House of the Month

Lighting

The top of Mr Richardson's convenience list is intelligent lighting, which is used throughout this home.

When the family walks in from the beach in the evening they enter through the kitchen and hit 'evening' on the touch screen, which activates half a dozen functional lights throughout the home. If they drive home, the lights along the drive are triggered by sensor and the kitchen light automatically switches on to greet them.

"The lighting control is one of the best things out of all the automation in buildings. Modern buildings have so many light fittings and being able to program scenes like pre-set dimming or evening party mode are indispensible. To be able to pre-set 50 lights at various dim levels is probably the most practical help you could get around the home, plus a good way to save electricity," says Mr Richardson.

Light modes the Richardsons use regularly include the "all off", "good night" and "standby power off".

"If we are upstairs watching TV before bed and don't feel like going downstairs to check if all the lights have been switched off, we just press the 'all off' switch on the DLT in our bedroom and all the lights go out.

"When we tuck the kids into bed we can press the 'good night' switch to turn off the bedroom and surrounding lights and switch on the step lights.

"The 'standby power off' switch is also great because it turns off all the electronic gear in the house, which helps to reduce energy use and our power bill."

Another option is a 'good morning' scene which wakes you up for the day by opening the blinds in the bedroom and turning on the radio next to the bed.