A lighting switchIt’s just a switch. It turns out that it is not. Technology is making your daily life more beautiful and functional by changing the smallest things in your home, like switches, controls, and dimmers. The American Lighting Association (ALA), details the latest developments in lighting switches.
New Bulbs equals New Switches
You might not be able to use LED or CFL lightsbulbs as an energy-smart option if you are still using your old lighting controls.
“Traditional lighting controls don’t work very well with the new bulbs,”Erik Anderson, Lutron Electronics Co., Inc., is the national sales manager for residential construction. This is because the physics of these new bulbs are very different from incandescent bulbs. “With LEDs and CFLs, the way the light is emitted is driven by a driver or a ballast, and those don’t naturally dim.”
Imagine a fixture that has four bulbs. One bulb goes out and you decide to replace it by an LED-equivalent one. Traditional dimmers don’t know how to handle this mixed load, so new specialized dimmers have been engineered to be able to deal with it.
Wireless Lighting Controls
The wiring is often what stops homeowners from improving their lighting control efficiency. Older systems required wires to connect to other controls. Wireless controllers can be controlled from any spot in the room, or even from another room.
Apps can be used on smartphones or tablets and are an integral part modern lighting control systems. They can also control the temperature and window treatments in your home. “It’s just a matter of swapping out existing controls for wireless versions that can communicate with each other,”Anderson.
The Next Generation of Lightbulbs
Many homeowners still believe that LED is the future. However, lightbulbs are being developed that will incorporate control technologies in new ways.
“These are smart lightbulbs that can fit into any kind of a standard socket,”Terry McGowan, director for engineering and technology at ALA, said the following: “They connect to the Internet, and you can adjust them so they dim up and down, come on at appropriate times, change color, even flash in time with music.”
These new controls and bulbs will be more widely accepted in the market, which will lead to a paradigm shift in lighting perceptions for consumers.
For the most up-to-date lighting products, stop by your local ALA member retail showroom. To find your closest ALA-member lighting showroom, visit AmericanLightingAssoc.com.
