20 MARKET SECTOR: LIGHTING CONTROL www.residentialsystemseurope.com T o paraphrase the great writer George Orwell, all elements in a home automation system are equal, but some ele- ments are more equal than others. Or, to put it another way, lighting, heating and security – extremely important; the ability to control your audio system from the downstairs loo – rather less so. “Lighting control is obviously very important as you can live with- out audio and video, but not without lights,” affirms Crestron residential sales manager Phil Solomons, and it is hard to disagree. From straightforward ambience-set- ting to being an integral part of a cutting-edge security installation, lighting is fundamental to our notions of the automated house. It does not take long to realise, therefore, that lighting control has been one of the key drivers behind the development of the residential automation business per se. For new builds and retrofits alike, it continues to be near the top of the installation priority list and, if anything, is actu- ally increasing in importance as more and more people acknowledge the contribution that an efficient and effectively-controlled lighting system can play in reducing household energy consumption. The impact of more stringent building and wiring regulations – more of which anon – should also not be underestimated, while the growing tendency to make lighting part of an integrated home system also demands to be taken into account. In short, it’s a time of sig- nificant change in the lighting control sector, making this an ideal juncture at which to take stock and consider the likely way forward. Top of the shop First of all, how exactly did we get to the point where ‘sophisticated light- ing control’ seems to be on the lips of nearly every commercial and private property developer? The contribu- tion it can make to design and aesthetics, the suitability of many lighting control systems to serve as the primary integration infrastruc- ture for a home, and the need for developers to offer genuine value extras are just a few of the factors that come to mind. Guy Simmonds, European busi- ness development manager (home systems) at Lutron, believes that the trend can be traced back to home theatres. “Many homeowners first appreciated the benefits of lighting control when used in a home cinema environment – obvious really – and that has now spread through the principal living areas of the house to give multi-room and whole house systems,” he says. “Very often the whole house light- ing control system, such as our own HomeWorks system, becomes the main infrastructure of the home, with the processor driving many other integrated third party components. Developers and architects have influ- enced that rise through their recognition of light as a tool to enhance aesthetics.” “There is the obvious interior design crossover as lighting control can really accentuate any features in the property and change the look and feel in subtle, but impactful ways,” says Ian Trudgeon from UK integrator Thinking Bricks, which currently favours Rako Controls’ lighting systems, with Lutron as an option for more advanced or full integration systems. Trudgeon adds a word of warn- ing, however: “Frequently as a project progresses, lighting control can be prone to roll back to rotary dimmers or plain switches. It is our job to sell, and continue to sell, the advantages of lighting control throughout the project.” Nonetheless, pretty much every- one agrees that the case for lighting control is growing stronger with every passing year, not least because of the role that such systems can play in the creation of a ‘green’ home. “I think the key selling point currently is the ‘green factor’,” agrees Trudgeon. “Using lighting efficiently has become a major consideration.” The current economic conditions are also helping to shape demand. With the previously vibrant Euro- pean property market having gone into a tailspin in the last six months, many developers have been left with unsold new builds on their hands. All of a sudden, there are too many luxury apartments and refurbished town houses for too few buyers, and it stands to reason that developers are looking to add distinguishing features in a depressed market. “Developers need to add a bit of glitz to help sell the properties and make them stand out from the com- petition,” confirms Paul Wafer from lighting control technology devel- oper Rako Controls. Part and parcel of this develop- ment appears to be a change in the relationship between property devel- opers and their potential audiences. It’s a transition that was neatly encapsulated by David Dobouny, chief executive officer of home automation and guest room man- agement integrator One Media Controls (OMC) Middle East, for a regional focus article that appeared in the April 2009 issue of RSE’s sis- ter publication, Installation Europe. “Developers who can perceive the market conditions are becoming more focused on the owner/occupier than the speculator,” Dobouny told me. “They are more concerned about the end product than was previously the case. They are more likely to want to sell a finished product, and this means looking for points of dif- ferentiation – one of which is home automation.” New regulations Even as orders continue to roll in for lighting control systems, however, the lighting market that they serve is undergoing profound change. New regulations concerning energy effi- ciency and wiring standards are having a significant impact on light- Lighting control continues to be an important component of home automation projects, as David Davies discovers from manufacturers and integrators ‘A key benefit of a hardwired system… is that cabling provides the data backbone for the entire smart home’ Phil Main, Dynalite Luxury or efficiency? Main pics courtesy Lutron Pics courtesy Dynalite
To paraphrase the greatwriter George Orwell,all elements in a homeautomation system areequal, but some ele-ments are more equal
than others. Or, to put it another way,lighting, heating and security –extremely important; the ability tocontrol your audio system from thedownstairs loo – rather less so.
