Switched on: How your lighting controls elevate your home's design
Switches on the go. Philips' Hue Tap Dial Switch, €52, lights.ie.
Rocker, toggle, dial or pull, touch, one-way, two-way, intermediate, or smart control. Your light switches are right up in your eyeline and under your fingers several times a day.
They might seem like a small second-fix feature — but both their style and performance type will make a real difference to the success of your complete lighting design.
Consider lighting controls as part of the room’s more discreet jewellery, with a continuity to the wider aesthetic detailing. Here’s just a few things to get you turned on to the brighter potential of light operation.
First of all, for physical switches, let’s think positioning. How you normally enter and move through the room or corridor. What you use the area for will throw light on exactly where your switches should be. Their placement is part of the home’s logical pedestrian flow.
Building new, renovating, or extending, a full lighting plan developed at an early stage is absolutely vital. Gangs are quite simply the number of switches on the face plate fixed to the wall. Ways are the number of switches set around the room controlling each individual light fixture. If you have one switch on one plate, it’s a one-gang, if you have three, it’s a three gang.
In some cases, with multiple approach points, there should be two switches per light — termed two-way. Two-way switches are not just for rangy open-plan spaces, longer halls, and staircases (where they make obvious sense to handle the variety of flow through the area).
Think about your master. Being able to, say, turn off the central pendant light in bed or operate the lighting around your bed from the doorway — think two-way. If you have a special combination of switches to consider, talk to your electrician or lighting designer about modular grid-switches to build something out into smart, sophisticated controls and read-outs.
Obviously, the more gangs and ways per plate, the more circuits it will entail and the more complex the wiring. Ensure you budget for the extra expense from your electrician — but make best use of that skilled trade while you have them there in the house doing that reno’ or any first and second electrical work.
The switch height should always be future-proofed, easily reached from a wheelchair — 450mm to 1,200mm depending on your needs. Your electrician, lighting designer and/or architect will advise on exactly where the switches are best suited for entering any space. If the electrician has something to say about a set layout or wiring issue (even at the point of second fix) — listen to them.
In the bathroom, wall mounted, face-plate switches will always be outside the door and influenced by which way the door swings. If you have your lighting switch on a two-way switch for the bathroom, and the switch for say the electrical underfloor heating, fan, or electric shower is on the same plate, mark the appliance switch clearly with a visual signal — they are available with a red highlight.
Ceiling-mounted pull switches (including two-ways to match to a switch outside the door) can be used in bathrooms and wet-rooms, as they remove you from the electrical circuit. Look for varieties with decorative ceiling plates or interesting pulls.
Stepping out to a balcony or patio, outdoor switches (large rockers under a transparent plastic shroud) must be dedicated outdoor IP66 switches, impact resistant with full weatherproofing.
Switch types start with rockers (interrupters) and toggles. These common switches are not designed for dimming but can be combined with the right light fixtures to cycle through a variety of light temperatures and brightness with repeated pushes (popular in bathrooms).
Rockers can be large, low-profile, skinny and very linear in more contemporary designs. Toggles, known affectionately as dollies, are more present tiny, manual levers, often with a small ball to the end. They offer more of a physical, steam-punk “snap”. Toggles are ideal for an Edwardian vintage finish or something with a gentle industrial atmosphere. They are not necessarily old-fashioned or whimsical.
Your choice of rocker or toggle matched to the wall plate (the flat part of the fixture) will deliver the whole look. It’s well worth considering replacing the switches and their integrated wall plate when redecorating, as over time plastic and plated varieties do wear and date.
Character rockers and toggles are easy to find if you’re sick of standard brushed chrome, brass or white, and buying from a reputable supplier a Barbie pink switch is just a few euro more. Black is trending right now, but it’s up to you to either pick a stand-out colour and/or texture in the complete plate and switch, matching it to the hardware of your doors and other metallics if you prefer.
If you like your light controls to sit slightly flush to the wall — go for specific low-profile switches and face plates. If you’re forced to use the framing of the door or a very narrow space for the switch, look for a narrow, vertical architrave, rocker switch.
Dimmer switches come in a choice of gang switches just like rockers and toggles, just keep in mind you need dimming capable bulbs. These are brilliant for rooms with multiple roles, where you want to set that chic mood as the evening draws on.
Dim artificial light can blend discreetly with natural ambient light, and for living rooms with spots and pendants, their inclusion makes perfect sense. Dimmer switches can work off the same plate with a rocker or toggle for another light, but check with your electrician if you’re using more complex choices like intermediary switching. Engine turning is a lovely touch to the edges of dimmer dials, also making them easier to hold under the tips of the fingers.
For the urgent minimalist, flush, touch-switches will appeal for their completely smooth operating surface and are often detailed into smart lighting plans. They do carry extra expense and will require a little more attention from the sparky.
They look especially lovely in tempered glass (so easy to swipe clean) and often include a small lick of LED light to guide your reach. Smart switches detailed from your wi-fi network can operate the lighting prone from your phone, tablet or a suitable remote, and the physical switch can be set on the wall, on the counter or carried around the house.
Linked to voice command app control, this style of switching is extremely useful for anyone with a physical challenge — just ensure any new switch is compatible with your chosen platform, say Alexa or Google Home.
Smart, app-enable switches are equally useful for appliances, and remote control and programming to whip their run times into shape. Together with sophisticated mains devices, smart features are an affordable consideration for retrofitted, wireless lighting that you’re juicing up with a USB cable or small rechargeable unit. Check those specs.
Some smart lighting can be easily introduced with a smart plug for instant mains performance — no wiring required. I would always recommend wireless floor, table, or wall lighting that you can also flip on with a manual on-device switch. We all know phones and tiny remotes will be regularly ingested by the couch.
One of the primary advantages of smart switches lighting in general, is that they can be programmed easily to perform a variety of other duties. This might include monitoring your energy usage to simple timing services (say coming on after dark or going off after a period to keep your lighting bills down) to carrying out a sly and random algorithm of lights appearing around the house to suggest you are at home when you’re not.
Ensure what you buy is compatible with other devices if you’re building out a whole-house smart network, and you intend your security system to sing with the primary lighting inside and out.
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