Builders are increasingly “seeing the light.” No, it is not a reflection of their attendance at church, but the growth in the offer and installation of lighting control in new homes.
According to new data from the “14th Annual State of the Builder Technology Market Study” conducted jointly by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), more than two-thirds of all homebuilders offered automated lighting controls as an amenity in their newly constructed homes in 2015.
That rate is nearly 20-percent higher than six years ago, when less than half of builders (49 percent) offered it. (see chart below.)
But it is not just the availability of lighting control that has increased; the percentage of homes that actually have it installed has also nearly doubled in just two years. In 2015, 11 percent of all new homes had lighting control. That is nearly double from the 6-percent penetration rate in new homes in 2013. (see chart below.)
Automated lighting control is defined in the survey as a system that allows for control and programming of two or more lights by a controller. Lighting control can be automated based on user specifications, time of day and pre-determined scenes.
Some other good news from the study is that the percentage of builders who do not see profit potential in automated lighting control fell to just 15 percent, and builders are seeing an increase in consumer demand for the technology. Among the builders who do not offer lighting control, 73 percent say it is because consumer demand is low. That figure is down from 77 percent in 2014.
Lastly, for the first time the study asked builders what type of interface their clients want to use to control their home lighting (as well as other subsystems). An app on a mobile device and the touchscreen tied for the most desired interface, with 64 percent of homebuyers preferring those two devices. Remote controls are preferred by 50 percent, while manual switches/buttons on the component itself are wanted by 30 percent of buyers. Lastly, website interfaces are preferred by 29 percent of new home buyers.
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