Residential LED Lighting | Eye Dialogue

E y e D i a l o g u e

Residential LED Lighting

Home
Design | Build
• Lighting Installation
Production
• Rental Catalogue
Contact
About Us

In the News
Press Releases
• Picture Book '10
• Picture Book '09
• Picture Book '08
• Picture Book '07
• Picture Book '06
• Picture Book '05
Light Jockey

Color Kinetics Provides Color Changing Illumination for a Private Residence in Charlotte

LED's Go Home Residential Color Changing Led Lighting Lighting Dialogue by Brian Barker \| Photography by Lindsay Birmingham July 2009 \| Private Residence \| Charlotte NC
Installation by Eye Dialogue	Lighting Design by Barbizon Charlotte

Equipment list: 60 Color Kinetics iColor Cove MX Powercore LED 1 Color Kinetics Color Blast 12	1 iColor Player 1 Crestron Interface

With the cost of color changing lighting becoming more affordable, there have been a surge of new residential applications. More and more fixtures are being geared toward architecture and user friendliness. Charlotte, North Carolina is trying to take advantage of this new market. Where a cove LED fixture would have cost five-hundred dollars each, prices have now dropped more than seventy-five percent. Not to mention the energy cost savings of replacing conventional fixtures with LED’s. Just such an example is a five thousand square foot home in South Charlotte’s residential neighborhoods, installed by Eye Dialogue and integrated by Barbizon Lighting Company's Charlotte Office. “We have parties every now and again. We want to have some cool toys to show off,” says the homeowner. With the new generation of LED’s available, a great impression can be made without breaking the bank. Diodes are becoming more powerful, precise and programmable. One of the best features of this system was that it was able to tie into the Crestron Control System. This is a wireless system that uses a touch screen LCD paddle to control key features of a home: TV, Radio, Thermostat and Dimmable Lighting. Here, installers were able to program a number of preset scenes that can be recalled by the touch of a button anywhere in the house. Another option would be to have wall-mounted push button stations a simple as flipping a light switch. This homeowner was more into the high-tech. The group decided to use Color Kinetics iColor Cove MX Powercore fixtures, not only because of the programming compatibility with the Crestron System, but because this new generation of cove fixture has many lens options to fit tricky architectural designs and a maximum power consumption of 12 watts. These fixtures easily fit into hollow crown molding coves. The lighting consisted of three areas of the home: Hearth or family room, a large stairwell turret, and the master bathroom. The family room was comprised of twenty-four fixtures neatly angled in the coves to climb up a textured wall. Warm ambers and red complimented the antiqued wooden beams. A single Color Blast 12 was positioned high above the fireplace in order to center the room and give life to the stacked stones.

“We love the stairs. We could see it through the windows all the way from the street,” said a guest for a nighttime event. The stairwell turret is a favorite of all who pass through. It creates a ring of light that will illuminate the entire area. “It was difficult to both scale the ceiling and spill light to other areas in such a tight space, but the narrow lens iColor Cove fixtures were perfect,” said Andrew Fisher, System Integrator for Barbizon Charlotte. Last is the master bathroom, which is a personal favorite of mine. The homeowner built the bathroom with a hand-painted mural on the walls and vaulted ceiling above the bathtub. He had a vision of what he wanted for the lighting and once again the iColor Cove won out. Only this time the medium angle lens was used to wash a blanket of light through the vaulting and still give some ambient light in the center of the room. The mural with a nature scene and puffs of white clouds above were perfect for the color mixing of the LED’s. Light blues, pinks and greens worked best as the white clouds would blast through the more subtle schemes. Also a deep red throughout made for a rich, otherworldly atmosphere. This new market of intelligent lighting will help in bringing LED costs down even further as the manufacturers tailor more products to fit residential needs. Design will also be forced to get more creative in such unique and varied spaces. As costs fall and quality rises, LED’s are becoming a more efficient, more functional and well, cooler looking option for homeowners. We hope to see a lot more in the future.