The Surprising Benefits of Home Lighting Automation

When you think of home lighting automation, do you think of it as a luxury?  It is arguably a luxury to have it, but it has other benefits besides simplified and automated control of your indoor and outdoor lighting. The first tangible benefit is energy efficiency. Lighting control helps you light areas when needed and save energy when you don't.  Also, fine adjustment through precise dimming control helps with energy efficiency.

But another benefit to lighting automation exists that isn’t talked about as much. This benefit is enabled by modern LED lighting technology. Newer LED lighting allows for tunable white light, which is the ability to shift light from cooler (bluer) shades to warmer (amber and red) tones, mimicking daylight and sunset lighting. Color temperature was available in the past with specific bulbs, but they were fixed - if you picked a daylight shade, you were stuck with that all the time. LED tunable white light lets you vary the hue and intensity all along the color spectrum.

Even better, some LED lighting has a wide spectrum of color. You can have blue, red, green, or custom color lighting – dim or bright. There are both fun and useful aspects of this capability, but tunable white light has unexpected benefits in health and mood as well.

We are proud to offer Ketra lighting, the leader in tunable lighting. Moreover, Ketra is now part of Lutron, the leading home lighting automation vendor, so now you can automate and control your lighting for the best effects in your New York home.

Ketra’s scientists found that humans enjoy a “warm dimming” effect since it emulates how bluish, cool daylight transitions to an amber sunset. If you ever use “night mode” on your smartphone, you are using this same concept. The warmer tones of this mode help relax you more than brighter bluish light, so you don't overdo your screen time and keep yourself awake later at night.

How can Ketra tunable light make your home a little happier and healthier? Read on to learn more.

SEE ALSO: 7 Benefits of Lighting Control and Motorized Window Treatments

 

A Mood Ring for Your Room

The New York Times has compared Ketra lighting to a “mood ring for your room.” Lighting hue and intensity has been known to affect circadian rhythms. You can choose bluer, brighter daylight tones for daytime lighting, and warmer tones in the evening, and even progressively dim and change them gradually to ease you into the night.

As Ketra is part of Lutron, it integrates fully with sophisticated lighting automation like the Lutron Homeworks QS system. Lutron systems give you wide latitude to manage your lights, through smartphone apps, elegant wall-mounted keypads, voice control, schedules, or integration with other smart home automation systems.

The Right Light Everywhere

Tunable lighting creates opportunities to showcase your home at its best. In a house with large windows, you can match the daylight in specific areas that need light.  Brighten the kitchen for cooking in the evening, and use daylight hues to blend in perfectly throughout the day. In a home theater or media room, warm dimming and color capabilities create just the right ambiance for an immersive experience.

Tunable light can bring out the detail in your décor as well. If you have a unique green veining in your carefully-chosen kitchen island granite, color tuning will effortlessly accentuate it. Put the spotlight - gently - on a hand-painted mural in an inset wall arch. The possibilities are endless for you and your designer.

We will point out that Ketra is not the only choice in tunable lighting.  Longtime lighting companies like USAI also make warm dimming and color-tunable lighting, offering a variety of fixtures like the BeveLED line that offers beautiful solutions for illumination and accent lighting.

Make your lighting fit your space, aesthetics, and mood with tunable home lighting automation. Call us at (914) 422-0071, or reach out to us here. We look forward to working with you.