It is a considerable up charge, but we’ve decided to go with a Lutron Homeworks lighting system.

In traditionally wired lighting, lights are wired with high voltage (110v) directly to the switches.  You can do things like three (or more) way switching, dimming, etc, but that is about as advanced as it gets.  Other than lack of any advanced control ability, one of the main drawbacks for a traditional lighting system is the need to have “banks” of switches.  For example, at the front door we might have four switches – two for two different sets of lights on the front ports, one for the main hall way, and one for the front walk way lighting.  We think this is just plain ugly.

With a Lutron system, all high voltage lighting is wired to a Lutron relay control, which is controlled by a master control system.  The light switches are attractive panels with one or more buttons.

These are wired via low voltage to the master control system.  By programming the system, you can make any switch turn on any set of light strings you want.  For example, at the front door, this might be to individually control the for lighting zones we previously mentioned, but we might also include a switch function to light the entire front yard, a pathway through the house to get to the kitchen, or to turn all lights in the house off.

That last one is going to go come in so handy.  In our current house, before I leave, I always walk the house to look for lights that were left on, and with three young kids, there are always some lights left on.

As another example, say, from the light switch at the entrance to each bedroom might be a button to dimly light a path to the kitchen.  These functions are called scenes and you can program any type of scene you want.

Even better, the Homeworks system becomes the center of a home automation system, which would allow us to control many other things.

• Turn the pool heater on and set the temperature
• Turn the jacuzzi temperature up before arriving home
• Adjust the temperature of any heating / cooling zone in the house
• Control our audio / video systems
• Open or close the garage door (or see if it is open or closed), from, say, the master bedroom.

The list of possibilities goes on and on, and all of this would be possible either in the house or on a mobile device while away.