Scene Control in Home Automation

Using scene control provides enthusiasts with one of the biggest advantages of home automation systems - convenience. Automation scene programming allows you to pre-program multiple scenes that can include different lighting levels and music selection. You don’t have just one mood, so why should your home environment have just one atmosphere?

Controlling Lights With Scene Controllers

Using multiple button scene controller panels, touch screens, or desktop controllers, customized pre-set lighting levels can be assigned to different buttons to change ambiance for different activities. Panel buttons might be configured as:

• “Away” - turn all lights to 25% power when you’re away from the house.
• “Party” - turn on lights near walls to 75% power while reducing overhead lights to 25% power.
• “TV” - lower lights on the wall opposite the TV to 50% power while turning lights near the TV completely off.

Scene controller panels provide the convenience of having multiple pre-set lighting configurations at your fingertips. Some manufacturers of scene control panels include Cooper, Intermatic, Leviton, On-Q, Smarthome, and Wayne Dalton.

Scene controllers are available in INSTEON, Z-Wave, ZigBee, and X-10 technologies.

Scene Programming Additional Devices

While the most common devices managed through scene control are lights, any device that is part of your home automation network can become a controlled event. Examples include automatically controlling home thermostats, window shades, fireplaces, home theater systems, external doors, and ceiling fans.