Lighting Control & Design Question

[anon2828]

I am not a dealer, but I was faced with the exact same dilemma in a new construction home just completed.  I have a full Control4 system with lighting and shades integrated.

I too was weighing the difference between panelized lighting and wireless lighting and based on discussions with my dealer and price points (and flexibility) I went with the wireless solution (Zigbee Control4 dimmers and keypads).

My main design criteria were as follows:

1) Did not want wall warts (switches) everywhere
2) Did not want piano style keyboards of 4,5,6 gang switches which I would fumble with all of the time (what does what?)
3) Wanted flexibility in terms of starting with a smaller number of lights controlled and then growing the system
4) Wanted to minimize electrical cost of running 3-way switch legs

Thus, we decided on logical places for dimmer switches throughout the home to control loads that were local in that area (kitchen, dining, living room, etc.) - but we minimized the number of switches to 1 or maximum 2 in each location - it looks very slick.

The rest of the lighting loads we put in the media closet.  We ended up with 16 loads for the 1st floor and outdoor areas in the media closet.  Each of those is now either a Control4 dimmer, or Control4 switch (on/off only).  There were other light intensive areas like a playroom / theater where we put 4 lighting loads in the closet in that room so we again would only have 1 keypad visible that could control the hidden switches.

In the rest of the areas of the home we either put a dimmer or a dimmer keypad (6 buttons).  The dimmer keypads allow us to control the local load as well as trigger lighting scenes and other loads that are in the media closet.  

So far in the real world it works wonderfully.  I had heard that putting lots of Control4 dimmers/switches in one area (the media closet) was a recipe for problems, but my dealer assured us we would be fine and we've had zero issues.

It takes a while to work out all of the kinks and get your scenes setup and decide on what buttons do what, but once it is done it works perfectly.

[Hood]

Thanks for sharing. My goals are almost identical to yours. Start with the critical ones...expand over time as desired...minimize wall plates. I’ll wait to see what info I get back on the pricing for a design that suits my floor plan.


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[South Africa C4 user]

My main house is all wireless. My beach house was built from scratch and the approach I followed (on my dealers advice) was to have a wireless dimmer or keypad at every point on a wall where I wanted a control and have that linked to one load.  All other loads were then sent to a panelised lighting solution.  My dealers view was that I was getting the best of both worlds here and that this was the most cost effective solution.  So far no complaints! I have around 40 keypads and another 100 or so circuits linked to 12 or 13 panels.

[anon2828]

Good lord, 40 keypads and 100 circuits - 12-13 panels!! - how big is your house (and are you renting out the beach house anytime)??  Your dealer must LOVE you.

[South Africa C4 user]

On 1/21/2019 at 10:13 PM, anon2828 said:

Good lord, 40 keypads and 100 circuits - 12-13 panels!! - how big is your house (and are you renting out the beach house anytime)??  Your dealer must LOVE you.

900 square meters and yes, Ive spent way too much on the build and my dealer so he should be pleased!

As for renting... nah...

[Hood]

For those still following this, it looks like the cost difference for the Control4 hardware is on the order of magnitude of $15-$75 higher per switch using wired instead of wireless (assuming MSRP).  This range is a function of how many dimmers vs switches you are using.  This does not include any cost of the actual electrical wiring or labor.  It also assumes that your are using the full capacity of the 2 slot panel (16) or 5 slot panel (40).  If you did not fully utilize it, the cost difference would be higher.

So, if you have roughly 16 light circuits that you want controlled by Control4, you would pay about $240-$1,200 more for the C4 hardware.  Again, this doesn't include any electrician labor or materials.  With the wired solution, you end up only running power cable to the keypads (in addition to the wiring to the actual light fixture).  With the wireless solution, you run power cables to the keypad AND the switches plus light fixture for each light circuit (locating them in a location out of sight).  You'd also need to consider a few dollars for the gang box and for extra sheetrock cuts with additional switches.  (Experts, please correct me if that's wrong)

Each project would need to understand the total cost difference to see if wired vs wireless made economic sense. 

Thanks to everyone that has helped with this discussion.  Now, I just need to decide if I want to hide switches or pay a small incremental cost to avoid that.  If I go with wired, part of me worries about equipment getting obsolete and not having an old school light switch at my disposal to control the lights.

[Pounce]

4 hours ago, Hood said:

 part of me worries about equipment getting obsolete and not having an old school light switch at my disposal to control the lights.

That's where I always land. My default at this time in the world is to put switches where a middle aged person expects them... and make them smart so you can control them sitting down.

Where I think relocating has a strong argument is where you would end up having a mess of switches in one place due to floor plan. Like an open floorplan typically ends up with a few key places where they cluster switches. Like a NASA command center. Or when you have a surface that wont take a switch like glass or where you need to put art.