1. It’s Cheaper to Build a Dimmer than a Power Plant

The baseline benefit of incorporating lighting control in a built environment stems from the disparity in efficiency between the conservation and creation of energy. Intuitively, it makes sense that it would take less energy to conserve one watt of energy than to generate one watt of energy. Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on intuition. Dr. Ian Rowbottom, an energy expert and inventor of direct current dimming, performed an economic analysis of this very question. He goes through a great deal of detail, and explains down to the penny how much more efficient dimming is than power generation.

Disclaimer: This particular white paper was sponsored by Lutron, and is based on test data from Lutron equipment. Because of this, actual energy savings for other dimmers may be more or less than the savings shown here.

The summary of Dr. Rowbottom’s findings is this: it is 4 to 22 times more efficient to conserve energy using dimming than to generate energy via a power plant.

Comparison of Dimming Costs with Power Generation Costs

For a deeper look into the analysis, you can read the full white paper from Dr. Rowbottom below:

2. LEED Certification

Incorporating a lighting control system in a building can contribute up to 37 out of 110 possible LEED points for a building. Below is a rundown of the ways lighting control can help you obtain LEED Certification.
Credit: Lutron Electronics, Inc.

For a deeper look into how this point structure is broken down, you can read the full LEED report here:
Credit: Lutron Electronics, Inc.

3. Smart Meters Mean Real-time Energy Feedback

Lighting control systems are going to be a crucial part of our evolving smart power grid. With the advent of smart meters, which are power meters that provide real-time feedback of energy usage, we will be able to control energy consumption during peak hours. In a home, for example, during peak hours the system could dim the lighting down to 80% throughout the house. This would maintain functionality while saving money and conserving energy usage. More importantly, because the lighting is part of a system, this can be accomplished automatically, without user input. A house or commercial building is no longer a mindless energy drain on the power grid, but a self-regulating node on the smart grid.

Smart meters are being rolled out all over the world. In some cases, they are run as small beta tests first, but in some cases, the rollout is fast and comprehensive. An independent consulting group is mapping the smart grid rollout, which you can see below.
The legend is as follows:
Red = Electricity
Green = Gas
Blue = Water
Triangle = Trial or Pilot Test
Circle = Project

Reducing Electricity Usage also Reduces the Carbon Footprint
While reducing electricity consumption does reduce the drain on our power grid, it also reduces a building’s carbon footprint. Lutron has a useful energy calculator tool which calculates how much carbon dioxide is removed from the air based on your building’s energy savings. For example, dimming lights in one room 30% prevents about 1800lb of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

For more info you can check out their energy calculator here:
Lutron Energy Savings Calculator

5. Dimming Reduces Recurring Monthly Overhead

From a purely bottom-line standpoint, dimming reduces monthly overhead costs. One dimmer dimmed to 30% can save about $500 over 5 years. With, say 20 dimmers, that’s $10,000 of savings in 5 years. That’s a significant reduction in overhead costs.

6. Scheduling Makes Lighting Effortless

Whether it’s putting your home on Vacation mode or setting your restaurant to change lighting scenes automatically throughout the day, scheduling takes the effort out of elegant, efficient lighting.
For residential applications, scheduling means the homeowner can leave home knowing that the house will operate according to their schedule.
Scheduling’s real power is in commercial applications, though. As most commercial buildings operate on a regularly intervaled schedule, the lighting can match that schedule automatically. Lights can come on in the morning, adjust throughout the day, then shut off in the evenings. This also ensures repeatability, which is the next benefit.

7. Repeatability Standardizes Complex Lighting Scenes

It takes a great deal of finesse to adjust the lighting in a multi-zone room to obtain a specific feel. Whether it’s setting just the right scene in a homeowner’s dining room or creating the right atmosphere in a museum, lighting adjustments are not something that should be made manually every day.
Lighting control systems remember the settings needed for any given scene and recall it at the push of a button.
In commercial applications, this is particularly necessary. Customers need to experience consistent lighting every time they visit, and the repeatability of a lighting control system ensures that.

8. Energy Management at the Push of One Button

It may seem obvious, but it wasn’t too long ago that homes had wall banks of dimmers and switches controlling multi-zone rooms. With the advent of keypad interfaces, lighting control systems have brought in a whole new level of sophistication. Instead of moving the side of your hand along a wall of switches, it just takes one button press. That one button press can control everything from one zone of light to an entire home. Coming next are programmable touchscreens with customizable graphics. You heard it here first.

