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If you are considering either building or renovating a home then these days it is very relevant to consider making it a Smart Home. Even if you are not renovating your home, there are options that can help convert your home into a Smart Home without significant costs. Lighting is one of the most important facets of your home that will be controlled by automation and this article provides a perspective on some key elements to consider, while making your lighting choices.

A few years ago, most of us only had limited choices to make in lighting, it was either incandescent or fluorescent (tubelight). These days however consumers are spoiled for lighting choices as technology advancements have resulted in a number of new options. Users now have to choose from widely different offerings such as LED downlighters, LED Strip lights, RGB LEDs, Tuneable lights, Magnetic tracks, halogen lamps and much more. Making sense of all these can be challenging and often lighting designers or showrooms can help you. But having a basic knowledge of the different elements of lighting is essential to help you through your decisions. The intent of this article is to just provide you with such a basic understanding, and to share how your lighting relates to the automation you choose for your smart home.

The below table shows you the basic types of lighting and some key information about them. The LED lighting especially must be carefully reviewed when it is to be connected to automation, because unlike the resistive lighting if not planned properly they can result in very irritating flickering after some time or certainly in a reduced life for some expensive fixtures. The dimming for LEDs is achieved through what are commonly called as “drivers” and these can be CVD (Constant Voltage Drivers) or CCD (Constant Current Drivers). Care must be taken to match the type of driver and its wattage with the type of LED being connected to it.

Smart Automation and Touch Switches that you would use to turn on/off or dim the various lighting options typically connect to these drivers to enable the dimming. The smart switches you choose must match the type of driver so that it can send it the right communication, as only then would you be able to control lighting and dimming via Smart App or Voice Assistants like Alexa or Google Home.