Simple on/off light switches are likely to become a modern antique in the next ten to twenty years. This may seem a bold statement to make, but if you live with a partner or children, you will be aware that they often have a tendency to leave more than a few lights on in areas that they are not using e.g. they go to the bathroom to use the toilet and leave the light and the fan on, and then they go to make a coffee in the kitchen and leave another light on.
This may seem just a minor annoyance, yet with recent electricity price increases in the United Kingdom rising by up to 16% over the next twelve months, all of those lights being left on add up to just one thing - Wasted money!
Yet we cannot always be there to turn the lights off after people, indeed this is such a problem, that in an average office some 75% of lighting use is just wasted lighting up empty offices.
These are the reasons why the humble light switch will be replaced over the next few years with intelligent automated lighting solutions rather than continuing to use our current on/off light switches.
So what is the future of home automated lighting likely to be? Well currently the latest systems on the market such as the grafik eye offer a large range of lighting that can be pre-set according to the mood you want to create, or the power you want to save. Once programmed such systems can shut down several sets of lights whilst turning on other sets, or dim one set of light whilst raising others, or any permutation thereof. Such systems currently use either wall mounted keypads or remote controls.
But what about the future? Well many cars now come with keyless ignition, and just sense when you are approaching the car and de-lock it, and prepare it for ignition at the press of a button with no key being inserted in the car.
Well for the future, then it is likely that home automated lighting systems will follow suit, with a very small micro device on your keys, or in a card in your wallet, and the lights around the house will turn on as you approach or enter a room, and turn off when you leave it. This is undoubtedly the future of automated home lighting and it is fast approaching.