Designing & Installing Devicebook Lighting

Introduction

This section is about designing Devicebook Lighting for a smart home, and subsequently installing devices. 

To learn about using Devicebook Lighting, see Using Devicebook Lighting

Designing Lighting

Lighting in any location of a room requires the use of any number and combination of Switches, Dimmers, Outlets, and Plugs. A variety of all of these types of devices are available in the Showroom.

Use smart Switches to replace existing switches to connect built-in light fixtures to the smart home. 

Use smart Dimmers to replace existing dimmers or switches to connect built-in dimmable light fixtures to the smart home.

Use smart Outlets and/or Plugs to replace existing outlets (or install new ones) to connect lamps and other plug-in lights to the smart home. 

Optional Feature Choices

Devicebook Lighting can be useful in any room in a home, but the optional features are best used in particular situations

When to use Motion-Based Lighting

Motion-Based Lighting uses Motion Sensors to detect when a location is occupied, and controls the lights appropriately.

Motion-Based Lighting is useful in most areas of a home. Indoors, it's especially useful in hallways and closets, and other locations that usually do not have windows, turning lights off automatically when the location isn't in use to save energy.

Note that this feature can be configured, as needed in a location, to be enabled only at night.

Note that you can install as many motion sensors as necessary in a room to provide full coverage. For large rooms, or rooms with objects or walls that break line of sight, it may be necessary to install multiple motion sensors for this feature to work properly. The room will be considered occupied if at least one motion sensor detects motion.

When to use Illuminance-Based Lighting

Illuminance-Based Lighting uses Illuminance Sensors to turn on lights in a location when it gets dark.

Illuminance-Based Lighting is useful in areas of a home that should always be bright. The most common locations for this are outdoor areas, such as yards and driveways, because brightly lit exteriors can serve as a deterrent both for unwanted garden pests as well as bad actors. With Illuminance-based lighting, the lights will turn on automatically when the exterior of the home becomes dark (as the sun sets, or as weather gets dark). In this case, you should consider pair Illuminance-based Lighting with a custom routine to turn lights off every morning when the sun rises, since this feature only turns lights on automatically, not off.

We do not recommend the use of this feature for most interior rooms, as it can cause lights to turn on when not necessary.

When to use both Motion-Based Lighting & Illuminance-Based Lighting

Combining the two features allows you to select the option "Motion-Based Lighting While Dark" for a location. This is the optimal feature for interior rooms such as Living Rooms, Kitchens, and Offices. The lights will turn on when the room is both occupied and dark, and will turn off when the room is no longer occupied.

Device Choices

The difference in usage between Switches, Dimmers, Plugs and Outlets is already explained above.

Special consideration should be taken into account when installing devices for outdoor or high-load use. The environmental rating, maximum current, and maximum load for all devices are listed in the detail page for all devices in Showroom.

For the optional features, notice that many Motion Sensors in Showroom also work as Illuminance Sensors, and thus a single device can serve both purposes in a room.

In general, we recommend using Wi-Fi Switches, Dimmers, Plugs and Outlets (as hard-wired and PoE devices are not currently available). Z-Wave in particular is not recommended because the number of Z-Wave devices that are required for a typical home will result in frequent Z-wave network bandwidth issues.

We highly recommend using Hard-wired or PoE motion/illuminance sensors.

See the Device Selection Guide for more information about the different communication protocols and recommendations on specific device models. 

Other Design Considerations

Lights are controllable and automatable per location in the home. Locations can only be defined at the time that you design the smart home, so it's important to consider the separation of locations. For example, if a particular bedroom's closet has lights that should have motion-based lighting separately from the lights in the main room, consider making the bedroom's closet a separate location in the home.

Installing Devicebook Lighting

Install smart Switches, Dimmers and Outlets following the manufacturer's instructions. Plugs can be plugged in to any existing outlet in the home. All such devices are generally wireless, so take care to reduce the number of obstacles between the devices and the Devicebook Hub (or the nearest repeater, in the case of Z-Wave). Metal enclosures and objects in particular can significantly reduce wireless communication quality.

Setting Up & Testing Lighting

Use House Check to set up all the devices in the home.

To verify that the lighting solution has been installed properly, use the Devicebook App to control each light in the home individually, each room, and then the entire home all at once. See the "Using Lighting" section to learn more about using the Lighting Solution.

For every room that has Motion-based lighting enabled, make sure the lights turn on when someone walks in the room, and stay on while the room is occupied. If the lights do not turn on when you walk in, make sure that the devices in the room are all marked connected in House Check. Then, make sure the motions sensors' view of the room is not obscured in any way.

For every room that has Illuminance-based lighting enabled, make sure the lights turn on when the room is dark. See the "Using Lighting" section to learn how to adjust the sensitivity of the illuminance sensors.