Thomas Lane, Smart Home Product Manager at Aurora Lighting, speaks to PHPD about the benefits of smart lighting and the ways in which it can be introduced to a new home.
How would you define ‘smart’ lighting for a new home?
Smart lighting enables homes to become more efficient and personal to your lifestyle using automated controls. This is achieved using smart lamps that can provide millions of colours, change from cool to warm white, or be dimmable and configured to create your morning mood, your homecoming schedule and your cinema ambiance.
What are the benefits of a smart lighting system?
The biggest impact is on energy savings. Scheduling lighting to only be on when you need it will obviously reduce electricity bills. Aurora’s Smart lighting can be turned on and off via the AOne app, meaning that you have control and the convenience of adjusting it even when not in the home. Simulating your presence using schedules also offers peace of mind while you are away.
An additional benefit when using Aurora’s AOne range is that you don’t even need to change your lights. All that is required is an inline dimmer or relay and a hub. To create a smart space or room link the room’s circuits into the dimmer, which just needs to be wired in between the first fitting and switch. The dimmers can be installed in-line between the switch and first light, or individually, in a matter of minutes and there’s no extra wiring required.
This means that housebuilders can include Aurora AOne products both in the original design stage as well as add smart lighting into a proposal when looking to add value to a project. Other advantages are:
Schedule Lighting
Pre-set your lighting to turn on or off and dim at certain times of the day. Gradually brighten your lights with a cooler colour temperature to wake you up in the morning, and schedule your lights to a warmer colour temperature when you wind down in the evenings.
Set your Scenes
Group your home and garden lighting into different scenes, allowing on or off control, dimming and colour changing functionality. Pre-set the AOne App with a range of moods for different occasions and control with the touch of a button or your voice*. (*Voice control available with suitable hardware.)
Create your Mood
Bring your garden to life by installing colour changing smart lamps in your outdoor fixtures. Set scenes to control the colour and brightness, depending on your mood, occasion or the season.
Smart Sensors
Configure your devices on the App to control lighting by movement detection, occupancy sensing, lux levels and doors opening. Set your bathroom lighting to come on automatically at reduced brightness during the night, so you don’t wake up the family.
Automate your Scene
Install an AOne Smart Door Sensor on the back door, and connect it to your garden lights to automatically come on when you go outdoors in the evenings.
Smart Power
Control your household appliances from your phone by installing the AOne Smart Socket or Plug In Adaptor, whilst also benefiting from live energy monitoring. Schedule your heaters to come on at a certain time, or lock the socket in the children’s bedroom to ensure they are not playing games late at night.
Take Control – Home Comfort and Convenience
Wire the AOne Rotary Dimmer into your existing circuit for full smart control over all your dimmable light fixtures.
What levels of interest are you currently seeing for the Aurora AOne product range?
Aurora’s AOne is reaching housebuilders, specifiers, contractors and consumers through social media and our brand new website and shows no sign of slowing down. Contractors are finding the system easy to install, is affordable for their Smart conscious homeowners and are keen to learn more through the free Smart Installer Training Programme.
The Smart Installer Training Programme is going around the UK and training contractors in how to create a new design and how to retrofit smart lighting for their customers. All free of charge.
In order to include the system, would a developer need to incorporate additional wiring during the electrical first fix?
No, this is one of the great things about Aurora’s AOne range. Because it is all retrofit it can be installed without additional wiring. Of course, the range can be part of the original design and we have trained sales people ready to discuss small and large scale estates.
Is AONE solely for lighting, or can it be incorporated into other areas, such as power and security?
The AOne range includes a Smart Double Socket allowing you to control your household appliances and also Door/Window sensors that offer peace of mind.
Can the system be added to over time?
Absolutely. A hub can operate with up to 40 devices and so a first install may be specific to a living room or a garden and can then be added to when the homeowner chooses.
Do you offer a design service – to help housebuilders achieve desirable lighting solutions throughout a new home?
Our fully trained AOne Installers are proficient in helping customers to design their lighting spaces, scenes and schedules.
How soon in the future do you predict that all new homes would feature ‘smart’ options for lighting and home control?
Including smart features in showhomes and new builds is the way that smart thinking housebuilders are going. Everyone is looking for that USP and Aurora’s full product range gives that edge to the market.