“Lighting control is obviouslyvery important as you can live with-out audio and video, but notwithout lights,” affirms Crestronresidential sales manager PhilSolomons, and it is hard to disagree.From straightforward ambience-set-ting to being an integral part of acutting-edge security installation,lighting is fundamental to ournotions of the automated house.
It does not take long to realise,therefore, that lighting control hasbeen one of the key drivers behindthe development of the residentialautomation business per se. For newbuilds and retrofits alike, it continuesto be near the top of the installationpriority list and, if anything, is actu-ally increasing in importance as moreand more people acknowledge thecontribution that an efficient andeffectively-controlled lighting systemcan play in reducing householdenergy consumption.
The impact of more stringentbuilding and wiring regulations –more of which anon – should alsonot be underestimated, while thegrowing tendency to make lightingpart of an integrated home systemalso demands to be taken intoaccount. In short, it’s a time of sig-nif icant change in the lighting
control sector, making this an idealjuncture at which to take stock andconsider the likely way forward.
Top of the shopFirst of all, how exactly did we get tothe point where ‘sophisticated light-ing control’ seems to be on the lips ofnearly every commercial and privateproperty developer? The contribu-tion it can make to design andaesthetics, the suitability of manylighting control systems to serve asthe primary integration infrastruc-ture for a home, and the need fordevelopers to offer genuine valueextras are just a few of the factorsthat come to mind.
Guy Simmonds, European busi-ness development manager (homesystems) at Lutron, believes that thetrend can be traced back to hometheatres. “Many homeowners firstappreciated the benefits of lightingcontrol when used in a home cinemaenvironment – obvious really – andthat has now spread through theprincipal living areas of the house togive multi-room and whole housesystems,” he says.
“Very often the whole house light-ing control system, such as our ownHomeWorks system, becomes themain infrastructure of the home, withthe processor driving many otherintegrated third party components.Developers and architects have influ-enced that rise through theirrecognition of light as a tool toenhance aesthetics.”
“There is the obvious interiordesign crossover as lighting controlcan really accentuate any features inthe property and change the lookand feel in subtle, but impactfulways,” says Ian Trudgeon from UKintegrator Thinking Bricks, whichcurrently favours Rako Controls’lighting systems, with Lutron as an
option for more advanced or fullintegration systems.
Trudgeon adds a word of warn-ing, however : “Frequently as aproject progresses, lighting controlcan be prone to roll back to rotarydimmers or plain switches. It is ourjob to sell, and continue to sell, theadvantages of l ighting controlthroughout the project.”
Nonetheless, pretty much every-one agrees that the case for lightingcontrol is growing stronger withevery passing year, not least becauseof the role that such systems canplay in the creation of a ‘green’home. “I think the key selling pointcurrently is the ‘green factor’,” agreesTrudgeon. “Using lighting efficientlyhas become a major consideration.”
The current economic conditionsare also helping to shape demand.With the previously vibrant Euro-pean property market having goneinto a tailspin in the last six months,many developers have been left withunsold new builds on their hands.All of a sudden, there are too manyluxury apartments and refurbishedtown houses for too few buyers, andit stands to reason that developersare looking to add distinguishingfeatures in a depressed market.
“Developers need to add a bit ofglitz to help sell the properties andmake them stand out from the com-
petition,” confirms Paul Wafer fromlighting control technology devel-oper Rako Controls.
Part and parcel of this develop-ment appears to be a change in therelationship between property devel-opers and their potential audiences.It’s a transition that was neatlyencapsulated by David Dobouny,chief executive off icer of homeautomation and guest room man-agement integrator One MediaControls (OMC) Middle East, for aregional focus article that appearedin the April 2009 issue of RSE’s sis-ter publication, Installation Europe.
“Developers who can perceivethe market conditions are becomingmore focused on the owner/occupierthan the speculator,” Dobouny toldme. “They are more concerned aboutthe end product than was previouslythe case. They are more likely towant to sell a finished product, andthis means looking for points of dif-ferentiation – one of which is homeautomation.”
New regulationsEven as orders continue to roll in forlighting control systems, however,the lighting market that they serve isundergoing profound change. Newregulations concerning energy effi-ciency and wiring standards arehaving a significant impact on light-
Lighting control continues to be an important component of home automationprojects, as David Davies discovers from manufacturers and integrators
‘A key benefitof a hardwiredsystem… isthat cablingprovides thedatabackbone forthe entiresmart home’Phil Main, Dynalite
MARKET SECTOR: LIGHTING CONTROL 21www.residentialsystemseurope.com
ing suppliers, with inevitable knock-on effects for control manufacturersand integrators.
Lighting has long been a prioritytopic in the energy efficiency debate,and is correspondingly well-repre-sented in both national andinternational ‘action plans’ and direc-tives. Arguably, it was the EuropeanParliament’s wide-ranging 2002directive on the energy performanceof buildings that set the ball rolling,with its call for major renovations tobe regarded as “an opportunity totake cost-effective measures toenhance energy performance”,among many other requirements.The directive has since been adoptedby states across the European Union.
