Scenes, scenes, and scenes.

Stop wandering throughout the house to push individual switches, or hold each dimmer down for 5 seconds to get the light level you want.  Make it a one-touch control experience.

Keep in mind that any scenes can be triggered in a number of ways, such as via button presses on a lighting keypad, remote controls, automation system mobile apps, occupancy sensors, key fobs, etc.

"Arrive" scene that turns on a pathway of lights to your Living or Bedroom,  and adjusts the temperature from the moment you walk from the Garage.

"Away" scene that turns off all interior lights, TV's, music, fireplaces, lowers shades, and adjusts the temperature.

"Goodnight" scene that turns off all interior lights except for the Kitchen under-cabinets and hallway kick lights (on at 20% brightness).

"Entertain" scene that sets the mood by lowering the shades, dimming the Great Room, Kitchen, Foyer, and Dining Room lights to the perfect levels, turns on the fireplace, queues music to play throughout.

The most important takeaway here is that the smart lighting system can be configured exactly how you want to fit your daily routines and make your life easier.

If you are a big DIY kind of person when it comes to technology, then these systems probably are not for you.

The products we offer are from premium home automation brands that we trust.  These controls have the most reliable and advanced dimming capabilities.  They are also designed to scale to any size of home, including extremely large custom homes. 

The premium lines we offer also have button engraving options.  We include this as a standard on almost all projects Savant and Control4 projects.  The lighting keypad buttons then have a backlit label of their scene or function.

Most importantly, these are the products that help form a foundation that truly feels integral to the home, and not a gimmicky afterthought.  Quality counts, and our lighting product offerings are at the best in the industry.

A local switch or dimmer would take the place of a light switch.  The dimming and control of the light load, or the light fixture(s) connected to that switch, takes place within the switch or dimmer itself.

A centralized (or panelized) dimmer is located in an electrical panel.

The lighting panel is proprietary in the case of Lutron and Control4, where it is designed to house their specific multi-channel dimmers.  This means that there is a block, or dimming module, that can control several connected loads of lighting.  The lighting panels can contain multiple dimming modules.  

Savant uses standard electrical sub panels to house the dimmers.  Each dimmer controls 2 loads of lighting and occupies 2 breaker slots.

Centralized dimmers require that a separate control local to the room can operate them.  Generally, this is a low voltage (24V DC) lighting keypad in the location where a light switch would have been otherwise.

The primary advantage is the aesthetic appeal. 

Suppose in your kitchen you have recessed ceiling lights, island pendants, two sets of under-cabinet lights, and a sink accent light.   That would be 5 total light switches in a switch bank on the wall.  Centralized lighting allows for consolidation of those light switches down to a small keypad the size of a single switch, but with multiple buttons.  These buttons can control the individual loads, or lighting scenes.  They can even operate shades and music if these systems are automated together.

Now picture a scenario where you have an existing home, but you want to add smart lighting.  You can replace the 5 kitchen light switches with smart dimmers.  One of those dimmers might even be what we call a hybrid keypad, which is both a dimmer and a keypad in one.  You'll have multiple buttons to assign to scenes or other controls.  The functionality is great, however, you'll no longer need to touch the other 4 dimmers.  You'll simply be controlling the Kitchen lights from the more convenient scene buttons on the keypad. 

Aesthetically, centralized is the way to go.

Yes it is.  We find that it usually adds about 20-50% more to the lighting system total.

If you don't care as much about seeing switch banks on the wall with 4, 5, 6, or more switches, then local dimmers would be the way to go.  You'll still have the exact same capabilities as far as controlling the lights.