Your home’s interior lights want to help you have fun, feel better, and save energy. Will you let them?
We would walk into a room and flip on the light switch, maybe slide the dimmer up or down a bit to change the brightness. Seems a little old school. Instead, press a tab marked “Cooking” on a wall-mounted panel to let all kitchen task lights come up to full brightness while lights in the family room dim so the kids can play video games.
“Home lighting today is about lifestyle enhancements,” says Paul Nagel, technical adviser and consultant for Oquirrh Ventures in Sandy, Utah. “We want to know how to control light to create environments we’re comfortable in, and have energy efficiency while we do it.”
Lighting Our Homes With a Purpose
Today’s progressive lighting schemes aren’t about turning lights on and off; they’re about being partners in your lifestyle. The concept is simple: Imagine all your home’s light fixtures as a single system that can be programmed into a variety of zones. Each zone is dedicated to particular task or mood, and can be controlled by wall switches, a master wall panel, or a smartphone app.
So in addition to “Cooking” and “Romance” zones, you might have buttons for:
- Outdoor entertaining – Patio and walkway lights illuminate.
- Coming home – Triggered by a timer or a smartphone, the porch, entry hall, and kitchen lights come on.
- Nighty-night – Lights in kids’ rooms slowly fade out as they fall asleep.
- Vacation – Lights turn on and off in random patterns.
- Panic mode – All lights in the house flash on and off.
If walking over to a wall panel is too much effort at the end of a long day, you can call up an app on your smartphone or tablet and control zones while curled up on the couch. If your app is voice-activated, you won’t even have to swipe a finger.
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