Lutron Smart Connected Lighting Solves Problems

When building a new home or renovating and existing home sometimes the location of the light switches doesn’t work well or efficiently and changes need to be made.  Moving hard wired light switches can be costly but sometimes using wireless Smart Light Switches like Lutron’s Caseta and Radio Ra can solve the problems economically without the expense of ripping open walls and costly re-wiring.

We recently met a home owner who wanted to automate their kitchen cabinet lights and outdoor lights along with adding a three way switch for the garage interior lights.

The kitchen lights were wired to a single gang double switch along with two other light switches into a 3 gang box.  The outside lights were wired as a traditional 3-way hardwire configuration and the garage lights were wired on a single gang on/off switch.  The home was brand new and the basement was finished so re-wiring the hard wired switches was not an option.

Doyle from Ion Security was hired and tasked with the plan of Automating the Kitchen and Exterior Lights and making the garage lights work on 3-way switch.  No additional wiring was to be added and all the all the new switches had to fit into the existing wall boxes.

Using Lutron Caseta Smart Light Switches along with an Ion Smart Home Control Panel, Doyle was able to configure the kitchen lighting to provide Smart Lighting Control to the kitchen under cabinet lights.  Some minor rewiring and the installation of a Lutron Caseta Smart Hub Pro, Light Module and Pico controller enabled the home owner to control the under cabinet lighting with the wall mounted switch in addition to having the lights automatically turn on and off on a schedule as well as be activated by a motion sensor through the Ion Smart Home Alarm System.

The next job was to automate the outside lights.  Once again replacing the existing 3-way switch with a Lutron Smart Switch and Pico allowed Doyle to integrate the outside lights into the alarm system and then automate them to work with schedules, rules and even turn on automatically if the security system is triggered.

The last problem to tackle was the installation of a 3-way switch to control the garage lighting where no 3-way switch or 3-way wiring existed.  Using a Lutron Caseta Smart Switch and 4 Button Pico Controller.  Ion was able to convert the existing single pole switch into a 3-way switch and thanks to the 4 button Pico controller both the outside lights (also a 3 way) and the inside garage lights were able to be controlled by a single 4 button switch inside a single gang junction box.

Once all the Lutron Smart Switches were installed they were PAIRED with the Alarm System and automation rules and schedules were set up to allow the home owner to automate their lights and save energy costs.

With the Ion Smart Home Alarm system the kitchen lights turn on automatically in the morning when the motion sensor is activated and then turn off automatically once the sun comes up.  The outside lights turn on at sunset and off at dusk and the Garage Lights and Kitchen lights automatically turn on when the home owner approaches the home or when the garage door is opened.  The Ion Smart Home Alarm panel knows when it is daylight or night and also knows when the home is occupied or empty and adjusts the lights and schedules to maximize energy savings. One additional feature of the integrated Smart Lighting is the ability for the Alarm System to Turn ON the lights in the event of a Fire or Burglar Alarm.

Smart Lighting and Home Automation can be complicated and confusing.  If you would like more information on affordable, hassle free Home Automation and Smart Lighting that just works, give Ion Security a call 780-489-5522.