Why Lighting Control Should be Part of Your Home’s Design

Often, people talk about a home feeling “dark.” Many factors play into this feeling, such as windows, window treatments, wall colors, ceiling heights, and even the weather outside. However, if that home had a well-designed lighting plan and the lights were appropriately layered, chances are you would have felt a feeling of spaciousness.

Such is the power of light – it influences us. If you are building a new home or remodeling, lighting should be a critical design consideration.

What’s the solution? Bring in a home lighting control and design expert into your next Bonita Springs, FL residential project. Read on to see how AVL Pro can help.

SEE ALSO: What’s the Best Way to Integrate Smart Home Technology?

Plan Early

If you've worked with an interior designer or other design professional, you know they look at the electrical plan of a house. Often, they want to make changes, adding new electrical outlets and lighting not included in the original plan. At an early point in the building process, this is not difficult. When the home is nearing completion though, redoing electrical wiring is an expensive rework. Similarly, cutting into ceilings, walls, and other areas to install additional lighting is far more costly after drywall and other infrastructures are up.

AVL Pro is experienced in working with architects, designers, and builders to incorporate all types of lighting in a home, inside and out. We become an integral part of the design team, helping to specify lighting fixtures and controls that fit your needs, your budget, and interior décor preferences. We work with high-end lighting brands like Cooper Lighting, Tech Lighting, and Juno to source unique fixtures, downlights, pendants, sconces, and architectural accent lights to cover all your interior illumination needs. With AVL Pro on the team, your lighting is customized to your home and your desires, rather than you conforming to a standard lighting approach.

Integrate Lighting Control

Lighting control is one of the most requested smart home features, and with good reason. It brings greater convenience and precision of control to a home's lighting and also helps save energy and increase fixture life. The other critical aspect it brings is aesthetics. Lighting control can create lighting scenes for any activity and light level, making every space in your home work seamlessly with your home's design and décor.

With multi-layered lighting in a room, you don't need a large bank of switches and dimmers, each controlling one load. A Lutron Lighting Control System utilizes a central processor for load control in an out-of-way central wiring area, and the wireless wall-mounted keypads are strategically placed for convenience. Moreover, you get a choice of styles and colors that fit with your décor. They can be custom programmed to control an array of lights with one touch and are custom engraved so you know exactly what each button does.

Are you wondering if you’ll need to cede individual light control without an old-fashioned switch? You can have that control in a large wall panel, a touchscreen interface, or an app on your smart device. Lighting control lets you customize scenes and tweak light levels to your liking, without standing next to a wall switch. With smart home control systems like Control4, your lighting control can be combined with smart climate control and automated window treatments for even greater style and comfort.

Don’t Forget the Outside

Planning is critical for outdoor lighting, too. Are you planning to install a pool and hardscape patio? You need to prepare for lighting those areas, as well as landscape lighting. This may require a combination of line and low-voltage wiring that needs to be laid as the infrastructure. Some outdoor lighting systems like Coastal Source use unique cabling systems that let you plug in different types of lights for landscape and other purposes. To minimize disruption, planning early in the building process makes it far easier to install the external lighting systems without digging up hardscape and landscape later.

Let AVL Pro be your expert lighting partner for your next home project. Get in touch with us using our online form or chat with us by clicking the box below. We can’t wait to hear from you.