Lighting Control

Smart lighting control systems, set lighting scenes from the touch of a button

Intelligent Lighting

A lighting control system allows you to have control over each and every lighting circuit within your property.

All the circuits would be wired back to lighting control enclosures and then our specialist lighting control programmers would group the circuit into scenes. These scenes would be assigned to buttons on the lighting control keypad and they would be engraved to suit.

For example, you may wish to have a scene in the Master Bedroom which is known as 'Bedtime'. If you activate this scene then the blinds could close, the downlights could turn off and the bedside lights can turn on. This scene can be activate by the keypad in the room, set to come on at a specific time or it can be activated using your control system on your smart device.

The options are truly endless if the right design is put in place during the building project.

Why choose lighting control?

To save energy

Every dimmer automatically saves 4-9% in electricity—even at the highest lighting levels—over a standard on-off switch.

When users choose to dim their lights, even more electricity is saved.

Quite simply, the more you dim, the more you save. A standard light switch only saves electricity in the “off” position.

To optimise your lighting installation

A lot of time, thought and money would no doubt ably been invested in your lighting design and light fittings therefore why not ensure that the design is brought to life by using correct scene settings.

With a lighting control system you can ensure each fitting is set just as the lighting designer planned to the right light level, every time.

To provide perfect dimming curves

We are often asked to assist with lighting installation where the downlights or other lights start to flash when they are dimmed too low.

This is an incompatibility issue and we have partnered up with Orluna, a lighting company to be able to provide our clients with a range of fittings which dim down to 0% with no problems.

To remove repetition from our daily lives

Do you have a routine every night where you go to close all the children's curtains, turn on the bedroom lights, get the house ready for the evening. This is a routine that you happen to do every day?

Lighting control eliminates this one task from our daily lives. The system can be programmed to do this with the touch of a single button or automatically if desired.

Lutron Lighting Control

Lutron was first incorporated in 1961 by Joel & Ruth Spira. Spira’s first invention – a simple rotary dimmer that can still be found on many dining-room walls today – marked the birth of the lighting control industry.

Lutron holds over 2,700 worldwide patents. In addition to the solid-state dimmer, Lutron innovations also include the first electronic dimming ballast for fluorescent lights and the first self-contained preset lighting control system.

Lutron was also the first to successfully mass-market the dimmer, the first to successfully market systems of linked dimmers, and is still the only company to create systems of dimmers and motorized window shades that control both electric light and daylight.

In almost 50 years of innovation, Lutron has invented hundreds of lighting control devices and systems, and expanded their product offering from 2 products to 15,000. The company has advanced the technology of lighting control while maintaining top market position by focusing on exceptional quality and design. Lutron continues to lead the market in high-quality lighting controls for fluorescent, halogen incandescent, magnetic low-voltage, electronic low-voltage and LED light sources.

Lutron has also led innovations in window shade technology for the control of daylight, as well as wired and wireless systems, to integrate the control of both daylight and electric light.

Lutron are most well-known for their See-touch International keypad. They have however recently launched their Palladiom range of keypads which are being received very well on our residential projects.

Click here for the Lutron Palladiom Brochure

Crestron Lighting Control

Crestron have long been known to be the market leaders in home automation and the provision of the ultimate smart home. Their product line is priced to pitch for the very top end of the residential and commercial sectors with their solutions providing clients with the flexibility to design their control system exactly as they wish.

In addition to the home automation, AV controls which most people associated with Crestron they have also been supplying lighting control systems for many years. A Crestron lighting control system will integrate flawlessly with a Crestron whole-house AV system and blinds and curtains can also be added to the system to give control of all systems from all keypads.

Crestron have a range of wired and wireless lighting control keypads produced by themselves, such as the popular Cameo flush mounted keypad. They also have worked together with well known companies such as Forbes & Lomax to develop a range of faceplates which work with the Crestron keypads. There are therefore many different choices in terms of the look and style of keypad.

Control4 Lighting Control

The way in which a Control4 smart lighting system is controlled is as unique and personal as the home itself and the people who live in it. When you tie in lighting control to other systems in the property such as music, blinds, temperature, security and more the possibilities are endless. For example;

A ‘cooking’ scene can start a playlist and bring the kitchen lights up whilst dinner is being prepared;
A ‘goodnight’ button by the bedside can turn off all the lights, lock all the doors, arm the security system and turn the thermostat onto a desired temperature;
If the garage is opened lights inside the house can switch on to ensure a safe passway in the evening;
PIR motion sensors can be installed to ensure lights in the bathroom come on and go off automatically when needed in the evening;

Control4 keypads have customisable, backlit engraved buttons which can be configured usign 5 different button sizes for a total of 38 possible configurations. The bottom buttons can be designated as up and down volume controls. The faceplates are available in 12 stylish colours and finishes.

Click here for more C4 Lighting details

What does a lighting control system look like?

If you choose to install a lighting control system in your new property then this is wired in a different method to a conventional lighting system.

The electrician would wire each individual circuit back to a central location where a lighting control enclosure would be installed. The electrician would then wire out to each keypad location in a loop - usually one loop per floor which would then return back to the lighting control enclosure. The low voltage wiring is carried out in specialist cable, proprietary control cable from Lutron/Crestron for example.

Individual lighting control modules are then installed within the enclosure. These modules are either for mains dimmable circuits, 0-10v dimmable circuits or switched on/off relay circuits. Each modules cater for a certain number of circuits and this is all carefully planned out during the design phase.

Our specialist lighting control programmer would then come to site and deploy a base programme in order to get all lights operational. He would then meet with you to create and build the custom scenes and allocate these to buttons on the keypads throughout the property.

What does a lighting control system look like? image

AV Design & Consultancy