Lighting Design for your smart home

In general, lighting can significantly influence the way we live in our homes. A properly thought-out lighting design that offers both functional and aesthetic lighting can genuinely create a feel-good atmosphere at the touch of a button. Today we’ll take a look at a few guidelines that we’d suggest you consider when thinking of lighting ideas for your smart home. Whether your plan is to have a lighting designer take care of this for you, or to work directly with a smart home installer, this blog is a good place to start.

Planning the right light

Lighting is probably one of the biggest influences on our well-being. Unfortunately, the lighting design of a new home is often not given the attention it deserves. Achieving the perfect combination of lighting products for your smart home is possible – but to achieve this you should be considering the lighting design at the planning stage of your build. You may find yourself thinking that light fittings are something you choose later on in the build but this is actually something you should be thinking about at an early stage as this could affect the wiring that is pulled.

It is advisable to plan where you’re going to want downlights or pendants – perhaps as your functional lighting, as well as where you’d want to have more decorative, ambient lighting – such as in coving or cornices. Getting this right during the planning stage reduces the potential need for cover-ups or last-minute changes to a dropped ceiling that has already been installed. Speak to your smart home installer about the various smart lighting options that you can incorporate in your home. You’ll need to think about what the room will be used for and what furnishings you’re likely to have. If you’re unsure about the layout at the planning stage, then speak to your installer about the option of individually addressable lighting.

A lighting design
suitable for all occasions.

If you’re planning a renovation, extension or self-build, surely you wouldn’t want lighting that is only either on or off. One of the most important features of truly smart lighting is that it can be adapted to suit different occasions. Consider lighting that is at least dimmable – and extend the lighting design to include colour changing lighting where suitable as well.

With lighting ‘moods’ you could change the look and feel of a room with a single click. Speak to your installer about having specific lighting moods configured in your smart home. These could turn on automatically based on the time of day, or you could scroll through them with ease via a single switch. To be able to achieve this level of functionality with your lighting, be sure your lighting design includes bulbs that are dimmable. That said, not all dimmable bulbs are the same. You should be aware that LED Spots, for example, might appear to be identical but their functionality could differ considerably which could further be influenced by how they are being controlled. We would recommend Loxone Lighting products as these have been developed specifically for use in smart homes.

Different light sources to set the scene

Keep in mind that to be able to set the scene with the lighting in your home, you’ll likely need a variety of different lighting sources. This is not an exhaustive list but as a rule of thumb, we recommend these three different lighting sources to be able to create the desired contrast, light levels and focal points for almost any occasion:

Ambient lighting

Consider this as the main lighting in a room. Ambient lighting would be the light fittings that provide the uniform lighting throughout a room without taking into consideration any focal areas. Ambient lighting would commonly be the grid-style layout of LED spots in the kitchen or the central pendant in a bedroom, for example.

Task lighting

This form of lighting is usually focused on specific parts of a room for when, as the name suggests, specific tasks are being carried out. This could be reading a book, getting dressed, putting on make-up, or cooking. For example, it would be useful to have a more concentrated source of light on a kitchen worktop. This could be achieved with LED Strip lighting beneath the upper row of the kitchen cabinetry.

Accent lighting

The third source of lighting we’d suggest you consider is accent lighting. This includes pendant lighting such as our LED Pendulum Slim which is ideal for over the dining room table or breakfast bar in the kitchen. These also allow you to create a focal point of lighting to draw attention to a specific piece of furnishing in the room.

Effortless, impressive light

An impressive lighting design that has been correctly implemented will allow you to effortlessly change the look and feel of a room. The ease of operating the lighting should be as impressive as the lighting itself. A truly smart home intelligently delivers the right amount of light in every room – taking into consideration the likes of motion, time of day, current natural light levels and more. In short, your home should know what lighting you need, when you need it.

In a smart home with Loxone, if you would like to take control and change the lighting mood for any reason, then you can simply tap on one of our specially designed touch switches. Your smart home installer will be able to commission lighting moods relevant to your combination of lighting sources, the room and how the room is used. Some solutions, such as Loxone, allow you to create additional lighting moods directly from within an app.

Quality lighting products

If you opt to go with Loxone for your light fittings, know that we’ve attached great importance to ensuring the quality of this product range so that you can be confident in using our lighting products to implement an impressive lighting design.

Millions of colours
For impressive and
effective lighting

A++
Energy Efficient

LED Technology
For low energy
consumption

3,000K
For perfect
Warm White light

25,000
Operating hours for
a long lifespan

Ra 80
For a natural
rendering of colour

1…100%
Smooth dimming
with Loxone Tree

Tree Technology
For maximum
flexibility

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