The case for
smart lighting
Smart lighting used to mean a premium fixture in every ceiling. With three fixture families to choose from, it can now cost about the same as the lighting it replaces.
Some years ago Lutron acquired Ketra, a manufacturer of IP-based smart light fixtures. Ketra does a great deal well: a natural daylight mode that follows the sun, a Vibrancy mode that intensifies color, dimming that fades smoothly to black, and the freedom to zone fixtures any way the homeowner wants. Its weakness has always been price. Not many projects can carry a downlight that costs more than five hundred dollars in every ceiling.
Lutron's answer was to add two more families to its smart lighting range: Rania and Lumaris.
Ketra, Rania and Lumaris
Rania is as close to Ketra as a fixture gets, with one significant difference: no color channels. It is strictly tunable white. Since most people who chose Ketra did so for tunable white rather than color, that is hardly a trade-off. Without the red, green and blue channels Rania also has no Vibrancy mode, the feature that brings out art. But because Ketra and Rania share the same form factor, the logical design is Ketra where art is shown and Rania almost everywhere else.
Lumaris has an even lower price point. The trade-off is that its white light does not follow the ideal white curve as precisely as Ketra and Rania, so it is not always perfectly white, although it stays well within the parameters of high-quality lighting.
What it costs
Lutron studied the numbers across several scenarios. A project using only Ketra fixtures came out about twenty percent above a traditional lighting system, labor included. A project blending all three families came out on par with a traditional system, or below it, once the dimming equipment and the electrician's labor and materials were counted. It also needed fewer lighting panels in the closet.
So the result is a lighting system with tunable white, vibrancy for art and finishes, flexible zoning, fade-to-black dimming and color where it is wanted, for roughly the budget of standard lighting that offers only warm dimming.
Why it matters
If you are building or renovating, you are investing in every finish: the stone, the timber, the plaster, the art. The quality of the light decides how all of it is seen. With three fixture families to mix, the best light is no longer reserved for the biggest budgets.
To see the difference in person, book a visit to our Chelsea showroom, or write to us at info@theautom8group.com for a complimentary consultation.