Lighting Control - Why Is It Polarising?
What Is Lighting Control?
Lighting control typically refers to a system that gives greater functionality than just switching lights on and off.
A lighting control system comprises multiple types of devices wired to your lights, as well as a series of switches and sensors that provide control of your lights. These two sets of devices communicate over a network, much like your home network you use to access the internet.
Depending on the system employed for your project, the style of wiring can vary, but a common difference between lighting control systems and standard light switches is that the wires running to the lights, don’t wire through the light switch. This is key to the way these systems function, allowing greater flexibility in how you control your lights.
As a simple example, a lighting control system will allow you to turn off every light in your home from your garage, without needing every light to wire through that location. Likewise a welcome scene on an entry switch can turn on multiple lights in a variety of locations upon arrival home, without those lights needing to wire to the entry switch.
Lighting control is quite a polarising topic amongst luxury home owners, builders, and architects. Some have it and wouldn’t go without it, and others have had such a bad experience that they won’t touch it with a ten foot pole. So, why are there such polarising opinions on a technology with relatively straight forward functionality?
The answer is simple; some people received value, and some didn’t.
In fact, if poorly implemented, a lighting control system will not only miss the mark completely and not provide any value, but will become an unnecessary hurdle between the homeowner and their enjoyment of their home.
Is It Worth The Risk?
Lighting affects us in so many ways. It can accentuate an architectural design, impacting your impression of a space, and even alter the way you feel… if working as intended. A lighting control system allows you to maximise the value you get from your lighting, by providing simple buttons that set the optimal lighting environment for any number of uses. It can also be employed in a way that saves energy, and in certain projects is needed to comply with green building and energy conservation requirements.
Without a lighting control system, you will be left to manually set lights to their correct levels each time you want to use a space in a different way, or to set a different mood. Unfortunately, some lighting control suppliers provide systems that still require you to manually set lights to their correct levels each time you want to use them…
One simple alternative is to employ standard switching and switch your lights on to an eye watering 100% every time they’re used. Sure, it’s functional, but the principle of beauty in design suggests that we greatly prefer looking at, and using, a more aesthetically pleasing space.
The question then, is how do we design a lighting control system to provide maximum value to the homeowner, while avoiding traps like complicated control?
Tailoring Control to the Homeowner
Different people have different preferences, and if your needs aren’t sufficiently explored by your lighting control supplier, or communicated effectively to the programmer, you’re going to get a carbon copy of what the last person got; not something tailored to you and your unique home.
You don’t need to know everything about lighting to communicate your needs. You don’t even need to understand why your architect, or lighting designer, placed lights where they did.
If you can tell your lighting control supplier what you will use each of your main rooms for the most, an experienced designer will be able to structure your control in a way that will minimise the effort to use the system, and maintain consistency and flow between areas; all while helping to express the intention of your lighting design.
Structuring your control in this way is key to your continual enjoyed use of your system, as it exploits the positive mental effects associated with the principles of least effort, and perpetual habit. In simple terms, humans are somewhat lazy and habitual creatures. It’s more relaxing to not fight against that when we’re using technology in our homes.
With any luck you will have someone coordinating this process for you to ensure these important aspects are fulfilled, and your unique needs are met; something we at Intuitive Living love doing.