"The light is the finish you live in. It's on every surface in the room — but you only notice it when it's wrong."
Use whenThe client is pushing back on the line item as "tech."
A shared workbook for the homeowner, GC, and designer. Configure once, share with anyone — the project travels. Three questions per room and the keypad spec writes itself.
Add your first room to begin. Start with the kitchen — it's where lighting control earns its keep first.
Tap a moment in the day — your client sees the same room, transformed. That's what they're buying.
True color on every surface. Skin reads right, vegetables look like vegetables, the marble actually shows.
Lighting control sits inside a renovation budget like every other premium finish — a percentage. Here's where yours lands against the rest of the spec.
For a typical $350K renovation in this segment, your client is already approving:
The fixtures cost the same either way. The system is what makes them work like furniture instead of utility.
Pull these out at the kitchen table. Each one reframes lighting control in a language the homeowner already speaks.
"The light is the finish you live in. It's on every surface in the room — but you only notice it when it's wrong."
"Standard switches in a $2M home are like cheap door hardware — nobody buys them on purpose, they just inherit them."
"You're already running the wire. For one extra circuit, you get a system instead of seven switches."
"It's the difference between a thermostat and a furnace switch. Both heat the house. One you live with."
"Five years from now, a $2M home without lighting control will read as dated. Like brass fixtures in 2008."
"This is the only finish in the house your client will touch ten times a day, for twenty years."
If you can wire a three-way switch, you can install this. Here's the install plan, in your language — what gets done, when, by whom, and what it costs you in hours and headaches.
Pull line voltage to each fixture group, and a Cat-5 home-run from each keypad location to the panel area. Same gauge, same boxes, same wire-runs you already do — plus one low-voltage drop per keypad.
Snap dimmer modules into the panel area. Mount each Sunnata keypad in a standard single-gang box, screws and plate go on the same. Done before paint touch-up.
A Lutron tech connects remotely (or makes a brief site visit). The scenes get programmed, keypads get labeled, the homeowner gets a 20-minute walkthrough. You hand over keys.
If you can wire a dimmer and a 3-way switch, you can install RadioRA 3 with Sunnata keypads. Lutron offers free phone support during your install (1-888-LUTRON-1). Most first-time installers report the second job goes 50% faster — the wiring patterns are familiar, the muscle memory is identical.
Snap it out, swap it in. Lutron ships replacements next-day under their 8-year manufacturer warranty. The wiring stays in place. Five-minute service call.
For brightness tweaks, they use the raise/lower rocker on the keypad — no app, no setup. For deeper changes (renaming a button, redoing a scene), Lutron techs reprogram remotely in 10–15 minutes. Either you charge them, or it's free under the system's first-year support window.
Effectively nothing on the critical path. Rough adds about 6 hours one day (running Cat-5 alongside the existing electrical pulls). Trim adds 2 hours per keypad. Commissioning happens after walkthrough — Lutron handles it remotely or schedules around your closeout.
No. RadioRA 3 is consumer-supported — Lutron's app handles minor adjustments. For occasional bigger changes, the homeowner books a one-time remote session ($150–$300). They don't need a custom integrator.
Yes. The system controls any 0–10V or phase-cut dimming load. Fixture spec can change up to trim phase without affecting the rough-in or the keypad spec. You bid the system once and the designer keeps her flexibility.
If the system isn't installed at trim, the rough-in (Cat-5 runs) is hidden in the wall and forgotten. No drywall to redo, no demo. Worst case: you spent ~6 hours on extra wire. Best case: when they upgrade in five years, the infrastructure is already there and they call you.