That round light dimmer in your dining room probably isn’t much different from the one originally invented by Joel Spira (founder of Lutron) in 1959. Dimmers changed the home lighting industry, and forever made it easy to alter the ambience in your room by turning down the lights to suit your mood (dimming lights also saves energy). But the humble dimmer has come a long way.
Dimmers now use a variety of smart home technologies to make it easy for you to customize the lighting level in your home. New dimmers also look a lot nicer than the old dial style of yesteryear.
An article in the latest Electronic House discusses new light dimmers and even highlights some favorites. These favorites range from simple Do-It-Yourself installations to dimmers that work as part of a sophisticated professionally installed home automation system.
Many of the new smart dimmers are what the industry refers to as wireless. This doesn’t mean that they don’t get connected to your home’s wiring. Rather, it means that they’re wirelessly connected to a home automation or lighting control system. Such smart dimmers use wireless protocols such as Wi-Fi, Z-Wave and Zigbee.
One of the best things about using smart dimmers as part of your overall smart home system is that they provide you with multiple touch points for controlling your lights. Both a smart home app and a smart dimmer can be used to adjust the lights as per your system’s programming.
Some dimmers include small LED lights that can be programmed for different states. For instance, when the room lights are off, the small LED might glow red (so you can easily find it in the dark) then turn to green when the room lights are on. A professional home automation programmer can help you decide what settings are right for you.
Many new dimmers combine dimming features with a couple of keypad style buttons, that can be programmed for multiple purposes. Also, a programmer can add functions, such as a double-tap on the dimmer, that changes the activity the dimmer controls.
Read more about the newest smart dimmers in this Electronic House article.
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