House: The Lights get smart

With so many foreclosed houses on the market, a lot of people asked us why we were building a new house - surely, we could find an existing house that we wanted cheap.  Unfortunately, there were probably about 10 things that we figured we would never find and having a 'smart home' was one of them.

Should probably define 'smart home', since most people have different ideas on what that is.  For us, it means that we can control our lights (and eventually audio/video) easily from one central location.  Knowing that we had so many lights in a house that was basically one big open room - we knew we'd never be able to place all the possible light switches in such a way to control the lights the way we would want to?  We also knew with so many lights that we'd end up with a ton of light switches (like 30+) on the wall - and that would just look stupid.

Unfortunately most smart home technology is pretty amateurish.  Don't get me wrong, there are some good options out there, but we needed some rock solid, reliable, and invisible - not something that would be a fun hobby for a few months and then quickly abandoned.

So we went with Control4, which high-end hotels use now to control their lighting automation in guest rooms.  At a high level the installation process is pretty simple -

   1.  ELECTRICIAN WIRES LIGHTS

        Wire the lights just like normal - being certain that each switch is looped to the lights (and only those lights) you want to control with that switch.  You don't want your electrician to take shortcuts by running to the lights, and then a electrical outlet, and then another set of lights in another room.

   2.  ELECTRICIAN WIRES 6-BUTTON CONTROL PADS

        You (can) place control panels (imagine a light switch with 6 buttons or a video screen) in places you would normally put a light switch.  They are not physically wired to anything ... they just need to be powered individually.

   3.  DRYWALL THEN INSTALL SPECIAL LIGHT SWITCHES

        Once the drywall is up, you install the light 'switches' (technically they are 'dimmers').  They look almost identical to a normal paddle light switch, but they are totally different on the inside.  You can turn on a light on and off just like you normally would for a light switch (invisible), but there is also a ZigBee wireless receiver and transmitter inside the switch that allows that switch to receive commands and relay commands to the mother ship (think DVD player sized appliance).

   4.  CONTROL4 GUY IDENTIFIES YOUR SWITHCES

       Your Control4 installer comes in a identifies all your switches - takes an hour.

   5.  CONTROL4 GUY (or YOU) PROGRAMS SCENES and CONTROL BUTTONS

       You program the buttons to specific lighting scenes you have setup.  For example, you probably put a 6 button control panel (step 2) next to the garage door.  So when you walk in from work, you push one of those 6 buttons (that's an event).  You were able to program with a PC what happens when you push that button - say, the mudroom lights turn on for 20 minutes, the kitchen lights turn on after 5 minutes, and (future date when my bank account recovers from this house) plays music to your favorite channel.

I know it sounds kind of geeky and a guy thing, but here are some things I didn't realize until later.

First, it saves you energy (and you can get tax credits for an install), because you can set these lights to turn on to 80% light level (instead of 100%) - something you won't notice visually, but you will notice once you see your light bill is 20% lower.

Second, it has some major family management powers.  Live in a huge house or yard where you have trouble rounding up the kids for dinner?  A button can be programmed to send an email or a tweet to your kid's phone telling them that dinner will be ready in 5 minutes.

Third, it's convenient. I tell you, the ability to turn off all the lights in the house and know that all the lights in the house are off - it's a Godsend.

House: The Lights

Lesson #1653 in Building a House ... lighting is expensive.

I know we all go to Lowe's on the weekend, and see lights that are affordable and inspire you to redo the dining room ... the fact of the matter is when you're building a new house, the lighting industry is controlled by the mafia, and they'll take you to the cleaners if you're not careful.

Typically in building a house, the general contractor gives you a lighting allowance of, say, $10K or $20K, which sounds like an incredible amount of money.  They send you to the local lighting specialist, and they do a great job showing all these wonderful lights - unfortunately, you end up paying top dollar for them.

I didn't like the idea of someone telling me what lights I should have in my house, and then sell me those lights - it's a recipe for financial disaster.  So instead I hired a lighting 'expert' to draft something out, ended up having my architect fix some issues and pick some things out, and then I went shopping on the internet myself ... it took me a really long time.  But I really saved a fortune, and I was really happy with the results ... I figure if I went the full on retail route, I would have ended up with a bill at least 3X what I ended up paying.

Keeping in mind that my old house was about the same size as my new house ... my old house had about 15 lights ... the new house has 88.  

So definitely hire a lighting designer ... or a really good architect that has some skills in the area.  If an architect is adept at looking how you move through a space and balances form over function - a lighting designer does the same thing with just lights.  It's always good to hire people that specialize and are passionate about a specific field ... the couple hundred bucks you pay them, pays you back for decades to come.

Also, find a great online source that you trust and has high quality material.  If you buy something cheap, you won't keep it for long - ending up spending more money in the long run.  The choices online are amazing, and I don't think it was hard to picture something in a space.

Finally, watch the budget.  It's really easy to get out of control - so a little extra time running up to Restoration Hardware for a clearance item could end up saving you a lot of money.

The lights can be all found on Pinterest