Home Automation Info

After entertainment centers, lighting controls are probably the next most common candidate for automation in the home. Lighting controls are relatively straightforward to understand. The two primary elements to control are the state of the light (on or off), and the brightness level of the light. Controlling these two elements in an intelligent way not only leads to savings in energy, but also helps create the desired lighting in each room consistent with the activity taking place in that room.

The term "scene lighting" refers to the ability to coordinate which lights in the home are on and the brightness level of each light necessary to create the desired environment for the time of day or activity taking place in the home. Sunset/sunrise, wakeup, home from work, and night lights are examples of time of day scenes for everyday living. For homes with guest quarters some of the everyday scenes may need modified when over-night guests are present, or away on vacation may also trigger some modification to the everyday scenes to get the "lived in look" from outside the home. Dinner party, movie time, patio party, romantic evening, and large social are examples of event-based scenes typically activated by pushing a button.

To deploy lighting scenes in your home the system must:
• support the definition of scenes,
• be able to turn the lights on/off,
• be able to control the brightness level of each light,
• be able to detect the state of the light,
• vary turn on/off times within a time period each day (often called security window),
• and detect or calculate dusk/dawn times each day.

In California a recently passed home construction regulation called Title 24 requires each new home to have the ability to turn lights off when people are not present in the home. This is often accomplished with motion sensors and dimmer lights in the simplest approach, or a requirement for the lighting control system when one is being considered.

Note lighting control systems typically consist of a central controller, switches, dimmers, and in-wall buttons. Some technologies also require separate transmitter/receivers or filter/booster modules for communications and/or performance.