Panelised Lighting - yes or no?

[South Africa C4 user]

I am (finally) starting to build an 800 square metre holiday home (beach house) in the new year (the planning has been going on for over a year and it will be good to see foundations!).  Obviously going for Control4 for the automation.

One thing that I don't know / understand is panelised lighting.  Should I be using it or should I be sticking with zigbee? My dealer says panelised is a waste of time.  He may simply not know the product...

So what I am asking is which way should I go (and why?)?

Thanks in advance.

[eddy.trochez]

There's no difference between the two of them in terms of functionality. They both will do the work equally. Panelized will allow you to reduce wall acne. The kitchen is usually a very good example. Instead of having 4 or 5 dimmers on the wall, you can have only one keypad with your scenes. Keypads in panelized are wired, but keep in mind that you still need to add a few Wireless Configurable Keypads around the property to help the ZigBee network. Control4 panelized system requires a certification, so if your dealer is not certified, he can't install the system for you. Panelized is more expensive than Wireless. You will get different opinions, but in reality is that one is not better than the other, both systems are great.

[South Africa C4 user]

2 hours ago, etrochez said:

There's no difference between the two of them in terms of functionality. They both will do the work equally. Panelized will allow you to reduce wall acne. The kitchen is usually a very good example. Instead of having 4 or 5 dimmers on the wall, you can have only one keypad with your scenes. Keypads in panelized are wired, but keep in mind that you still need to add a few Wireless Configurable Keypads around the property to help the ZigBee network. Control4 panelized system requires a certification, so if your dealer is not certified, he can't install the system for you. Panelized is more expensive than Wireless. You will get different opinions, but in reality is that one is not better than the other, both systems are great.

Thanks... that is useful.  In my current setup, wall acne was reduced by hiding switches / dimmers in cupboards... not quite as neat as the panelised approach... 

Having read your post, I suspect my dealer is not certified for a panelized installation!

[RAV]

There's more failsafe with traditional wiring and wall dimmers.

With proper design, each location is a switch. If aliens steal the processor, you still have working lights throughout the house. Yes the panelized has a backup plan with wired over ride switches, but not quite the same thing.

Also once panelized, always panelized, and the world is certainly leaning to wireless. You may have more options in the future to replace a zigbee distributed system, once panelized you're limited with fewer replacement options should things go bad.

Again it depends on how many switches, and load types. Lots of outdoors, portrait lights, accents, etc than panelized has more advantages physically.

Take a look at your plans. Place keypads by all the doors, then attach each main room load to a keypad. How many loads are left over that you need to find a place for their dimmers?