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Home lighting control that replaces the bank of switches

For houses in Ireland being built, extended or lived in already. Formwave designs, installs and programmes lighting control, so one button press sets a room, a floor or the whole house the way you want it. Start with one room and grow from there.

Book a free design consultation

Scenes, not circuits

A switch turns a circuit on or off. That is the whole of what it can do.

A keypad recalls a scene. One press sets every light in the room to a level chosen in advance, each one at its own level. Because the system is centralised, any light on it can be controlled from any keypad on it.

The circuit layout decides whether scenes are possible at all. That is settled at first fix, months before anyone chooses a keypad.

What you get from it

Lighting that runs on its own.

Schedules and occupancy sensors hold levels through the day without anyone touching a keypad. Outside lights follow sunset rather than a fixed time, so they do not come on at four in the afternoon in December and stay on all evening in June.

Start with one room

You can do the kitchen and living space now and add the bedrooms in two years without replacing the processor or the keypads. The design is done once. The later rooms join what is already there.

One dimmed circuit per room makes scenes impossible

Most houses are specified with one dimmed circuit per room. That single decision makes scenes impossible before anything is installed, because with one circuit there is nothing to set at different levels against anything else.

Formwave specifies two dimmable circuits in each main room. That is the minimum that lets a scene hold one layer against another. One circuit is enough for a hall or a small room.

It is decided by the electrician at first fix. If your walls are open, this is the thing worth getting right.

Two ways to start

Building or extending.

With walls open, load control sits in one panel and the keypads carry no load. The wall shows keypads and nothing else, and a keypad failure does not take a circuit with it. It also costs less to reach, because the containment is going in anyway.

Already living in it.

No rewiring. Dimming goes behind the fittings or in the ceiling void, and keypads go into the back boxes you already have. Nothing is chased, lifted or replastered, and you do not move out.

Already a Formwave customer adding the next room, tell us and we will pick up the existing design.

What it costs

There is no price on this page. What lighting control costs depends on how many rooms and how many dimmable circuits are in them, and nobody can tell you that before seeing the house or the drawings.

Whether the walls are open moves it as much as the room count.

After the consultation you get an itemised proposal, priced line by line, with nothing you have not agreed to. Nothing has to be done at once.

How it works

  1. 1

    Consultation.

    Free, at the house or on a call. We look at the rooms, how they are used, and what stage the build is at.

  2. 2

    Design and proposal.

    We produce the design and an itemised proposal. If you are at first fix, this is where the circuits get specified correctly.

  3. 3

    Install and programming.

    We install, programme the scenes and commission the system, then walk the house with you and adjust the levels until they are right.

  4. 4

    Aftercare.

    We hold the design. Changes, additions and support come back to the same people who built it.

Why Formwave

We design, supply, programme, install, commission and support the system ourselves. Nothing goes to a subcontractor, so the people who set your scenes are the people who answer when you want them changed.

Dublin based, working across Ireland. Accredited and trained on Lutron, Control4, Crestron and Ubiquiti.

Common questions

Can lighting control be retrofitted without rewiring?
Yes, on a wireless platform. The dimming goes into the wall boxes you already have or in the ceiling void behind the fitting, and the keypads go into those same back boxes, so no new cable is pulled for them. Battery keypads are an addition rather than the standard, and they go where there is no back box, beside a bed or on a table. A wired system is a different matter and needs the walls open.
Does it still work if the internet goes down?
Yes. The systems run locally. Keypads, scenes, schedules and sensors carry on with no internet at all. What you lose is app access from outside the house, and our ability to log in and make changes remotely.
Can it control the light fittings I have already chosen?
Usually, but it is checked rather than assumed. LED fittings dim by different methods and the driver inside the fitting decides which one. We ask for the lighting schedule at design stage and check every fitting against the dimming modules, because a mismatch shows up later as flicker, or as a floor the lamp will not dim below.
What happens if a keypad fails?
On a wired system the load control sits in the panel, not the keypad, so the lights keep working from every other keypad, from the app and from any schedule running, and the keypad is a swap. On a wireless system the in-wall dimmer is the load device, so a failure there affects that circuit until it is replaced.
How long does it take?
An install in an occupied house is measured in days. The design and proposal come before that, and we agree the dates with you.

Book a free design consultation

Tell us what stage the house is at and we will tell you what needs deciding, and when. If you are at first fix, come now rather than later.

Book a free design consultation

Formwave, Unit 8, H11 Centrepoint Business Park, Oak Road, Dublin 12, D12 YFX3. Phone +353 1 555 0544.