Maximize Lighting and Shading Technologies While Making Your Home Look Great!

When it comes to making your home a relaxing getaway from the stresses of the world, how do you like to go about it? Are you big on catching the latest Netflix original series in your cozy home theater space, do you prefer to relax on the couch to read your favorite book, or are you more of a home chef that loves recreating recipes from the latest cooking competition shows? 

No matter how you prefer to enjoy and relax in your home in Memorial or the surrounding areas, there’s one smart home technology that serves as an essential backbone to every activity that occurs inside and outdoors, and that’s lighting! Keep reading below to learn what Relative Home Systems can provide Texans in terms of lighting and shading due to our position as a certified Lutron dealer.

In Houston, we’re lucky to enjoy favorable weather for the majority of the year. Spending time outdoors is something most of us do in our free time, whether you’re hiking or enjoying time on the lake or river. Natural sunlight makes you feel great by energizing your spirit and your mood. 

Unfortunately, we can’t spend all of our time outdoors. Either the weather is crummy, or you simply need to go to your day job to make a living. Florescent indoor lighting can be a drag compared to the beautiful outdoors and can wear down your mood. To combat traditional indoor lighting’s downfalls, you can incorporate circadian lighting into your living spaces.

Read on below to learn more about the Texas-sized benefits of circadian lighting!

SEE ALSO: Upgrade Your Smart Home With Automated Lighting Control

What Is Circadian Lighting?

To first understand circadian lighting, one must know the definition of a circadian rhythm. A circadian rhythm is like mother nature’s biological clock and follows human’s 24-hour sleep and wake cycles. Your brain interprets light signals and informs you of when it is daytime or nighttime. When we spend too much time indoors with harsh lighting, our circadian rhythms become out of sync. This is why many nighttime workers have trouble sleeping.

When thinking about what smart products to bring into your home, you should begin with technology you use on a daily basis. Why not start with your home's lights? It's the first thing you interact with in the morning and the last thing you shut off when you go to bed. For a technology so entrenched in your daily routine, shouldn't you find a way to control it just the way you want? Get the versatility you deserve with a home lighting control solution from Lutron. Read on to find out the many unique ways Lutron lets you control the light fixtures in your Houston, TX home.

SEE MORE: Upgrade Your Home With Automated Lighting Control

Centralize Control of All Your Home's Lights

There are many smart lighting products on the market, but they usually offer limited reach. With Lutron HomeWorks QS incorporated into your Savant or Crestron home automation system, you can access all your home's lights from a touchpad, smartphone or tablet. Eliminate the clutter of switches on the wall and make it more convenient to pull up what you need. Simply pick the room you want to access then choose the fixtures you want to control. You can dim their power, turn them off or even change their color.

Enhance Your Style With Elegant Wall Switches

One of the coolest things about having a home lighting control system is the ability to create pre-set scenes. These scenes let you manage multiple fixtures at once so you can set the perfect environment to watch your favorite movies or simply make it easier to wake up in the morning. Using scenes not only makes your Austin, TX home more efficient, but it can also help enhance its style.

Instead of needing multiple switches on the walls to control your lights, you can have an elegant keypad on the wall with each button corresponding to a specific scene. Another great thing about scenes? They’re uniquely yours. The experts at Relative Home Systems can create scenes that match up to your specific activities and preferences. In this blog, we give you some ideas to get you started.

SEE MORE: Gain Control of Your Lights with Lutron and Crestron

Wake Up

Schedule a scene that slowly turns on your lights and opens the shades to wake you up in the morning. If you’re a deep sleeper, you can incorporate your whole home audio so music begins playing through your in-ceiling speakers until you get up. Assign a button in your keypad to turn off the scene. By having to get up to turn it off, you’re less likely to fall back asleep.

While lighting control can offer a lot of futuristic technology –from voice control to access from a mobile app—many of our clients want to stick with the familiarity of their light switches. They’ve grown accustomed to managing their lights this way and change seems more trouble than anything. Does that mean home lighting control is not the right choice for their Memorial, TX property? No, it just means that their system will focus initially on upgrading the light switches in their home.

SEE MORE: 4 Unique Ways to Control the Lights in Your Home

Gain Efficiency With Dimmers and Scenes
A smart lighting control system can increase wall switch efficiency in two simple ways: by incorporating dimmers and scenes. Customarily wall switches are pretty straight forward. They connect to one particular fixture and turn it on and off. With a smart upgrade, you can access multiple fixtures at once and go beyond the limited on/off controls:

• Dimmers: Many clients are surprised to find that most rooms could benefit from not having lights on at a 100 percent intensity. Not only can this help reduce energy usage, but it leads to a more elaborate lighting design. Depending on whether you have a romantic date, are hosting a party, or watching a movie you can find the light level that makes the most sense.
• Scenes: Scenes within your home lighting control system let you manage multiple fixtures at once. You can access these scenes straight from your wall switches. This not only lets you make adjustments quickly, but it also reduces the amount of switches you need so you can eliminate some of the wall clutter. For example, a dinner scene dims the lights in the living room while raising the ones right above the dining table.

See More: 4 Great Lighting Control Scenes for Your Home

Incorporate Other Technology Options
If you have a smart home automation system, you can also manage other technology from your light switches. An easy way to do this is to incorporate volume control in rooms where you regularly play music like a media room or bedroom. Raise or lower the volume of your background music from a switch on the wall. The scenes on your wall switches can also include other technology. An ‘away’ scene on a switch by your front door turns off all lights and TVS, locks the doors and arms the security system

When thinking about what smart products to bring into your home, you should begin with technology you use on a daily basis. Why not start with your home's lights? It's the first thing you interact with in the morning and the last thing you shut off when you go to bed. For a technology so entrenched in your daily routine, shouldn't you find a way to control it just the way you want? Get the versatility you deserve with a home lighting control solution from Lutron. Read on to find out the many unique ways Lutron lets you control the light fixtures in your Houston, TX home.

SEE MORE: Upgrade Your Home With Automated Lighting Control

Centralize Control of All Your Home's Lights

There are many smart lighting products on the market, but they usually offer limited reach. With Lutron HomeWorks QS incorporated into your Savant or Crestron home automation system, you can access all your home's lights from a touchpad, smartphone or tablet. Eliminate the clutter of switches on the wall and make it more convenient to pull up what you need. Simply pick the room you want to access then choose the fixtures you want to control. You can dim their power, turn them off or even change their color.

Enhance Your Style With Elegant Wall Switches

One of the coolest things about having a home lighting control system is the ability to create pre-set scenes. These scenes let you manage multiple fixtures at once so you can set the perfect environment to watch your favorite movies or simply make it easier to wake up in the morning. Using scenes not only makes your Austin, TX home more efficient, but it can also help enhance its style.

Instead of needing multiple switches on the walls to control your lights, you can have an elegant keypad on the wall with each button corresponding to a specific scene. Another great thing about scenes? They’re uniquely yours. The experts at Relative Home Systems can create scenes that match up to your specific activities and preferences. In this blog, we give you some ideas to get you started.

SEE MORE: Gain Control of Your Lights with Lutron and Crestron

Wake Up

Schedule a scene that slowly turns on your lights and opens the shades to wake you up in the morning. If you’re a deep sleeper, you can incorporate your whole home audio so music begins playing through your in-ceiling speakers until you get up. Assign a button in your keypad to turn off the scene. By having to get up to turn it off, you’re less likely to fall back asleep.