| Post 1 made on Monday January 12, 2009 at 16:06 | ...it's new! |
nmljoel Junior Member |
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I have a double gang wall box in my media room wired for two switches (obviously). One switch will control 360 watts of wall sconce lighting and the other will control 720 watts of recessed can lights. The switches are at the back of the viewing area and I really do not want to have to turn around and point the remote at the wall everytime I want to dim or turn off the lights. Therefore, I would really like to be able to control both switches independently with an RF remote. I am aware that Lutron has RF dimmers that work with the URC remotes. My problem is that the Lutron dimmers only go up to 600 watts so this would work for my sconces, but not my recessed lighting. Leviton does make a line of RF dimmers called Vizia RF. These Vizia RF dimmers are available in 600 watt and 1000 watt options.
I called both URC and Lutron. URC does have "codes" for Leviton Vizia dimmers, but can only control Leviton Vizia dimmers via IR, not RF. I called Lutron and their two options involved either a $500 power booster mounted behind the wall or using the Meistro IR 1000 watt dimmer for my recessed lighting with an IR flasher somehow stuck to the IR receiver on the front of the switch (yuck).
Does anyone know of a solution to this problem so that I can control both sets of lights independently via RF? |
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| Post 2 made on Monday January 12, 2009 at 16:39 | ...it's new! |
smokinghot Super Member |
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| On Saturday January 10, 2009 at 13:11, tweeterguy said... |
| ...until URC/Lutron comes out with a 1000W URC model you will have to use a Lutron power booster for the can light load which will give you 1200W if surface mounted or 1000W if flush mounted. |
| On Saturday January 10, 2009 at 19:20, tweeterguy said... |
| The power booster works in conjunction with the switch and light load; it's an externally located wall mounted device designed to boost the rating of the switch while still allowing dimming. The fact that you are asking about where it goes leads me to believe this may be out of your skill level. If you wish to go this route I suggest you consult and hire a licensed electrician. |
What was wrong with the power booster option...? |
reigning twatter till successor is named..
..If I had any dignity, this would really be humiliating :) | [ Reply | Quote & Reply |
| Post 3 made on Monday January 12, 2009 at 17:12 | ...it's new! |
RemoteQuest Junior Member |
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| If you go with the Maestro, it will usually accept an IR signal so you would simply have to point. No stick-on required for IR control. |
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| Post 4 made on Monday January 12, 2009 at 19:33 | ...it's new! |
nmljoel Junior Member |
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| The power booster option costs over $600 for the Lutron HP2, so it's cost prohibitive in my opinion. I was thinking of using one of Lutron's 600W RF dimmers that works with the URC remotes to control my sconces by RF and use a 1000W Maestro IR to control the recessed lighting. Eventually, Lutron will come out with a 1000W RF dimmer for URC and I can swap out the Maestro at that point. In the meantime, my sconces would work on RF and I would just have to point the remote back at the switches and use IR for the recessed lighting. Who knows, maybe the IR signal could bounce off the screen at the front of the room and work the Maestro dimmer without me having to point the remote directly at the switches???
This message was edited by nmljoel on Monday January 12, 2009 at 20:56. |
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| Post 5 made on Monday January 12, 2009 at 21:13 | ...it's new! |
tweeterguy Super Member |
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You have 6 options with your URC remote:
1. Power booster I mentioned before.
2. Have electrician rewire the can lights to provide 2 separate switch loads and then use 2 URC dimmers.
3. Use IR dimming switches and hope you can bounce the IR from the front to the back.
4. Run an IR emitter to an IR dimming switch such as a Maestro or Vizia from the URC MRF.
5. Install something like Lutron RadioRa with a RA to IR converter used in conjunction with the URC MRF.
6. Turn can lights on/off the old fashioned way.
That's it. |
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| Post 6 made on Tuesday January 13, 2009 at 06:56 | ...it's new! |
nmljoel Junior Member |
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Thanks for the good options. #1 in very expensive. #2 is impossible at this point. #3 is my current best option (I think) until the 1000w Lutron dimmer is available. I had thought about #4, but it would look pretty ugly in my opinion to have an IR emitter sticking to the front of one of the two dimmers on the wall. How is #5 different from #4?
Joel
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| Post 7 made on Tuesday January 13, 2009 at 11:26 | ...it's new! |
tweeterguy Super Member |
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#5 is different from #4 in that you need to run an IR emitter to the dimmer with option 4 and depending upon your local electrical code you may be able to hide the emitter LED within the box and dimmer so it's not visible...again consult your electrician.
With option 5 you install RadioRa dimmers along with a RA-IR device elsewhere which can connect to the MRF out of sight. Don't bother investigating this if you think option 1 was cost prohibitive...the RadioRa will surely be out of your budget too. |
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| Post 8 made on Tuesday January 13, 2009 at 13:20 | ...it's new! |
nmljoel Junior Member |
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I don't want to sound like a miser. However, I am pretty certain that within the next year, Lutron will come out with a 1000w RF dimmer for URC so I would just hate to throw out all that money on a power booster (plus install costs) when I can just be patient and eventually get the right dimmer.
Thanks again |
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| Post 9 made on Tuesday January 13, 2009 at 15:30 | ...it's new! |
mteele Junior Member |
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| The Lutron 600W RF dimmers dont HAVE to be controlled by the URC, do they? I could use my Pronto TSU9400, correct? |
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| Post 10 made on Tuesday January 13, 2009 at 15:51 | ...it's new! |
smokinghot Super Member |
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| nope the partnership was/is between URC and Lutron. Any other manufacturers remote will not work with them...., or at least weren't meant to. |
reigning twatter till successor is named..
..If I had any dignity, this would really be humiliating :) | [ Reply | Quote & Reply |
| Post 11 made on Tuesday January 13, 2009 at 16:42 | ...it's new! |
Riche_guy Founding Member |
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Would something like this help you??
http://www.smarthome.com/2203WI/100...witch-HCM10-1SW/p.aspx |
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| Post 12 made on Tuesday January 13, 2009 at 17:27 | ...it's new! |
nmljoel Junior Member |
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| No it would not. This is just a regular 1000w dimmer. It doesn't even appear to be IR. Leviton Vizia RF has a 1000w RF dimmer, but Leviton has a partnership with Monster and this 1000w dimmer will only work with the monster remote. Lutron has the 1000w Maestro IR dimmer which (for now) will work on my 720w load for my recessed lighting. I will just have to point my MX-810 at the switch to make it work until Lutron comes out with a 1000w RF dimmer as part of their relationship with URC. |
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