As we head towards the winter months and the dark nights draw in, it turns peoples minds to security. An effective way of securing your property is through lighting control systems. The ability to programme individual circuits and get them to respond to either specific button presses or other events makes a well planned lighting control system an ideal partner to a security system especially within a custom home.
Holiday Mode
Vacation mode or holiday mode is a simple but effective idea. Lighting Control systems can be set to monitor actual usage of lights under control and store them. When Holiday playback mode is activated, the lights will replay the actual usage of light in the house. This gives a much more realistic occupancy simulation compared to basic timers. Lighting control systems such as Lutron Homeworks allow us to tweak what the system plays back; meaning that the system can be set up only to play back the energy efficient light sources in the scheme or those visible from the outside of the house. Lighting control systems also offer the ability to control blinds and curtains so these can be integrated in holiday playback as well.
So vacation mode is great for when you’re away from home. But when you’re in the house, lighting control systems offer security benefits over conventional lighting. This is driven by the fact that with a lighting control system any lighting circuit can be programmed to be controlled from any button on a keypad – not to mention iPhone, iPad apps etc. So a keypad in the bedroom can service all of your normal lighting needs (as well as being able to turn the bathroom on and off, but it can also be programmed to have a button for controlling house-wide lighting. Having a button by the side of the bed that can bring on the ground floor lights in the house, bring on the courtyard or simply bring on the front garden lights can really aid peace of mind. Put another way it can simply make it easier to make your way round the house at night.
Lighting Control Security Integration
A lighting control system can also be integrated with other custom home systems, including your security system, your gates, your automation system etc. This offers all sorts of possibilities. If your security system is triggered for any reason, the lighting control system can bring selected circuits on. It can disable the keypads meaning that you can choose to lock the lights on when an alarm is triggered until you reset the system. Because lighting control can be integrated with a wider home automation system with remote access, you can simply bring your lights on before you get home.
People use Lighting Control systems for many reasons; mood lighting, ease-of-use, energy efficiency and also security. The great thing about Lighting Control Security integration is that it requires little additional hardware. Careful design and programming can improve the security of your home.