What is the most commonly used appliance in the home? Lights.

Yet, it’s one of the only ones without variable control. Think about it: could you imagine if you had no volume control for your television? Or if your HVAC didn’t allow for temperature variation? Even the toaster allows for how dark you want your bread. But your lights are either at full brightness, or off.

The benefits of lighting control extend beyond accessing a level between 0% and 100%. Lighting control is much more than a cool techy gadget; it is technology providing many practical benefits, one that you are guaranteed to use every day. (You use your lights every day, right?)

Here are what we think are the top five benefits of having a lighting control system in your home.

1. Convenience
The first is convenience. This comes in many forms, from pressing one button to turn off all of the lights in your home, to using a tabletop keypad rather than getting up to hit a switch on the wall, using your phone to adjust lights from anywhere, or having lights adjust automatically according to sensors, time of day, or sunrise and sunset.

2. Elegance
Next, we have elegance. This benefit is purely visual, but isn’t that one of the most important aspects of lighting? This is where the concept of dimming plays a big role: rather than dealing with harsh, glaring overhead light turned to full brightness, lighting control allows you to paint your space in beautiful layers of light. A home’s interiors should be displayed in the best light and accented in the right places; lighting control makes that possible.

3. Aesthetics
The third benefit is aesthetics, which refers to the look of the controls on the wall. Think of a bank of several light switches on a wall in your home; not visually appealing. Consolidating those switches into a couple of keypads with engraved buttons makes for a dramatic improvement, with screwless faceplates in a color or material to match the wall.

4. Safety
Next, safety. Lighting control can act as a great deterrent, and therefore a preventive safety measure. Vacation mode sets lighting scenes to turn on at random times, giving the look of a lived-in home to anyone who may be watching. The lighting control system can also be integrated with a home’s alarms, illuminating the path to exit the home in the event of a fire, or turn all lights to full bright and flash to confuse an intruder.

5. Energy Savings
Lastly, energy savings. Lighting control by nature is a green solution. Just by virtue of being able to dim your lights to mid-level rather than full brightness, you are saving energy and prolonging the life of your lightbulbs. In fact, it is the only technology we know of that saves energy while making you more comfortable. Dimming aside, the ability to turn off all of the lights as you’re leaving with one press of the All Off button, is also a time-saving way to ensure that you’re not wasting energy by leaving lights on in an empty house.