Our Free Configuration Service
Lighting control has three main elements
What you control
How you control
Making your life simple
What you control
Lighting is made up of various types of lights with a number of different dimming options.
Phase dim, DALI, 0-10v, DMX are the main options and most control systems can deal with all forms of control.
Grouping your lights is more subjective. It's not based on a right and wrong but more a design of personal taste. Let's look at a typical project to get an overall idea of what we could do.
Let's look at a master bedroom and bathroom...
From the diagram, you can see we have the following circuits/groups of lights:
Circuit | Details |
---|---|
1D | Bathroom ceiling (Phase Dim) |
2D | Bathroom Mirror (Phase Dim) |
3D | Bedroom Low level night lights (Phase Dim) |
4D | Dressing Table (Phase Dim) |
5D | Dressing Ceiling (Phase Dim) |
6D | Bedroom Chandeliers (Phase Dim) |
7D | Bedroom Ceiling (Phase Dim) |
8D | Bed Right Reading Light (Phase Dim) |
9D | Bed Left Reading Light (Phase Dim) |
1DALI | Under Bath LED Tape |
2DALI | Bathroom Mirror LED Tape |
3DALI | Dressing Low Level Cupboard LED Tape |
That's 12 circuits, any of which could be set ON, OFF or anywhere from 1% to 99%.
Complicated for a user - but not for a lighting control system. A one button press programmed to bath time is easy.
That's what a lighting control system does, it makes life easy. So the next step is how you control.
How you control
Various manufacturers have their specialist controllers however, in essence they are all the same.
Many people think of rotary switches at this point but 12 rotary switches on a wall is ugly and complicated to use.
So think in terms of actions instead of circuits. Actions like:
- Watching TV
- Eating Dinner
- Entertaining
- Reading
- Relaxing
- Working From Home
- Cleaning
- Security/Emergency
And above all, keep it simple. Press a button and get a scene. If you want a little manual control, add two simple to use buttons: raise and lower.
This keeps the relative lighting levels between circuits (the scene) intact but makes it brighter or dimmer. Remember - keep it simple.
Making your life simple
So you have a lighting control system: why not use its power? Here are some ideas:
Turning the alarm off when you get home turns the lights ON in the kitchen and hallway.
Emergency lights / flood lights outside turn ON if someone breaks in and the alarm triggers.
Free configuration
Configuration is the setup of the system so that dimmers know which circuits they connect to, which keypad controls which dimmers and labelling so that an electrician can install the system and make it work straight out of the box.
We build and setup your system in our offices and then ship to you.
Please note that some elements of some systems still require on site programming however, our free configuration service can significantly reduce this cost for you.