9. Excellent Lighting = Excellent Productivity

While there has been no scientific study done on lighting’s effect on productivity, Dr. Rowbottom has written an interesting white paper which combines educated guessing with common sense. He arrives at the conclusion that a lighting control system will pay for itself in seven months, based solely on an increase in employee productivity. It makes for a good read, and I’ll let you decide for yourself. Here’s his white paper below.

10. Ambience Means Happier People

This fits together with #9 above, but affects the user on a personal level. While happier people are typically more productive, being happy can be an end in itself. Well-designed lighting scenes have been known to evoke moods , and can uplift or relax the body. Entire certification programs are set up strictly to teach professionals how to properly design lighting that creates a specific atmosphere.
This is why lighting control is so important, even at the basic, personal well-being level. It’s the lighting control system that makes the magic happen. The combination of dimming, pinpoint control, and repeatability means a homeowner can recreate exactly the ambience they wish every time.

Guest Post by Bill Trammel, Writer for Lighting Control Pros

Control4 didn’t launch a large quantity of products at this year’s CEDIA, but they did present a broader vision for their system. A big part of their presence was focused on the Control4 ecosystem, a network of 3rd-party integrations. They emphasized their willingness to work with other companies who want to integrate with the Control4 system, and even gave an entire presentation dedicated to laying out the Control4 Ecosystem vision. You can check that out at this blog post.

Below is Home Theater Forum’s editor perusing the Control4 Booth and going over their new products. I particularly liked the B&D Zigbee locks. Very slick.

Video courtesy of www.hometheaterforum.com

Also, I found the cutsheet for the Black and Decker Zigbee locks. Pretty minimal, but enough info to be interesting.

Company History

Information provided by Control4

Control4 was founded in March 2003 by Will West, Eric Smith and Mark Morgan. They recognized that although the home-automation category was growing, existing solutions only addressed customers who were building multi-million dollar custom homes or were doing major reconstruction on existing homes. As veterans in the home automation market, the founders knew that homeowners needed a more affordable way to automate their existing homes without the headaches and expense of major remodeling. And they wanted to be able to add new products over time as they are able to afford additional technology. With better wireless standards and the advent of Internet Protocol (IP) technology that allow more existing homes to become candidates for home automation, the team saw a way to bring affordable, whole-home automation to the broad market.

Control4 shipped its first product in 2005. Today, the company has over 1,400 dealers in the US and Canada, has international distribution in over 20 countries including Argentina, Russia, Singapore, the UK and China.

In 2008, Control4 achieved a 40 percent year-over-year revenue growth from 2007, in spite of a difficult U.S. economy and a major downturn in the housing market. The company attributes its continued success to new innovative products, strategic partnerships and its success in adding new dealers and new markets. As the demand for home automation continues to grow, Control4 plans to stay at the forefront of the industry by providing innovative products and solutions that deliver tomorrow’s lifestyle improvements today.

Contact Info:

Corporate Address
11734 S. Election Road
Salt Lake City, UT, 84020

Email: sales@control4.com
Phone: (801) 523-3100
Fax: (801) 523-3199
www.control4.com

Company integrates new solutions from 16 manufacturers; expands options for CEDIA dealers and installers.

Atlanta, GA – CEDIA EXPO 2009 – Booth #161 – September-10-13, 2009 – Control4 Corporation, a leader in affordable, IP-based home control and entertainment systems, continues to expand the list of manufacturers that integrate with the Control4® platform, welcoming new solutions from 16 manufacturers at CEDIA Expo 2009.

Designed for today’s digital home, the Control4 platform allows leading consumer electronics products to easily work together, making whole-home automation a practical option for any residence. Control4 will showcase its growing ecosystem of technology partners at CEDIA Expo and demonstrate its comprehensive suite of lifestyle solutions that provide Control4 dealers, and their clients, with: 1) Effortless Entertainment, 2) Comfort and Convenience, 3) Peace of Mind, including home security, elderly care, and communications solutions, 4) Solutions for Apple product integration, and 5) Green Living.

“Control4’s digital home ecosystem continues to grow, now with over 5,500 drivers from over 150 different companies to provide control and entertainment solutions that deliver performance, affordability, scalability and ease of use,” said Will West, Chief Executive Officer, “Our integration with these industry leading manufacturers will continue to provide our dealers and their customers a robust and easy-to-use system for homes at every level.”

Control4 enables third-party manufacturers to design products that easily integrate with the successful Control4 platform. The company accommodates two different levels of product implementation—from licensing of the Control4® Operating System, its core technology, to certification of third-party compatibility. First, Control4® Certified products have passed rigorous interoperability tests in Control4 labs to ensure they integrate seamlessly with Control4® home automation systems. Second, products with Control4® IQ have the Control4 Operating System embedded in the device, enabling it to function as a Control4® home automation controller.

