What has changed is that there is a greater presence in the residential arena for these systems and they extend from the basic contactor switching methods to dimming systems with a greater focus on energy management.

Lighting in the home has had some significant changes too. Once it was all about functional lighting for people to see what they are doing and provide a safe passage. Now feature lighting is becoming more prominent and if you are serious about lighting when you are building your new home, the services of a lighting consultant are utilised to provide a lighting design that will deliver both functional and feature lighting throughout your home.

Sustainability is also playing a key role with the use of energy efficient fixtures as a mandatory requirement for all newly built homes.

A lighting control system provides the management of your lighting throughout your home and is designed to simplify the way you interact with it.

This is not always the case as there are a large number of people installing lighting control systems who do not understand the basic principles and defeat the very key purposes for installing such a system.

So what are the key benefits?

• Reduced energy consumption – This is achieved through dimming circuits. Conventional light switches provide full power to a lighting circuit when more often than not it is excessive and a waste of energy. A lighting control system can be configured to run your lights at 70% as a standard brightness over a typical 100%. By this we achieve 30% less power consumption and we extend our lamp life which means less lamp replacement costs.
• Reduced energy wastage – It is quite common for children or even adults to exit an area such as a bathroom and forget to turn the lighting or exhaust fans off. This could be left on for hours at a time but a lighting control system can be configured to automatically turn off lights in designated areas after a predetermined time, helping forgetful people and saving you money in the long term.
• Dynamics – Conventional lighting circuits can’t be changed. They are restricted to the switch that they are wired to and require a person to activate or deactivate from this switch. A lighting control system does not care for the location of a switch point or circuit, just as long as it is a part of the network, any switch can be instructed to control any individual or multiple circuits. This gives you the ability to turn all lights off at one point when exiting the home or perhaps turn on all exterior lights in the event of an emergency.
• Integration – Other systems that operate in your home such as smoke detectors or Alarm systems can be configured to integrate with your lighting control system. In the event that your alarm system is triggered, the lighting control system can be instructed to turn on all exterior lighting or provide egress lighting inside in the event of a smoke alarm.
• Low level automation – Not to be confused with a full automation system which is how some lighting control system manufacturers like to sell and brand their products but a good lighting control system will provide basic interfacing / control of ceiling fans, motorised curtains / blinds, zoned audio systems, RGB lighting control systems and more.

There are different manufacturers of lighting control systems and the decision of which system to go with is a very important one as a lighting control system becomes an integral part of your home once implemented. Design, hardware implementation, programming & support play key roles to delivering a trouble free solution.

Be sure to read up on our article that discusses the major manufacturers in Australia where we look into their strengths and weaknesses, giving you the ability to make an informed decision of which system is best for you.

Known as Dynalite Dimension, the program will provide standardised training, improved access to technical support, and essential marketing support to all accredited companies and individuals.

At the heart of the program will be a standardised educational syllabus to ensure accredited dealers– including AV installers, system integrators and electrical contractors – stay up to date with the latest in Dynalite’s lighting control and building automation technologies.

Read here for more

Source: Channel News

Sometimes it would be nice to be able to just walk around and program wirelessly with your laptop.

It is now quite easy as there are a number of serial to IP gateways readily available on the market because there is a large amount of legacy devices that people are trying to support over current infrastructure.

Not all serial gateways perform the same and Dynalite will tell you to use their network node. This is not such a bad idea as sometimes a device directly connected to the network can cause problems.

We however have been communicating directly to the network with AMX control systems for a number of years and have never had any issues.

The serial gateways that we have tried and tested come from Quatech. They make a number of wired and wireless products which are suitable and can be configured to communicate directly to the network.

The gateways come with some software to emulate a serial port on your PC making it a seamless connection to your Dynalite network.

The really big benefit to using a serial gateway is that you no longer need to go to site to support your customer!