More recently, the decision by EUenergy ministers in October 2008 toban incandescent light bulbs acrossall 27 member states with effectfrom 2010 has dramatically height-ened awareness of new generation,energy-saving light fittings and theneed to devise an orderly transitionfor individuals and businesses. (Asan aside, it was recently reported thatthe UK Palace of Westminster hassaved 61% of its energy costs by mov-ing to low energy bulbs!)
For dimmer control manufac-turers like Rako, the new lightinglandscape is not without its chal-lenges. “Under the new buildingregulations, 25% of lighting has tobe energy efficient, and the problemis that lamp manufacturers don’ttend to worry about dimming whendesigning their lamps – they simplylook to make the fittings efficient,”says Wafer.
The primary issue for controlmanufacturers is the impermanentnature of the electrical connectionin f luorescent lamps. As Wafernotes, dimmers and new generationlamps are intrinsically working inopposition, requiring “manufactur-ers to put in a lot of e lectr icalcomponents to try and ensure fluo-rescent lamps stay on and dim withreducing voltage supply. It’s quitecomplicated; the technology is get-ting there, but it is not really 100%reliable at this point.”
Wafer adds that the advent of
new, easily dimmable high-efficiencytungsten lamps may help to resolvethe problem.
Crestron’s Phil Solomons saysthe company has taken the neces-sary action. “The new generationlight fittings mean we have had tomake specific dimmers to controlthem, but we have done so.”
Increasingly demanding wiringregulations for commercial, domes-tic and industrial electricalinstallation works have also forced arethink. In the UK, these have mani-fested themselves in the latestversion of the Institute of Engineer-ing and Technology’s IEE WiringRegulations. Incorporating signifi-
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LAVISH LONDON INSTALLFOR DYNALITE
Equipment from Dynalite plays apivotal role in a home automationcontrol system installed at a presti-gious eight-bedroom residence inSouth London.
Orchard House incorporatesthree floors, an adjoining indoorswimming pool and spa complex,a multiple-car garage, a securitylodge, a cinema, a library, fourseparate living rooms and dedi-cated staff accommodation.
The fully automated Dynalitesystem controls the light circuits,air conditioning, underfloor heat-ing and gas fires in the main livingrooms. It constitutes a crucial com-ponent of the home automationinstallation carried out by Kent-based CEI.
Located at the entrance to thebuilding, the colour touch-screencontrol panel for the Dynalite sys-tem enables the user to controland adjust the lighting in each ofthe rooms, as well as the poolarea, sauna and steam rooms.Each of the controllers on the main
control panel can be used to raiseor lower the level of light, allowingthe user to create their requiredambience or mood-lighting combi-nation. Mood settings can berecalled at the press of a singlebutton; alternatively, the operatorcan alter the settings via thetouch-screen to reflect their cur-rent mood.
In order to reduce energywastage and to extend lamp life,
the lighting control system hasbeen programmed to operate allof the dimmed lighting circuits at95%. Ballast controllers have beenincorporated into the design toenable the Dynalite system to dimall the circuits, including cold-cath-ode varieties.
Other notable features of thelighting installation include passiveinfrareds (PIRs) with daylight sen-sors in the centrally positioned
glass atrium area. The PIRs enablethe Dynalite system to detectwhen natural light reaches thedesignated lux level and thenautomatically extinguishes theappropriate lighting circuits toreduce energy wastage.
Each of the house’s climate-control systems is fully integratedinto the Dynalite network, includ-ing the under-floor water heatingsystem and air-conditioning sys-
tem, which is integrated via a Lon-Works interface. This solutionenables the heating and air-condi-tioning systems to be linked toDynalite’s organic light-emittingdiode (OLED) displays that are builtinto the control panels.
According to the manufacturer,the Dynalite system at OrchardHouse “sets a new benchmark forfuture home automation and light-ing management projects”.
‘Five yearsago, thecontrol oflighting wasabout 90% ofa home andbuildingautomationsystem’Erik De Waele, Luxom
Pics courtesy Dynalite
Manufacturer & Supplier of Low Voltage Wire, Cable and AccessoriesHDMI, Security, Fire Alarm, Voice & Data, CCTV, HDTV, Structured Wiring, Coaxial, Audio /Video, Specialized Control, Direct Burial, Access Control
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cant changes to ensure alignmentwith European documents, the 17thEdition regulations (BS 7671) cameinto effect on 1 June last year.
“ The regulations cal l forenhanced protection of lighting cir-cuits in certain environments,”explains Guy Simmonds. “Lutronhas introduced a new control panelwith integral breaker protection sothat installers can buy an ‘off theshelf ’ solution as needed.”
