When I sit down to watch a movie or TV, I always forget to turn off the lights. In the past, this would require me to get up off of the couch, hit the switch, and sit back down again. Even worse, when an intermission was needed, I'd have to get up and kick on the lights again in order to find my way to the kitchen or bathroom without tripping over something on the floor.
Not anymore. Two years ago I found a cool toy to replace my exisitng light switch in my living room, which allows me to turn on/off, and dim the lights with my home theater remote control. This wonderful gizmo is called the Lutron Spacer.
The Hardware
The Spacer is simple in design. It's a dimmer switch that is controlled by IR commands from a remote control. The face of the unit is flat, sporting one large button, one two-position rocker, and a power switch.
- The toggle - The largest button is the on/off toggle that quickly dims the lights on or off. This is also where the IR sensor resides.
- The rocker - Just to the right of the toggle is the rocker switch. It does exactly what you'd think a rocker does...adjusts the light intensity up and down to reach a desired effect.
- Power switch - Hidden just underneath the rocker is a power cutoff slider. So, if you have little ones running around that love to press buttons, you can turn off power to switch to keep them from messing with the lights.
The unit also comes with a small remote control that, surprise, has the toggle and rocker buttons on it. All functions but the power cutoff can be controlled by the remote.
Cool Features
This remote does other nifty things. Unlike many other electronic dimmers, this switch remembers the last position of the lights. So, if I hit the toggle button once, it kicks up the lights to the last setting I had (no need to kick the lights up to full just to dim it back down). If I want the lights kicked up to max, two quick taps on the toggle is all that's required.
It also has a dramatic fade effect. When you hold the toggle button down for 2 seconds, it slowly dims the lights down to off, which creates a very cool cinematic effect.
Now for the best part... Since the remote is controlled by standard IR commands instead of RF (like every other switch I've seen) you can teach your existing home theater remote to control it. Of course, your remote must have a learning feature for this to work; many remotes do these days. If you have a remote capable of performing macros, then you can even insert lighting commands to be issued automatically. Even if you don't have a learning remote to control all of your gear, you can still use the included remote to control the lights from your sofa!
2 Small Gripes
What is its greatest advantage is also its biggest weakness. Since the remote is not RF, the switch is a bit harder to control if your switch isn't in the right spot. If your switch is in an odd spot in relation to your couch, then you may have to point the remote to the side or behind you to get it to work. However, if it wasn't IR, you wouldn't be able to control it with your home theater remote at all.
The only other gripe I have about it is that it doesn't have discrete IR commands for on and off. This makes it tough to program macros that work 100 percent of the time. For example, I have a macro that turns on the lights after I power down the system, but if the lights were already on, then the lights turn off as a result. Fortunately, I've found a way around this. The long hold down always kills the lights, and the double tap always turns them on. Using these I've been able to make macros that work. However, it would be nice to not always have to crank the lights to maximum when I've been sitting in the dark for three hours.
Price
Think this switch will cost you more than your TV? Think again. I picked up mine for about 80 bucks 2 years ago, and looking back, I would have paid twice that amount for this convenience. Today, you can pick up the same thing for a little over 60 bucks. What a deal! Trust me, it's well worth every penny.
The Spacer is available in a single pole model, as well as in multi-location packages if you have lights that are controlled by multiple switches. The multi-location models are a little more expensive, but not horrible.
What are you waiting for? Shop for your Lutron Spacer and stop getting up to hit the lights!
