Guide To Smart Homes - Part 3
Lighting Systems Explained.
Before we talk about Smart Lighting Systems we should first explain a ‘Traditional’ lighting system.
A Traditional Lighting System is what is in every ‘Non-Smart’ house. Each Light is physically tied to a light switch with a 230 Volt Cable, should you ever want to change where that light is controlled from, you would have to run new 230 Volt cables from the lights to a new switch position. The best you can hope from a traditional lighting system is two or three way switching and also a dimmer to adjust the amount of light coming from each light fitting.
The next step up from a Traditional Lighting System would be a ‘Retro-Fit’ Smart Lighting System. This is where the Traditional 230V Light Switches are replaced by a ‘Smart Switch’, more commonly known as ‘Keypads’. These Keypads have small electronics inside that allow the switch to talk to the Smart Home System Wirelessly and allow advanced logic such as ‘Lighting Scenes’ (Mood Lighting). A Lighting Scene is where more than one lighting circuit can be switched on with specific light levels. The main advantage is you can now use any Switch to control any Light without new wiring, or indeed anything that is ‘Smart’, TVs, Audio, Heating, Alarms, the list goes on. While these Retro Fit systems are a good solution for existing houses, should a new house or total refurbishment be possible, then a ‘Bus Wired’ Smart Lighting System should be installed.
The best solution for Smart Lighting is considered a ‘Bus Wired’ System. A Bus Wired System is where all of the Smart Keypads are wired back to a central location, all of the 230 Volt lights are also wired back to the same central location and both sets of wires are wired into the Smart Dimming Packs which have the intelligence on them. Due to the fact the Smart Keypads are physically wired, reliability is guaranteed and any clever ‘Timed Events’ happen accurately every time.
There are also different types Of ‘Bus Wired’ System, many of them are manufacturer specific such as Crestron, Lutron, Control4 and C-Bus to name a few. It’s not a hard and fast rule, however, it should be noted that if you choose a ‘Manufacturer Specific Lighting System’ you may be tied to using their Control System as well, an example of this would be Control4 Lighting is tied to the Control4 Smart Home System. This is where, in some circumstances, it pays to use a Smart Lighting System that is also a ‘Standard’.
There are a few Standards in Smart Lighting, Dali and KNX being the main ones. The benefit of using a Bus Wired Lighting System that is a ‘Standard’ is you can use the it with almost any Control System, a good example would be KNX Lighting with a Control4 Smart Home System.
Our recommendation for a Smart Lighting System would always be a ‘Bus Wired’ system from KNX for many reasons. The main reasons are it is a really robust system that operates independently of a control system and that it has over 400 Manufacturers creating every imaginable product for it, something that Architects & Interior Designers can run with to keep the look and feel of the property intact.
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