Since LED technology hit the market, consumer demand for landscape lighting has snowballed. LEDs’ efficiency-first M.O. is no strange news to today’s consumer. Manufacturers are answering this seam-busting LED hype with customized transformers that have anywhere from three to a dozen technological elements baked into them. The best part is that you can manipulate these directly from a smartphone, whether via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or cloud connectivity. Let’s explore how equipping lighting systems with these tech-infused capabilities can unleash elaborate lighting possibilities without adding stress to you and your clients’ workloads.
Benefits of Smart Outdoor Lighting
Smartphones allow you to order food, catch up on the latest episode of your favorite TV show, and budget for a European getaway. So, it should come with minimal shock that programming a landscape lighting system has been added to the list of things you can do right from the palm of your hand. This competitive market of convenience signals a crucial foothold for lighting professionals: fitting clients with an efficient landscape lighting system is easier than ever before.
As with shopping for complex, convenience-forward machines like televisions, sprinkler system controllers, and vehicles, it’s important that you choose the model best tailored to each client’s objective as opposed to the so-called best model. From basic and budget-friendly to maximum control and top-of-the-line, we’ll briefly identify the advantages of smart outdoor lighting as well as three smart systems that can suit a diverse range of means and needs.
Communicate from Anywhere
The reason why we belabor the ease and convenience factors behind app-controlled landscape lighting is because the comfort of managing lighting from a smartphone is unparalleled. Let’s say your client is stuck in traffic, but their children are already in their dimly lit home. With a simple swipe, a homeowner can achieve peace of mind by activating a preset flood light or uplight setting as a quick security measure. If a homeowner is on vacation and hasn’t made it home before the holiday, they can pull out their phone and match the occasion with a festive color. Some controllers even sync with voice controlled devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Nest so homeowners cleaning and preparing for a party can program customized landscape lighting themes without missing a beat.
Program Lighting Schedules
Forget anxiously peeking outside a window to gauge if it’s time to activate outdoor lights. Many smart controllers come with a timer that can be adjusted based on a specific location’s sunrise and sunset throughout the entire year. This especially comes in handy for clients who are away for extended periods and want their homes illuminated while the home is empty.
Customize Color Themes
By fashioning your clients’ homes with smart LED lighting, you’re gifting them with a personalized lighting palette that allows them to truly express their tastes. They can customize a silhouette of colors for winter holidays or dress their home in a red, white, and blue color scheme for the Fourth of July. As mentioned earlier, some models allow homeowners to implement preset themes, bypassing the need to adjust the settings manually every time.
Now that you have a general idea of what to expect with typical smart outdoor lighting systems, let’s delve further into three specific landscape lighting systems recommended by the pros at Lighting Warehouse.
Alliance bt
Alliance bt-enabled fixtures are for budget-conscious clients who want to add color enhancement to their landscape lighting system. These lights use integrated Bluetooth radio waves to communicate directly with your Apple or Android phone app. It is the most basic and inexpensive way for the non-tech-savvy to showcase their illuminated canvas without overcomplicating it with too many customized themes.
With the Alliance bt app, you can turn your lights on and off and change the color and lumens. The Bluetooth Power Meters show the total number of available watts as well as the percentage of capacity used. If a homeowner wants to add lighting to dark spots, they can easily see the possibilities.
- Grouping proficiency
- Dimming capabilities 0 – 100%
- Tunable white temperature options from 2700 K warm white to 4000 K bright white
- Preset color options (red, green, blue, purple, and orange) or any RGB colors from the provided color wheel
- Customized scenes from color variations (red and green for Christmas; purple and orange for Halloween or fall; and red, white, and blue for Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Memorial Day)
FX Luminaire Luxor
Not only is the Luxor system teeming with customization options, but it allows users more granularity in comparison to Alliance bt. The Luxor system is ultra-reliable as the fixtures communicate over the standard 2-wire path, leaving no impact to the existing Wi-Fi system. If a homeowner wants a change made to their programming, you can handle that directly from your office with Luxor’s free added cloud service. To give you a better grip of its user-friendly effectiveness, let’s quickly assess each component.
- On/Off button allows users to turn Groups or Themes on manually
- LAM wirelessly assigns FX LED fixtures with zoning and dimming technology to for up to 250 lighting groups
- Dimming capabilities 0 – 100%
- Customizable color palette can be easily assigned to fixture groups
- Users can create up to 40 custom preset lighting themes with 30,000 colors per scene within the Luxor App or the controller
- Voice controlled via Alexa
- Users can create programs that will be displayed on the schedule screen and allows for editing, adding, and deleting an event
The discerning headliner of FX Luminaire’s Luxor app is the customized themes option that allows homeowners to transform their outdoor spaces into any setting they desire, from a calming oasis to an entertainment hotspot. For instance, a user can create a BBQ theme with downlights at 100%, path lights at 80%, and uplights at 30% then save that particular setting for the next event. Preset themes can include Home, Away, and Entertain—with room for 37 additional themes!
Kichler Connects
Kichler’s smart control timer and Kichler Connects app work together to digitally control your landscape lighting with a smartphone, tablet, or voice-controlled home device in just minutes. Through the app, you can curate custom on/off schedules, sync multiple transformers, and use one-step, preset scheduling for easy set-up. Let’s break it down so you can get a clearer picture of the app’s advantages.
- Preset and custom lighting schedules
- Syncs with multiple transformers
- Voice controlled via Amazon, Alexa, or Google Home
- Easy set-up: simply plug in smart control timer, download Kichler Connects app, select to add the Smart Control Timer device to digitally control your landscape lights.
- Operates with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for cloud and location-based control, including astronomical scheduling to align with the daylight savings hours and the changing seasons
Kichler Connects’ ability to program with multiple transformers and voice controls aren’t the only components to punctuate the accessibility factor. The external antenna on Kichler transformers allows for long-range connectivity and control by extending the signal range from the transformer enclosure, supplying strong performance in more applications.
Don’t hesitate to contact our highly-trained Customer Service team for more information about how you can help your customers build, design, and renovate their homes through an efficient, top-tier landscape lighting system.
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