Tag: home automation

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Technical Lighting Help

Is Home Automation a “Time-Saver?”

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My wife and I have just moved into our new-old home. We have spent almost a year restoring and reinvigorating a mid-century ranch that will deliver a more carefree (and step-free) life for us as we age. Because of the rough state of the home when we purchased it, a rewire was required. Many walls were removed (black mold) the ceilings were taken out (water ingression from a leaky roof) and fuse boxes removed (Federal Pacific Electric Panel.) The lack of physical encumbrances made the lighting choices easier. I could spec almost everything I wanted and the wiring part would be easy. (Well, easier. Doing so within the confines of maintaining the mid-century characteristic of the home soon became the hindrance.)

I decided to install a Control 4 Home Automation system to “run” the house. Security, lighting, garage door, shading controls, temperature control and intercom could fall under one umbrella. The Bosch appliances, themselves supported by a proprietary app could be brought into the group. There are other functions that could be integrated as well. Luckily, I have been using a local tech-guru that helped me through this process. More often than not, when I asked if something could be done, his answer was, “Yes!” I cannot amply stress the importance of having a tech-champion on your team. This person is as important as a plumber or an electrician. (Please note, a tech person COULD be an electrician, but an electrician is not necessarily a technology expert! Get the right person for the needed job.)

I wanted the system because of my belief that, despite the conflicting realities, automation is probably more beneficial to seniors than the tech-savvy Millennials. My wife selected faucet handles that will work better for arthritic hands, the AIP contractor suggested a drawer microwave because it is more conducive to someone who might be wheelchair bound. Wet baths were included to eliminate the possibly hazardous step and aesthetically sensitive grab bars were included, just in case. Automation systems can be equally helpful for many of the other things that become a struggle as we age.

The back of the house features sixteen large windows that look out on a wooded area (in the middle of an inner-ring urban/suburban neighborhood.) Without automation, opening and closing them daily could be an onerous task. Insuring nightlights are turned on at night has shown to reduce falls in seniors. That is an easy thing for home automation systems. Nighttime security checks can quickly be achieved by a control system. All of these things should make life for us better as we age. All of these things should not be a burden.

I was reminded of the burden of automation after reading a New York Times opinion feature that shared the fact that automation is NOT saving us any time. Workers using AI to “help” are not saving time. Technology-enhanced homes are not allowing active young homeowners added time to lollygag and “chill.” Statistics state they spend roughly the same amount of time doing (loosely defined) housework as their parents. But why? The creators of these products promised me peeled grapes and a pink pony!

Each time my wife attempts to book a doctor’s appointment online, I am reminded why technology does not always save time. The two-step authentication becoming more and more ubiquitous was probably invented by lawyers in an effort to protect their litigious-prone industry. How many times has a slow server, or a weak Wi-Fi connection caused you to “time-out” of your ability to enter the six-digit code? My moderate dyslexia invariably forces me to reenter the number more than once. Does the cybercrime version of Boris & Natasha really care my annual physical is scheduled for next Thursday?

I’ve never figured automation to save me time. In pre-computer days, when I managed an Engineering Department, I had an assistant. If I needed communication to be sent to people in the company, outside the company, whomever, I asked her to write a note to them about whatever topic was required. Later that day, she had typed a letter covering the required topic. As fax machines came online, I was required to write letters with sketches and details she could not complete. When each of us was given a computer and an email address, all of the correspondence was now my responsibility. My assistant could no longer handle that portion of my workload. I was now the typist. Luckily for her, she was an immensely talented person and went on to manage her own collection of people in a different area of the company. Automation simply meant I now had more work. Different work, but more than I had prior.

I did not buy and have installed a Control 4 home automation system to save time and money. I did not expect to save energy. I did hope a home support network would allow my wife and me to live in our last home longer by eliminating some of the more cumbersome tasks from our daily routine. I still believe this to be true. I am also realistic (and old) enough to know that sometimes you get wasabi and sometimes you get horseradish with food coloring and cornstarch, more often, the latter.

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Lighting Commentary

Do We Really Need Light Switches?

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A friend sent me an article from the Wall Street Journal about confusing hotel light switches. (The Latest Traveler Kvetch: Hotel Lights Are Confusing by Dawn Glbertson 4-24-2024) A few sentences into the article and I knew exactly what the writer was discussing. I spent a fair amount of time traveling in China at the end of the 1990s and early 2000s. Hundreds of new hotels were being built to service the Americans who were arriving to facilitate Chinese production. Each new hotel came equipped with a newfangled feature, as yet unseen in the US. Keycard control of the suite’s AC and electricity, TV screens embed in the bathroom mirror and yes, a dashboard of light switches to control scores of luminaires were included. Each new hotel room meant an introductory ten to fifteen minutes spent trying to figure out how to shut off the alcove spot light and turn on the bathroom toekick lighting. It was always a joy walking into an old hotel with recognizable toggles. My daily tutorial could be avoided.

