The Power of Centralized Lighting | Control 4 Panel

[@maxherman11]

I'd do it for sure, I think centralized lighting is overall better, it is just so cost prohibitive being often time 10x-20x the cost of just normal light switches, or even in my case, a Lutron RA3 system. I can't go spend $50k on lighting control, and neither can most people I imagine sadly. But I do believe it is fundamentally better aesthetically, and wiring wise.

[@Neubs-xv8tw]

Doing all control 4 centralized at our new build on Martha’s Vineyard! Contemporary keypads are gorgeous.

[@johngioffrebuilds]

Awesome!!!

[@rangerrecon]

"Reduces wire in the home" also "we have two miles of wire in the home". I'd love a centralized lighting system, but it just wasn't an option with my builder and didn't seem practical at ~3,500 sq. ft. I ended up going the IoT route and replaced all of my switches with z-wave, added a z-wave relay to the fireplace, integrated WiFi locks, setup geofencing and a Hubitat z-wave hub. It is all integrated with Homekit and Alexa, so now I have voice control over everything (even from my watch - anywhere in the world), automatic lighting when I enter a room (if it is dark), my garage door opens when I arrive home and lights turn on, etc. It really is an interesting change of lifestyle when you add home automtion.

[@johngioffrebuilds]

Man that is badass! You are completely set up. Thank you for watching!!!

[@protruth1]

can you share the rack manufacturer you are using and the components you installed in the rack?

[@marshalcotech]

Let me say something controversial: if a smart home is working well, I should not need 12 buttons for a single room. I have a simple HomeKit smart home with lightwave switches and things just work as expected! Lights dim depending on the time of day, react to certain devices switching on and off and that with the combination of motion and presence sensors work like magic. I usually don't even think about my lights, I don't press a "morning" button in the morning because the lights just have the correct dimming level based on time and light level. Same story with heating, yes it's awesome to be able to ask an assistant to switch the heating on/off, or have control panels showing you the humidity and temp levels per room. But in my house heating and temperatures is just not something I think about at all. It is always just right! I don't remember having to interfere or check the temps in the last 6 months, it is always set to what I like and does its job in the background. I think the ultimate smart home simply knows what you like and things just happen automatically .. maybe we are not there yet, but at least that should be the goal and not 100+ buttons per house, etc.

[@Andmon1738]

That can all be programmed to be automatic. The customer probably just wanted to individual control of different lights. But for sure it could all be programmed to not need buttons. The biggest difference between a C4 lighting system and HomeKit is this will work if wifi or LAN goes down. Like he mentioned the declutter of walls. Most homes will have 3 switches in a living room, can lights, fan lights, and a fan. 3 gang box. This system, only 1 gang is required to control all 3. Very clean.

[@marshalcotech]

@@Andmon1738 I'm sure it's a great and reliable system. That said, I don't remember the last time my wifi was down :) My biggest issue is how closed these systems are, everything is proprietary. I'm sure you would need to pay a 1000 to just add a simple motion sensor. I'm hoping you could build reliable systems like this in the future on Thread which you can extend as you wish. My other concern with these systems is their software ... they obviously can't compete with the software/apps, voice assistants and ecosystems of Google, Apple, Amazon products.

[@stuartnelson6059]

Great tech in a great house

[@johngioffrebuilds]

You’re a great human being. Thank you!

[@mattsargenti3695]

Dude this is incredible

[@johngioffrebuilds]

Dude YOU are incredible!! Thank you!

[@scotagonia]

Very cool!

[@johngioffrebuilds]

Thank you for watching!!

[@nsarvesh1012]

Very Interesting. Great Work.

[@the.last.florida.native]

Dude you sound exactly like Matt Farrah from The Smoking Tire 😂 Cool vid

[@luispineda4108]

How is workinng the switches, the leg still going in the plastic box or need to go to the cemtral panel?

[@gdude2189]

All the light loads go to the lighting panel. And you run communication wire to the key pads

[@Daniel-ve2sm]

Have you heard of Loxone?

[@jimmorrell3667]

Interesting to see how IoT is evolving

[@johngioffrebuilds]

Yes and it’s happening fast!!

[@smaterhomes]

what happens in this house for the lighting if the network dies? can you still use the switches the same way and the audio?

[@johngioffrebuilds]

Switches do not need network. You can still connect to speakers with Bluetooth if you do not have network.

[@smaterhomes]

@@johngioffrebuilds how do the switches communicate? So you wouldn’t have speakers since Bluetooth isn’t going to work well in a house

[@H0WL1TZER]

​@@smaterhomes serial comms

[@XudenGroupLLC]

The lighting control doesn’t rely on the network to function from the keypads.

[@mntoaz8840]

Most people don’t understand this shit. I’m working on a $30M house in Scottsdale, AZ. It’s mind boggling how much $ the elite make. Centralized lighting will one day become standard once these builders understand it. This rack looks OK but its missing lacing bars and they used zip ties which in my opinion is a No No. Plus they left a huge service loop on top which is ugly.

[@igorpoulter]

I just moved to Arizona too! Do you do this kind of smart home work with control4? I’m looking to get into something like this. I have low voltage experience

[@kevinromero651]

When I saw custom homes I trip out when I saw this I was amazed because I come from the automation background

[@Hollaback_Youngn]

Cool but not better than regular consumer smart home tech BUT very cool!

[@JordanDavid204]

Reduces wire in the home, meanwhile you need to run every light back to the panel… lmao. It is dope though, I want one but they won’t let me install and program it myself.

[@neraknerak]

this is the future but idk how do this haha

[@davemoritz2174]

I like tech but is this really needed? Do we really need our homes this complicated? And this possibly leading to people getting more lazy.