If you are planning lighting control, Lutron is likely on your list, and two names come up quickly: HomeWorks and RA3. Both are excellent systems. The right one depends on your home, your project and how far you want to take the design. Here is how we help clients choose.
What They Have in Common
Both systems replace rows of ordinary switches with clean keypads and scenes. One touch can set the whole room for dinner, movie night or bedtime. Both work with Lutron motorized shades, run on schedules and from your phone, and tie into whole home control systems like Control4. Either way, you get Lutron’s reliability and a home that is easier to live in.
Lutron RA3: Flexible + Wireless
RA3 is Lutron’s wireless system. Dimmers and keypads replace standard switches at the wall and talk to each other without new control wiring. That makes it a strong fit for:
- Existing homes, where opening walls is not an option
- Renovations and additions
- Many new homes that want great lighting control without the scale of a flagship system
- Shore homes and second homes you want to manage from anywhere
Lutron HomeWorks: The Flagship
HomeWorks is Lutron’s top system, built for larger custom homes and projects where design is a priority. It can be wireless, wired or a mix. In wired designs, the dimming lives in lighting panels tucked away in a closet or mechanical room, so the walls carry only keypads.
HomeWorks makes sense when you want:
- The fullest range of Lutron keypad styles and finishes
- Room to grow across a large home, guest house or outdoor spaces
- Lighting designed with your architect or designer from the start of a new build
- The most refined control over how every space looks and feels
How to Decide
A few questions usually point the way:
- Is this a new build or an existing home? New construction opens the door to HomeWorks panels. Existing homes often lean toward RA3.
- How large is the home, and how much of it do you want controlled? A few key rooms is a different project from the entire property.
- How important is the look of the keypads? If your designer is specifying finishes, HomeWorks offers the most options.
- Are shades part of the plan? Both systems handle Lutron shades well, so this is about scale more than capability.
Lighting Design + Fixtures, Not Just Controls
The control system is only half of great lighting. Where the fixtures go, what kind of light they give and how the scenes are built matter just as much. We handle lighting design and supply fixtures as well as the control system, so the whole result is planned by one team instead of pieced together.
Talk Through Your Project
We design and install Lutron HomeWorks and RA3 systems across South Jersey, the Jersey Shore, Wilmington and the Philadelphia suburbs. Learn more on our Lighting Design + Control and Motorized Shades pages, or contact us today.
Written by Justin Kaplan, owner of Custom AV Integrators in Mullica Hill, NJ.