The article allowed me to reminisce about my days/weeks/months in China, but it also brought up the question I have asked before, multiple times, “Why do we even need light switches today?”

Whenever I ask this question, I am greeted with the same askew face and puzzled reaction. “Well, dumbbell, to turn the light in a room, on and off. Duh?”

Most people fail to get my point. We have an evolving tech industry that is intermingling with most building support equipment.  They are allowing Alexa and Google Home voice-activated systems to control those products. Light bulbs are now offered that can be controlled by voice and a number of luminaires are on the market that include the same feature. What is missing is control of the “average” luminaire.

By average, I do not mean substandard, I just mean the chandelier in virtually every dining room in North America, the flush mounted piece in hallways and bedrooms and the lights at every bathroom mirror in every house. These products are not “Smart.” Because they are so “normal” most consumers do not expect them to be voice-control compliant. They expect control to be handled by a separate switch, as they have since Thomas Edison.

The easier control would be a “node” wired between the luminaire and the house wires. It could be included with the luminaire or sold separate. Its job would be to communicate with the voice system.

“But Why Bother, Jeff?”

The WSJ article explains that many hotels do not always use a panel of controls because older hospitality rehabs would require too extensive a teardown to run wires from control panel to luminaire.

Think about the labor and cost required for a light switch. A switchbox must be assembled to a structural stud. Wire must be run from that box to the luminaire outlet box. If this is a three-way assembly, tracer wire must be run from switch number one to the second switch. More would be required if 4-way or 5-way configurations are planned. As the article intimated, lots of wires would need to converge at a bank of toggles, bedside.

A hole must be cut into the drywall to accommodate this box. When the walls are painted, trim painting around the box takes longer than simply rolling or spraying a flat, straight wall. The electrician must wire the control switch. A decorative plate must be screwed onto the switchbox. There are material costs, labor costs and time to facilitate lighting control. Multiply this by every room and the dollars add quickly. Frankly, I’m surprised production home builders haven’t pushed this in their constant effort to reduced costs. A home-wide voice system would be less expensive than the box, wire and switch material costs, plus the labor saved by electricians, drywall installers and painters (even further savings would be had if the wall were tiled or papered.)

So What is Stopping Jeffrey’s “Brave New World?”

Two major factors seem to be the stumbling block for a quicker adaptation of switch removal.

  1. Whenever I mention this to other lighting folks, I’m told the “node” exists, but I’ve not seen one, if it is, it is not widely distributed. Perhaps it is not small enough to fit in every luminaire canopy or outlet box. I’m waiting for the theoretical, “Apple iVoice” module to be mass-marketed. Then perhaps, we’ll start to cook.
  2. Including the voice-control with the luminaire might not yet be financially feasible, but manufacturers will need to watch and react quickly. Again, builders could drive this demand. There will be a tipping point, much like we experienced with LED, where the cost and availability of a connected luminaire will make far more sense than a luminaire and switch.

“But, But, What If…?”

Many people cannot envision a world where switches would disappear from their walls. Whenever I mention this, the “what-ifs” start pouring from people’s lips. “What if the internet goes down?” “What if the electric fails?” “What if the “node” dies?” and on and on.

Yes, things may happen. Everyone has a mobile phone, in some cases it is their ONLY phone. Sometimes the supporting cellular network fails. How often? Rarely, but it happens. How often does your home internet fail? Occasionally. That has not stopped most people from using home computers and even transitioning to “work from home” employment, totally reliant on technology at a much more substantive level than a light switch. There are countless other examples where we abandoned one old system and replaced it with a more technologically streamlined method. Who among us, of a certain age, did not initially serve as our parent’s personal television “remote control” before it was actually a stock feature of even the least expensive flat screen on the market. We only need to think in broader terms. How many people still have a telephone hanging from the wall in their kitchen? Fewer and fewer.

Challenges

Perhaps the biggest challenge with greater voice activation is naming. When we had a single luminaire in each room, the voice control naming would have been easy. “Turn on bedroom light.” “Turn on bathroom light.” With a wider variety of lighting options, more succinct naming will be required…and remembered. Expect to see hundreds of magazine and online articles with naming convention suggestions.

