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Why automate your lights?
Well, to be honest, most of my house is automated, so it seemed the obvious thing to do.
There are lots of benefits in automating parts of your house, lighting in particular just makes life easier, lights coming on when you walk into a room is better than switching them on yourself! ....and because they turn themselves on, they turn themselves off too, so you can't forget!
Hopefully there is enough information here for most, but if (like me) you love detail, you'll find more information on my page http://www.yourmissus.com/lighting/
Cheers
-Dan
Well, to be honest, most of my house is automated, so it seemed the obvious thing to do.
There are lots of benefits in automating parts of your house, lighting in particular just makes life easier, lights coming on when you walk into a room is better than switching them on yourself! ....and because they turn themselves on, they turn themselves off too, so you can't forget!
Hopefully there is enough information here for most, but if (like me) you love detail, you'll find more information on my page http://www.yourmissus.com/lighting/
Cheers
-Dan
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Signing UpStep 1Installation
Ok, lets start at the light switches themselves.
Each room has either a double (two lights) or a single dimmer control mounted on the wall.
The pictures below show the dimmer control units mounted in the wall, you'll see they are still unfinished, I'm unable to find suitable looking knobs, like the simple white ones you get on a standard dimmer, so until I do, there are none.
These 'control units' look just like standard UK single blanking plates with variable resistors sticking out of the front, and that's because that is what they are!
Below are some pictures showing the insides of these units:
First the single dimmer.
You'll notice also that there is a small black device at the bottom of the unit:
This is a temperature sensor that I use to control the heating, it uses the same enclosure as the dimmer units and the same run of cabling, but they are two separate systems.
The double units are a bit more busy inside, but essentially just two singles in the same box.
Each room has either a double (two lights) or a single dimmer control mounted on the wall.
The pictures below show the dimmer control units mounted in the wall, you'll see they are still unfinished, I'm unable to find suitable looking knobs, like the simple white ones you get on a standard dimmer, so until I do, there are none.
These 'control units' look just like standard UK single blanking plates with variable resistors sticking out of the front, and that's because that is what they are!
Below are some pictures showing the insides of these units:
First the single dimmer.
You'll notice also that there is a small black device at the bottom of the unit:
This is a temperature sensor that I use to control the heating, it uses the same enclosure as the dimmer units and the same run of cabling, but they are two separate systems.
The double units are a bit more busy inside, but essentially just two singles in the same box.
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Could you Feed the dimmer Packs From a "Master Dimmer Pack".
It would work the same but if you wanted to turn all the lights off in your house you turn the master dimmer packs off?
one suggestion i have is for your manual system. you could go with a "manual override" routine, where you would have two buttons on each wall plate. one for shutting off the lights and one for turning them on at a pre-determined intensity.
you would have to run each control to your computer, which would be quite an ordeal given your setup, but with a good end result. you could simply push a button to turn off the lights when going to sleep, and if the system ever had a malfuntion in movement detection, an "on" button would be the perfect backup.
You can find it here http://www.milinst.com/DMX/dmxtext.htm
Thanks for your interest