Recently Filed in Lighting Control

Lights are a staple in every home, but that doesn’t mean your switches should be like everyone else’s. With a few simple tweaks, the fixtures can do more simply illuminate your home as a bit of lighting control. They can curb your energy use, evoke ambiance, and protect your home, for example. Here are 10 simple ways to realize your lights’ full potential.  1. Put Them on a Timer. Most families follow a fairly routine weekday schedule: out the door at 7 a.m., back at… View this story
Lighting Control • Fixtures and Switches • Lighting Control Systems • Info and Answers

Guess what? Motorized window treatments can be green. Shades and drapes that open or close at the press of a button can save you energy by helping to keep a room cool in the summer months, warm it with sunshine in the winter or illuminate it with natural light. This is nothing new. The motorized window treatment crowd has been touting the energy efficiency of its products for decades. Only no one cared until now. How times change. Now saving energy is fashionable. And that… View this story
Home Control • Lighting Control • Shades and Blinds • Green Technology • Enhancements • Info and Answers

The ability to manage your home’s electronic systems from one main control system can make your household run smoother, feel better and save energy. The trick is to find a system that will meet all the demands of your household, now and in the future. Most systems can be tailored by a custom electronics professional to provide all the benefits you desire, but there are some key features that will make his job easier and your interaction with your system more enjoyable. We asked both… View this story
Climate Control • Home Control • Lighting Control • How To • Home Control • Info and Answers • Research

This homeowner’s dream was to color his home Las Vegas-style at night, but the initial plans didn’t work out so well. An electrician installed 18 different fixtures to illuminate the house and the five ponds, waterfalls and sculptures in the front—with 27 different timers that were soon out of sync. Even worse, the exterior lights used a total of 11 kilowatts of power. And the homeowner was blinded just by walking to his car. So custom electronics company ForTech Solutions, of Granada Hills, Calif., set… View this story
Lighting Control • Exterior • Home of the Year Awards 2009 • Cool Homes • Slideshows

Technologies like LED lighting and wireless Z-Wave communication are providing the lighting industry with new, innovative applications for consumers. Jasco Products Company, a GE licensee, is taking advantage of the technological advancements by developing two new Z-Wave light switches and an LED night light. The GE Z-Wave-enabled on/off light switches join Jasco’s existing line of Z-Wave products, which includes remote controls, lamp modules and dimmer switches. Designed to replace your current light switches, the On/Off Switches ($59.99 for a standard switch and $79.99 for a… View this story
Lighting Control • Product News

When selecting a home control system, should you care if it’s compatible with Z-Wave or ZigBee? It depends. Both technologies enable two-way wireless control of various electronic devices including remote controls, dimmers and thermostats. Both employ mesh networking, which means that the more devices that are on the network, the more powerful the network becomes. ZigBee has a higher bandwidth, so it can accommodate richer information, such as metadata from your music library. Z-Wave has the benefit of being a real “standard,” meaning Z-Wave products… View this story
Home Control • Lighting Control • Home Control • Info and Answers • Research

No, 2009 will not be the year of the OLED (organic light emitting diode). But there’s still a good chance we’ll see more of the sexy and energy-efficient technology—in both video displays and lighting—earlier than expected. “If the economy was strong, we’d be seeing real product [this year]” says Janice Mahon, vice president of technology commercialization for OLED developer Universal Display Corporation. I don’t know about that statement, but there is some reason behind the OLED-ers confidence. Larger OLED displays can be made with amorphous… View this story
Displays • OLED • Lighting Control • Green Technology • Info and Answers

As much as we talk about CFL (compact-fluorescent) lightbulbs as the future of lighting, there’s a downside: cleanup. CFL bulbs are filled with toxic mercury, and breaking one, well, it isn’t good. To celebrate Earth Day, Glenn Beck—love him or hate him—went through the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) instructions for cleaning up a CFL. It wasn’t pretty. Check out the process Beck’s producer went through cleaning up a broken CFL bulb. And yes, they used the real EPA instructions for handling a fluorescent or mercury-containing… View this story
Lighting Control • Home Control

Wall sconces are a popular lighting choice for home theaters. They take up no floor space, can be easily controlled with a dimmable lighting system and can add architectural interest to the room. Cooper Lighting’s new Shaper Fabriqué Series lets you get even more inventive with your lighting. The line of pendants, wall sconces and surface luminaries come in a variety of fabric choices that can be easily modified whenever your redo the room. The 14 standard fabrics include specialty fabrics from the San Francisco… View this story
Lighting Control • Home Theater • Product News

You can add another company to Remote Technologies, Inc’s ever-growing list of integration partners. Cooper Wiring Devices recently announced that its Aspire RF wireless lighting control devices are now able to be seamlessly controlled via RTI’s line of handheld remote controls. Communication between the remote and lighting system is facilitated by Cooper Wiring Device’s Aspire RF Serial Interface Programming Module. The integration partnership gives RTI users another choice in lighting control systems. In addition to Aspire, systems from Lutron Electronics, LiteTouch and others are controllable… View this story
Lighting Control • Remote Controls • Home Control • Product News

It used to be that motorized window coverings could only be operated from an automation system when attached to the automation processors with cabling. In newly constructed homes, getting the wire from the windows to the automation system was fairly straightforward, but in an existing home the task could often be tedious and labor intensive. To simplify the process, manufacturers of motorized window coverings and automation systems have started working together to develop wireless connectivity solutions. Lagotek, a manufacturer of home automation systems, for example,… View this story
Home Control • Lighting Control • Shades and Blinds • Home Control • Product News

Stunning is about the only way to describe this 6,500-square-foot home overlooking Portland, Ore. Its three stories combine contemporary elements with swirling soffits, magnificent rock walls and plenty of state-of-the-art elements—from a new kind of home control system to high-res media systems to hidden speakers and Euro styling. Did we mention that the views are stunning as well? The builder, Haggart Luxury Homes of Portland, was constructing the house for a Street of Dreams show, in which residents tour fully furnished homes for several weeks… View this story
Climate Control • Lighting Control • Home Control • Cool Homes • Slideshows