Home automation is without a doubt an amazing development in technology. At the very least, it gives you many more options for your lighting and temperature control. But how do you actually manage and control these devices, especially when you have lots of people living at home or if you’re using these devices in a small commercial building? Instead of one person controlling the devices with their smartphones, you can install a home control system in-house instead. And that’s where the Leviton 44A00-1 Lumina Home Control System comes in.

The Leviton Lumina 44A00-1 offers you and everyone in the house the capability to control these basic smart devices like lights and thermostats at home. And what’s more, you don’t lose the ability to control them with your smartphone and tablet as well. But that’s a backup. The main in-house controller is the main unit so that there’s no confusion, and you have order when you manage the smart lights and thermostats.

Contents

Features

The Leviton Lumina 44A00-1 purchase includes the Lumina44A00-1 controller with enclosure, a 12-volt battery, an HLC phase coupler, a UPB power line interface module serial cable kit, and a 24-volt transformer.

  • The Lumina44A00-1 controller comes inside an enclosure, so that the delicate controller components are protected from dust, water, and other types of accidental damage. The enclosure is white and measures 4.8 x 13.2 x 13.5 inches, and it weighs 13 pounds.
  • Leviton offers full technical support and warranty only if you buy it from Amazon. If you got it from a 3rd party seller, then the support isn’t part of the deal. But that may also mean that the 3rd party seller has its own support to offer, or that the seller is offering substantial discounts.
  • Inside the enclosure is an electronic system to which you connect all your wired devices. The Leviton Lumina 44A00-1 can control up to 64 lights in 8 rooms and 4 thermostats. It can also support 4 access control readers. These are the devices that read the credit card-like keys for newer types of doors.
  • The Leviton Lumina 44A00-1 also has an extra 5 serial ports built-in so that you can connect it to other home automation networks.
  • It also has an Ethernet port, so you can connect to your home Internet setup. It is compatible with wireless ZigBee and Z-Wave devices. The Lumina can be expanded to accommodate even more esoteric smart devices, including pool pumps, water heaters, air conditioning compressors, and fountains.
  • With the Leviton Lumina 44A00-1 controller, your system is also compatible with other cross-platform security systems. These may include VoIP intercom services which use the Internet to enable phone conversations, video surveillance, and automated door locks. The brands of security devices that are compatible with the Leviton Lumina 44A00-1 include Kwikset, DSC, Schlage, and Yale.
  • Basically, you have 3 controllers for the Leviton Lumina 44A00-1. One is the Lumina keypad on the unit, so there’s one set place where the lights and other smart devices are controlled. This central controller is available in 15 languages, so you’re not limited to just English displays.
  • Then there’s the room controller, which is installed in each room. These can be managed and controlled from the central unit, but you can also come into the room and then press a button to activate a special setting. The 6 settings are Away, Sleep, Vacation, Special, Party, and Home. What this means is that you can activate a special setting that involves your lights, thermostats, entertainment systems, and security devices in just a single push of a button.
  • Finally you can also control the system with your smartphone. You can also use the smartphone when you’re away, so that you can monitor your home automation setup and see that everything’s working out fine.
  • You don’t even have to push anything at all do have your automated gadgets work or activate. You can set them on a schedule you devise. Or they can do a certain task depending on what your sensors pick up, such as when you’re motion detectors senses movement your alarms can set off while the video camera records the evens. Or certain events, such as opening a door to a bedroom, automatically activate a certain lighting setup.

Energy Management through Advanced One-Push Activation

The 6 settings on the room controllers and the main keypad unit offer you 6 buttons to press. With these buttons, you can have a special setting programmed for each button. Let’s see some examples of how you can configure these different settings:

