probably have developed to a point that any Lutron wallbox dimmer can easily manipulate whatever type of light bulb retrofit you install in your home. However, the timing of multiple investments should always be considered, especially in today’s recession. Wallbox dimmers installed now will save you money on power both now and in the future. They will also increase the decorative appeal of your home by making it possible to create a more warm, ambient, and entertaining environment for children, relatives, and friends. When you do replace your existing bulbs in the future, you will be adding them to a home that is already optimized for function, aesthetic, and control with a Lutron Grafik Eye lighting control installation by experts.
Why not call a lighting control specialist at ILD to discuss the cost saving benefits of a Lutron wallbox dimmer versus an arbitrary retrofit of all the lights in your house? Get the aesthetic right and the lay the foundation for a whole new type and quality of lighting, and then let alternative technologies catch up with lighting design and control systems for a more robust, user friendly, and multi-dimensional lighting system come New Years Day of 2010.
Illuminations Lighting Design is a full service design build firm specializing in residential and commercial indoor lighting and outdoor lighting, electrical service and maintenance as well as home automation, home theaters, emergency generators, surge protection systems, phone systems and lighting control systems.
We are located in Houston Texas but provide lighting and design services in Austin TX, El Paso Texas, San Antonio TX, College Station Texas, Beaumont TX, Dallas Texas, Midland Tx and points beyond. Call us today at 800-863-1184, visit our lighting blog or request a consultation online using our contact us form.Labels: Energy Saving Switches, Houston Lighting Controls, Lighting Dimmers, Lutron Dimmer Switches, Lutron Electronics, Lutron lighting controls, Wallbox Lutron Dimmers
When we talk about home lighting systems, we are actually referring to a group of Lutron products that have the ability to automate the lighting on a whole-house level. Home lighting systems differ from home lighting controls in this manner, because one may conceivably use lighting controls in only a single room, and not the entirety of the house per se. Such a strategy is rare however, in residential settings, because today’s homeowner tends to expect a great deal more from his or her residence than the homeowner of 30 years ago. Most clients of Lutron vendors like Illuminations Lighting and Design choose to implement a comprehensive home lighting system that will give them one-touch control of everything both within and around the house. Depending on the size and age of the house, there are three Lutron home lighting system options available to clients throughout Houston and Greater Texas.
