in previous videos we've had a look at the ra2select system from lutron we've done a
benchtop review of that product and we've also had a look at just how useful it can be when it
comes to modifying the existing installation in a property in this video however we've got the
opportunity to have a look at complete house installation that's been carried out using
the r2 select system so we're back on site with mj electrical we're making a ton of content
while we're here with him so me and my awesome looking footwear are going to go and find matt
uh we found matt hard at work which is good what are we up to matt just
finishing the last inline dimmer in this room very good and that's really good because we want
to talk about the individual components that make up the r2 select system and this dimmer is really
the kind of fundamental building block that goes into it so let's come in close and have a look
at it so these are the inline dimmers now which are really the powerhouse of the lutron system
so how are these wired so very simply we've got a liner neutral in switch line neutral
out excellent and i must admit i'm a little bit confused here because we've got three in
one place which is a little bit irregular because that seems a bit overpowered for one light fitting
yeah so in this instance we've wired back to the first down light and the entrance of the room
and these dimmers controlled in three circuits within this room so we've got the main downlights
the pendants and the low level five amp sockets okay they're matt so we've had a look at the
dimmers and really the next logical thing is to come and have a look at the switching now
yes these little modules are referred to as the pico remotes in this system and um
if i just remove the front there that's obviously not part of the everyday function of this
front here but you can see that these switches are completely wireless so what's the advantage
of that from your point of view as an installer map so this saves us having to wire down to the
switch location and also has the benefit of sighting the switches so you can wait until
the room is finished and you can sight the switch in the best location you're not governed by which
way the doors are hung you can come in and see which way it works best for you that's brilliant
and also allows you to change it after the event as well if the customer perhaps isn't happy and
changes their mind or something like that it's really good of course normally when electricians
start installing things that are wireless we start to worry about the battery life on these things
but these have actually got a 10 year battery life on them which is an extraordinary amount of time
and when they need replacing it's just an ordinary cell type battery you don't even need
a very expensive specialist battery for that zone just buying from the supermarket which is
fantastic so we'll pop that back together and then maybe if we could bring the cameraman back in nice
and close again we're not going to go into tons of depth at this point about the different buttons
but we've got some different functions here so at this end matt we've got the very simple function
what does this one do great so that was a client request on this job they wanted to come in and
just turn on the low level five amp sockets so that's literally on off for the low level item
brilliant so at that point they're not thinking about you know scenes and things like that they
just want to get some lighting on quickly and uh this one's of interest to me as well because
we've got obviously a little uh play symbol here and up and down and uh skip so what are those
so that is a dedicated solos controller so that will control the solos in this room so once that's
set up we could press a button and play music through correct yeah so you've got your play pause
preset button volume up down next track that is absolutely fantastic now this button here has
got a few different things on there to indicate different scenes we're going to have a little
chat about that through back in the kitchen dining room because we've got some really great scenes
set up there yep but uh there's one particular function i'm quite interested in so we'll we'll
head upstairs so we're up in the bedroom and we're where the bed will eventually be so what's with
this switch it's got some funny little symbols on here yeah so this is a dedicated bedside switch
okay so here we've got home alert so if you feel it is intruder you can push that button all the
lights in the house come on brilliant and then on the bottom here we've got night button again
which will turn the whole house off oh fantastic so you come to bed you go and sleep hit that one
all the lights go off you hear a noise in the garden you're worried there's a prowler all the
lights can go on from one position yes and dead that is a nice touch okay matt so you brought me
back downstairs now and we're looking at this data cabinet which uh is a bit of a work in progress at
the minute isn't it finished but what's inside here that relates to the r2 select system
so we've located the main repeater hub inside here okay and we've patched that into our data
switch so when this gets livened up that'll give the ethernet to the the home hub there okay and
that enables us to program the system and and full control through the app over the system excellent
so basically it connects the app to the all of the lutron equipment that's installed in the house so
as we know luton operates as a standalone system the hub then enables control from your phone to
the system brilliant and that really enables kind of the powerhouse that is the app because
in there you can do things like scheduling so bringing lights on and off at different times
yeah it'll allow you to turn the lights on when you get home automatically if you've got your
phone on your pocket and all kinds of other things including what we hinted at a little
bit earlier which is that all important scenes function so we've mentioned a couple of times
through the video the scenes function so we're going to have a little look at that in some
more detail in this segment so on the switch here we're going to focus particularly on the
sort of the left-hand switch here so we've got these different symbols on here matt so
what are the different functions on this button okay so this is a great functionality of lutron
and for ease of use so you come in we've got multiple lighting zones in here typically you'd
have four or five maybe six switches okay for this type of room here you come in you're cooking
press this it dims down whatever the preset zones are that you choose yeah and highlights the
kitchen so what's happened now is in this whole area including the kind of multi-function area
behind us here the tv area all those lights have gone off and we've just got the lighting focused
on that cooking area now correct so that that's obviously the task that's being carried out yep
finished making my lovely dinner done my jamie oliver bit it's time to eat walk back over here
okay press the little dining button there and again we've brought
the lights up to not full brightness but to a kind of a cozy environment correct
drops the kitchen down lights down reduces the glare from over there then you've got a nice
functional light about to eat your dinner that's fantastic and of course you can set this up in
different ways with different lights so that it suits your personal circumstances and yeah yeah
great function so we've seen so far the brilliant flexibility of this system that way you can create
those scenes and the different zones and all those brilliant effects that we've discussed but
one of the things we really love about it is how adaptable it is and how easy it is to
extend the system because when this property was first being kind of designed and built
was the rar2 select system installed throughout the whole house it wasn't nice when we originally
designed the electrical layout here uh we only put lutron in the key rooms right so it's the
kitchen family room entrance and the dining room on the other side of the house right
but we wired the house in a way that would enable us to add the neutral in retrospectively oh
brilliant so when the property then got sold and the customer decided they wanted that brilliant
functionality throughout the entire property you were able to go back and put it in with it was it
quite difficult adding to the system and extending it not at all no i'll say the way we wired it
enabled us to add it pretty easily and then we're just back on the pro installer app and link all
the additional zones in fantastic and again if you were to perhaps start from scratch with the entire
property knowing that it was going to be the raw two select system throughout is there anything
you do a little bit differently maybe with the inline dimensions which yes totally so if we were
doing it as a new install full lutron we would wire everything back to a central comms point
and have all our lutron devices in there rather than in the ceiling yeah i mean as it goes we
installed to the first point so we know where they all are they're easily accessible okay they're
matt so pairing up the inline dimmers and switches with the pico remotes is possible without diving
into the app but if you really want to crack into that more kind of complex functionality that the
app gives you how do you go about doing that okay so you need to become an approved neutron
installer this will then give you access to the lutron installer app software from there you can
dive into the system yeah set up the pico remotes the scene switches and you know start setting the
light levels to what suits the house and what the customer wants brilliant and is there a bit of
support from lutron to help you achieve that there is yes you have to carry out the lutron training
course to become an installed approver okay and it sounds as well like it kind of enables you to give
that kind of almost forward that support on to the customer like you can still help them out if
something's going wrong with it from their point of view it does yeah you can still access a system
from your phone on the installer app yeah so they can tweak things change things and you know
potentially if they don't know how to then correct something back to how they wanted it originally
that's where you can come back and get it back right yeah you know when you're looking at a smart
system you're looking for three things you're looking for simplicity scalability and reliability
and i think it's fair to say that in the ra2 select system from lutron you've got all three
you