Crestron has also risen to thechallenge and recently introduced anew 17th Edition DIN Rail lightingcontrol solution for the Europeanmarket (see Box for full details).“The 17th Edition IEE regs are play-ing a huge part in how we specifyand supply systems that can meet
these new regulations,” confirmsSolomons. “Crestron was the firstmanufacturer to announce a light-ing control system that is fully 17thEdition compliant. We can supplythe RCBO breakers on every outgo-ing circuit, instead of a system thatjust protects the dimming moduleinputs, as some of our competitorshave to do.”
The impact of the changes onintegrators appears to be less dra-matic. David Skelton, AV managerat Kent-based integrator CEI Europesays that the 17th edition regula-tions have had “a slight impact onus and forced us to raise our pricesdue to the new regs we have tomeet”.
Thinking Bricks’ Trudgeon,meanwhile, emphasises the impor-tance of partnership in this new,more heavily regulated era. “It hasbecome key to befriend and workcoherently with the electrical con-tractors on our projects,” he notes.“They have the knowledge and prac-tical abil ity to ensure that theregulations are followed. We havefound that large electrical contrac-tors are well set-up to absorb therequirements we have and workwith us on recent projects.”
The necessary skillsSome projects now call on a widerskill-set – including that offered bylighting designers – to realise elabo-rate lighting installs.
“We have worked with two light-ing designers, who were employedby the client directly,” says Trud-geon. “We always ensure we set outour role in the early stages as the‘controllers’ of the lighting system.We don’t involve ourselves in thespecification of the fitments, or sitwith a client choosing from a varietyof Italian lighting brochures. Wetake over once we have the loadschedule and understand whateffects are required from the dim-ming of the lamps. This has workedwell , and gives the cl ient clearaccountability for the ultimate sys-
tem they get to use everyday.”Such a clearly demarcated divi-
s ion of labour may becomeincreasingly useful as lighting takesits place in fully integrated homeautomation installs.
“Five years ago, the control oflighting was about 90% of a homeand building automation system,”reflects Erik De Waele, managingdirector of Luxom. “Today, the cus-tomer also wants control of audio,video, heating, air-conditioning…”
CEI’s Skelton is among those towelcome this kind of convergence. “Ithink it’s a great thing that it’s allcoming together,” he says. “It canbecome complicated to get three dif-ferent systems talking to each other,but it definitely has its advantages –
including cosmetically, as you onlyhave one panel controlling every-thing rather than three or four… Onthe other hand, it is vital that yourclient can use the system correctly,so if it’s going to be confusing forthem it may be better to keep tothree simple systems.”
Inevitably, increasing conver-gence will require lighting solutiondevelopers to reassess their marketpositioning. “You can’t just go in asa l ighting solution provider,”believes Phil Main, residential seg-ment manager for Dynalite. “A keybenefit of a hardwired system suchas Dynalite’s is that cabling pro-vides the data backbone for theentire smart home, facilitatinginterconnectivity of third party
equipment on a single communica-tions platform.”
Certainly, the conversation sur-rounding l ighting control i sbecoming more complex. Lutron’sSimmonds pinpoints “the additionof motorised window systems andthe environmental impact of usinglighting controls” as being amongthe factors now informing thedebate, and there are plenty morebesides. The need for more educa-tion would appear to be inevitable,and indeed a number of leadingmanufacturers already run trainingcourses. Increasingly, lighting con-trol is rarely just that, and it may bethat a further industry-wide shift isrequired to accommodate thistrend. RSE
Introduced by Crestron at ISE2009 was a new 17th Edition-compliant lighting controlsolution for the UK market.
The new DIN Rail solutionsfeature 16 circuits with inputbreakers and output RCBO(necessary for 17th Editioncompliance), are pre-built andshipped as a fully integratedsolution with processor, adap-tive modules, and all input andoutput protection. In addition,the system will report to a Cre-stron touch-screen regardingthe energy that the lightingsystem is using at any onetime.
A total of 10 new productsare available, each designed tosnap onto a standard DIN rail forinstallation in a wall-mountenclosure, equipment rack or on
a flat panel. The available models include
a two-series Automation Proces-sor, dimming and switchingmodules, a motor controller, low-voltage interfaces, and acomplete Cresnet distributionsolution.
Crestron UK’s Robin vanMeeuwen commented: “The
17th Edition is demanding in itsrequirements and custominstallers need to be aware, asmuch as anyone, that their light-ing control installations will haveto comply; and with our new DINRail system, they will. The additionof the energy monitoring featureis, I can guarantee, going to bemassively popular with everyone.”
‘Lightingcontrol can beprone to rollback to rotarydimmers orplain switchesIan Trudgeon,
Thinking Bricks
‘You can livewithout audioand video, butnot withoutlights’Phil Solomons,
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