Control4 welcomes its CEDIA ecosystem partners, including:
AudioShare digital intercom and music system adds several benefits to a Control4 platform, including door station, intercom paging, and extension of Control4 music into AudioShare.
Apogee Interactive Inc., a leading provider of online energy analysis applications for the utility industry, provides actionable information to homeowners so they can program their Control4 system to respond to environmental and price signals from their utility provider.
Black & Decker Kwikset® SmartCode® with Home Connect™ Technology ZigBee Deadbolt is a Control4 Certified product that allows homeowners to monitor and control their door locks using a web enabled device or the Control4 automation system.
Card Access wireless automation products with Control4 drivers include contact sensors, motion sensors, contact relays, high-voltage power controllers and keyfob remotes. Card Access technology adds increased automation capabilities to the Control4 platform with event sensing, energy saving and elderly care capabilities.
Closeby Networks creates an easy-to-set-up, easy-to-use “Care Network” of family, friends and professionals to monitor and care for loved ones in their own homes using multiple sensors that track activity. Passive systems, added to Control4, keep you “CloseBy” with secure email, phone text, phone system and Internet notifications.
Control UI, created My House for Control4, an application that runs on mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch and smart phones running Google’s Blackberry operating system. My House UI enables users to control their homes from their handheld devices and delivers the familiar Control4® user interface so there is nothing new to learn.
DSC provides security products that integrate with the Control4 platform including alarm panels, detection devices, structured cabling and industry-leading alarm monitoring technology.
Fusion Research provides media servers that can be controlled by the Control4 Platform allowing people to collect, manage, and display their media throughout their home or business.
Luxul Wireless extends the coverage area of a wireless network while also improving wireless signal quality and data throughput. The use of Luxul Wireless solutions helps to reduce installation and maintenance costs in a Control4 installation.
MechoShade Home Systems – a division of MechoShade Systems – a single-source designer and manufacture of solar-shading hardware, shadecloths, motorized drapery trac, electronic-control systems, and accessories. The company provides an extensive line of motorized shading systems, which integrate with the Control4 Platform.
NAD A/V Receivers, featuring the innovative Modular Design Construction (MDC), can be customized with Control4 IQ technology by installing the NAD CM 200 MDC Upgrade Module. This enables any MDC AV Receiver to function as a Control4 home controller.
Panasonic Communications Company of North America PBX/IP PBX telephony systems provide home and business owner’s control of their home automation system through a telephone handset. Panasonic IP video cameras can also be accessed and managed via a Control4 system.
Pioneer’s EntertainmentTap prototype media server includes embedded Control4 IQ technology, which enables it to function as a Control4® home controller.
Pioneer’s Elite VSX and SC receivers and Elite BDP Blu-Ray players are pending Control4® Certification
Simply Reliable offers a complete proposal creation, project management and financial solution for installers. The solution synchronizes with Control4® Composer software to automatically create a project or import an existing project, guiding the user from initial proposal process through accounting and billing.
Sony’s BDP-CX7000ES Blu-ray Disc™ MegaChanger uses a custom driver to integrate with Control4® home automation systems. It stores and plays up to 400 Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs, allowing consumers to relocate their disc library to a convenient, easy-to-access location. It also features the ability to download information from Gracenote’s MusicID® and VideoID™ products to organize movies and music.
Sony’s current line of ES receivers are Control4 Certified products offering dealers the certainty that they will easily integrate into the Control4 platform.
Zatabit multimedia servers integrate into the Control4 platform via a 2-way driver allowing for robust communication and navigation from your TV, touch screens, and remotes.
For more information on Control4, visit www.control4.com

About Control4
As the operating system for the connected home, Control4 brings home automation and control to the broad market. Control4 technology is at the heart of an expanding ecosystem of leading consumer electronics products designed to work together with ease. Control4 develops and delivers award-winning control software and hardware for virtually any room, home or building from anywhere at any time. Control4 is the affordable, easy to use, and easy to install solution for digital living. From essential energy management to effortless entertainment; from whole-home lighting control to comprehensive security systems, Control4 is the platform for managing all the pieces of today’s connected life.

Press Contact: Caster Communications, Inc. at 401.792.7080
Kimberly Lancaster klancaster@castercomm.com
Katie Short kshort@castercomm.com
For digital images log on to www.castercomm.com

Copyright (C) 2009 Control4 Corporation. All rights reserved. Control4, the Control4 logo and Everyday Easy are registered trademarks or trademarks of Control4 Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other names or brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Bonus: Video of the presentation.