  • Away. So let’s start when you leave your home for work (or when everyone leaves a commercial building to get home). This setting usually turns off almost all the lights, although a few may be left on for security purposes. The alarms, motion detectors, smoke detectors, video cameras, and automated door locks are primed for maximum security. Your thermostat also goes into lower power usage. You can even receive a push notification on your smartphone when your security system detects anything unusual. And your thermostat may start heating (or cooing) your home even before you arrive, so that by the time you get to your front doo the temperature is nice and cozy.
  • Sleep. With this setting you’re off to bed, so like the Away setting most of your appliances are turned off. But this setting has the thermostat temperature set so that you can cuddle under the blankets when you go to bed. The lights maybe dimmer or turned off completely, and you may have some music piping through your speakers. The lights and the music may be on a timer, so that when you’re completely asleep these lights and speakers also turn off automatically.
  • Vacation. This is a bit different from just being merely away. This means you’re gone for a few days, and you won’t be back at night. So right away security is a concern, because homes which have its residents on vacation are prime targets for burglars. So the setting may have a few lights turning on randomly at night may lead potential burglars to believe that someone’s home.
    The other settings, including thermostats, will also become more energy-efficient while you’re on vacation. The thermostat won’t have to make the temperature comfortable for people, but it should be warm enough so that the pipes don’t freeze.
  • Party. This may have the lights on a special setting, with perhaps different colors on display. The lights may even flicker or blink, and on some units this could be synced to the beat of the music. Of course, your audio system may play your party playlist, while the front door is kept open or unlocked while other rooms like bedrooms are securely locked.
  • Home. This is your normal everyday setting, when you come back from work, or for weekdays. The security systems may work, but they may not be as vigilant. Doors inside the house may be kept open, music may play, and most of the lights may be turned on.
  • Special. This is for any event or social setting you want to prepare for. For some people, it’s very handy for when you watch a movie on TV, with the lights dimmed so that you get the best viewing experience. Others may have this configured for a home date, with romantic lights and mellow music through the speakers. It’s all up to you, whether you want special settings for when your folks visit and they prefer different light and thermostat settings, or you want it to present an elegant scene for your important dinner party for your boss.

Pros

The Leviton Lumina offers many reasons why you should consider it for your home or shop:

  • It can accommodate many types of smart automation devices. Some of its competitors can let you manage your lights and not much as else. But the Leviton Lumina lets you manage your thermostats, and with its integration to your current home automation system you can also control just about every type of smart device that uses the ZigBee or Z-Wave protocols.
  • It offers a lot of control convenience for you. You’re able to control your home automation devices through several means, and the central control let’s everyone adjust the settings properly. It’s also great that each room may have its own controls, so that the setting can be adjusted to the preference of the person in the room. And the smartphone control gives you an additional controller as well.
  • Your smart devices can be configured to work through several ways. They can work together in just a single push of a button, which is incredibly convenient compared to setting up each device separately. That can be awfully tedious.
    Then you can just set them to work on schedule, so you wouldn’t even have to do anything at all. And these smart devices can react to various event triggers so that they can activate whenever there’s someone around or if the sensors detect an unusual occurrence.
  • You can recoup your initial investment by tying in all your high-drawing electrical gadgets and appliances to the Leviton Lumina. Now these pool pumps, fountains, compressors, and other similar devices won’t have to work for a minute longer than they have to. With your remote controller (or smartphone), you can see at a glance which devices are working and you can turn them off when you feel that you don’t need them to run anymore. Or you can set them to work on schedule so they automatically turn off at a certain time.
  • The Leviton Lumina also enhances your security. Now you have better management of all your security devices, and they can work together more smoothly.
  • This system is also incredibly reliable, which is why it is also recommended for commercial buildings. This can not only allow you to effectively manage your devices in your shop, and you also significantly reduce your operational expenses. And you can expect the system to run without any annoying failures through the day.

Cons

Of course, all the benefits we’ve listed don’t come free—and they don’t even come cheap. Although on Amazon you can enjoy free shipping, getting the Leviton Lumina 44A00-1 represents a significantly expensive investment.

What compounds the problem is the fact that installing this system is very complicated. Though the manual may seem clear to those with an electrical DIY background, for the rest of us mortals these diagrams and instructions are quite overwhelming and intimidating. It really does seem necessary to have an experienced installer to set everything up, and you’ll need that installer every time you add another device to your home automation setup.

Setting up the system by programming the various scenes and configurations also seems too complicated. The manual does offer worksheets for you to use, but the fact that such worksheets are even necessary underscores the innate complexity of the system.

Also, while it does seem like a good thing that it can accommodate Z-Wave and ZigBee devices, this isn’t absolutely guaranteed. Devices that use these different protocols don’t always work smoothly together all the time. This is especially true when your devices are from different manufacturers.

Conclusion

The Leviton 44A00-1 Lumina Home Control System may seem overly complicated at first. But that doesn’t meant it is ultimately incomprehensible. If you can make sense of a modern role-playing video game, then this system is actually much simpler. In fact, if you can drive a car, then it stands to reason that eventually you can use the Leviton Lumina with ease.

And that’s the point of the Leviton Lumina after all (and the point of all home automation, for that matter). It’s there to make things easy for you, and it does. It’s very reliable, and its controls are intuitive and easy to use. Once you’re done setting it up, then your normal day to day use is really simple and easy.