C-Bus - The difference between standard lighting

C-Bus Lighting Knowledge Base Article

24th April 2011 C-Bus Lighting   

With C-Bus, 240 volt electrical current does not flow to the light switch.

C-Bus overcomes the problems with conventional wiring. It uses a twisted pair, typically UTP Category 5 LAN cable to communicate between the light switches and load controlling devices. No point-to-point wiring is required. All input and output units are looped together with a single cable and do not have to be connected in any particular order. Inputs, switches and loads can now be reconfigured without reconnecting a single wire. The Network Bus also provides the small amount of power needed to operate the circuitry within CBus units. The C-Bus Network operates at safe extra low voltage levels (36V DC). Any input unit can be programmed to perform various functions in addition to on/off such as dimming and timing.

C-Bus can be expanded to controll and monitor a building's electrical appliances from a PC. Security, air-conditioning and other systems can be programmed to turn on or off at specific times or events. Lighting and temperature can be varied according to ambient conditions automatically.