If we go back to the hotel analysis, hospitality suites might come equipped with a posted naming “cheat sheet” so each guest will understand the exact name for the lights under a vanity or the recessed can in the shower. Hospitality managers might also be well served in setting an assorted of typical scenes, such as “Nighttime” which might shut off all lights except the bathroom toekick lighting. As users, we will grow accustomed to the new concept, just as we acclimated to automobile seat belt warnings and legally turning right at an intersection, when the traffic light is red.

Sure, many will simply want to avoid all of this. That’s ok, it doesn’t make them Narendra Modi voters. Like the old electricians who didn’t want to bother with LED, they will disappear and be replaced with a larger population who currently interact with their automobile and most customer service bots via voice commands. Illuminating a room can be as easy as saying, “Dining room chandelier, on!”

Categories
Technical Lighting Help

The Future of Lighting

I was asked an intriguing question this week. “What do I think lighting will look like in the future?” With all of the changes that have occurred in lighting over the last decade, you might expect a period of rest or inaction, but I really don’t think that is likely. The cat is out of the bag. Users, creators, scientists and researchers are more aware of lighting then at any time since Edison. Lighting will remain a kinetic force in our lives.

Outside of the residence, there are going to be even more changes, but if I strictly concentrate on residential lighting, I (and my Magic 8 Ball) feel pretty comfortable with the following observations.

Less Decorative Lighting

Two-story foyers are gone (for the most part) dining rooms are disappearing, flex-space is growing and landscape lighting is a much more effective way to light an exterior of a home then a surface mounted porch light. Couple that with an increase in the amount of pre-fab or modular construction and lighting built into the fabricating structure of a home will be more and more commonplace.

Decorative lighting also carries with it a “style.” Whether contemporary or traditional, some portion of the population doesn’t like it. Style becomes an alienator, preventing a sale. If the core building is style-agnostic, it becomes easier for a future homeowner to imagine herself in the space. Removing decorative lighting, perhaps as slowly as bedroom lights and hallway light disappeared, appears to be a sure bet for the future.

Integrated LED

We are all lighting maintenance people. We don’t service washers, dryers or ovens, but lighting is different. As if it were a birthright, we feel compelled to change light bulbs. Our incandescent mentality causes us to worry about buying lighting that eliminates the need for re-lamping. We are suspicious, unbelieving and skeptical, this innate portion of our psyche being so powerful. Despite our overwhelming resistance, integrated LED lighting will overtake and replace lighting with replaceable light bulbs. It has quietly gobbled up lighting category after category. First landscape lighting, then recessed, linear architectural detail lighting, under-cabinet lighting, contemporary chandeliers and the table is set for bathroom lighting…and the world has not ended! There is life after light bulb replacement.

As we move into tomorrow, the shift will be further advanced by poorer quality (but cheap!) replacement light bulbs and a shifting aesthetic direction that will be more clearly borne out with integrated LED. Well-designed integrated LED lighting will operate in a residential setting for over twenty years. When the average redecoration of a home is every seven years, this is likely to exist through three remodels.

As the Gen Z and Alpha demographic will understand best of all, there will be much better things to do than change light bulbs!

Smart Lighting

Home automation is inevitable. Your great-grandmother couldn’t understand the need for a cloth dryer, your grandmother didn’t need an air conditioner and your mother doesn’t need a smart phone. Like the preponderance of dryers, AC and smart phones indicates, home automation is going to happen. A voice activated home will be de rigueur. The typical consumer has already linked an intelligent home to automatically turning on and off lighting. It is one of the first things people do with their new Alexa or Google voice system.

A few things could happen. The luminaire will include a smart “dongle” or, “dongles” will be wired between each luminaire and the house wires, but rest assured, the ability to configure it to a smart system will be there. That then leads to the next prediction.

The Elimination of the Light Switch

When a luminaire is intelligent, why does it need something as “dumb” as a light switch? When you remove the switch, you also eliminate the yards of wire that link it physically to the outlet box. The home becomes easier to wire, holes are removed from walls, backsplashes and panels. The cost savings alone might make this the first prediction to come to fruition.

For Better, or Worse

When LED was first introduced, the sky was the limit and lighting professionals felt, finally, we would have GREAT light. That optimism was unfortunately, a bit too much and too soon. To get prices down, many concessions were made. Those concessions resulted in lower quality products. One need look no farther than the surface-mounted, recessed can replacements. These are a poor light source that creates far too much glare. Take a look in a “big box” store, also. The 40,000 to 50,000 hour light bulbs are slowly being replaced with 10,000-15,000 hour models.  Yes, they are cheap, but….

I suspect that the future will re-find a place for better lighting. It will appeal to a select clientele who understands the value of good light. More effective, less glary cans, circadian adjusted light output and adjustable bathroom lighting are just around the corner, especially for those who appreciate the difference between good and poor lighting.