This Evening Could Be Yours

Condo balcony lighting, on a schedule

Picture it: the sun goes down, the room warms up, and the balcony lights come on — all on their own. No switches to hunt for, no app to babysit. A small hub runs the schedule quietly in the background, and your home simply feels ready for the evening.

This is the starter version of that evening, supplied and installed by 3e: one smart dimmer inside, a weatherproof smart plug outside for your balcony string lights, and the hub that runs them both on a scene and a schedule. We install it, commission it, and program the evening scene with you before we leave.

Want more rooms, more scenes, blinds that join in? It all builds on this. This is where it starts.

Smart lighting installation in Toronto

Most condo evenings run on one switch: the big light. It’s the builder-grade fixture in the middle of the ceiling — harsh, flat, all-or-nothing — and it is why a room you like in daylight feels like a waiting room after dark. Outdoor balcony lighting gets the worst of it: none at all, or one bare bulb glaring over the railing.

It isn’t a bulb problem. It’s a one-source problem. Put the main light on a smart dimmer at a level you chose, give the balcony a warm string-light glow of its own, and let a schedule bring both up as the sun goes down. That is smart home lighting doing what it should — layered light instead of the big light — and it is exactly what this package installs.

What’s included in the Caséta package

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Caséta Diva smart dimmer

One interior light joins the system. Tap it, slide it, or let the schedule run it — it works like a regular dimmer whenever you would rather just touch it.

Caséta outdoor smart plug

Weatherproof and built for outdoors. Your balcony string lights plug into it and join the evening scene — on at dusk, off when you say, with no cord run through the door. String lights themselves are not included.

The Hub

Caséta Smart Hub

The quiet brain of the system. It holds the schedule and runs the scene on its own — that is what makes the evening automatic, with no app to babysit.

Hardware at shelf price — no markup. The package covers one interior dimmer location, string lights you already own, and a standard installation. Different layouts are quoted after a look — as always, the slogan below applies.

How it works

And it can grow from there

The package is the starting point. Caséta grows one piece at a time — most additions need no new wiring at all — and Sonos joins the same system. Here is the ladder, simplest first.

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Level 1

Start with Caséta

Caséta starts as a smart lighting system. The hub in the package connects the pieces, and everything here works from the wall, from a Pico remote, or — only if you want it — from an app.

The smart dimmers

The Diva dimmer in the package is the foundation. Tap for on and off, slide for the brightness you want. Set it once and it can run on a schedule — on at sunset, off when you head out.

A switch anywhere — no wiring

A Pico remote is a small battery remote — the battery lasts about ten years — that works as a full extra switch from anywhere in the room. It is the clean answer to a 3-way setup: a Pico at the second location gives you that switch with no wire run through the walls. It also adds control where a switch was never roughed in — bedside, beside the couch, right at the front door. Wall-mounted, it looks like a switch that was always there.

The stands

Don’t want it on the wall? The Pico sits in a pedestal stand on a nightstand, side table or kitchen counter. It looks built-in, it sits anywhere, and you can pick it up and carry it with you. Stands come in single, double and triple versions — park two or three remotes side by side in one spot, lights and music together.

Plug-in control

Some lights don’t need a switch at all. The Caséta plug-in lamp dimmer handles table and floor lamps indoors, and the outdoor smart plug from the package is weatherproof and built for the balcony — balcony string lights on a sunset schedule, with no wiring at all.

Level 2

Add Sonos

Caséta also works with Sonos, the wireless speaker system. Add speakers, and the Pico remotes can run the music too — this is the basic Caséta plus Sonos setup.

Start with one speaker

It doesn’t take in-ceiling speakers or a rack of equipment. One Sonos speaker on the counter, plus a Pico remote for audio in its stand beside it: that’s the whole setup. The remote plays and pauses, adjusts volume, skips tracks and calls up a favourite station or playlist — no phone needed. And scenes can run lights and music together, so one tap sets the room for dinner, a movie, or the game.

Speakers in every room

Put a standalone Sonos speaker in each room — the Era 100 is the current speaker in this class; it replaced the One SL — and every room streams wirelessly. Play the same music through the whole home, or something different in each room. Add a Pico in the rooms that matter and the music sits on the wall or the nightstand. Still no wiring — each speaker just needs power.

Level 3

The next level

When you’re ready for more, both halves of the system grow up: Caséta takes on the whole home — blinds included — and Sonos disappears into the walls and takes over the TV.

Room for the whole home — and blinds join in

One Caséta hub handles up to 75 devices — every dimmer, switch, Pico remote and shade counted together. That’s enough for a whole home on one system, not just a room or two. And Caséta isn’t only about lights: Serena smart blinds run on the same system, so a single scene can dim the lights and close the blinds together — and bring the music in too, once Sonos is added. One tap for dinner, a movie, or goodnight.

The built-in system

For a room with its own amplifier and speakers, a Sonos Port brings that room into the system: streaming feeds the amp, and the Port can switch the amp on by itself when the music starts. No amp in the room? The Sonos Amp powers the speakers directly instead. This is where in-ceiling speakers belong — everything hidden, music streaming room to room, and the Lutron side running the whole room: lights, blinds and music in one scene.

Speakers that disappear

The top end of the built-in route is Sonos Architectural — speakers made with Sonance that install in walls and ceilings. All you see is a grille sitting flush, and it can be painted to match the surface, so the speaker all but vanishes. They’re powered by the Sonos Amp — one Amp can run up to three pairs — and the Amp recognizes them and tunes the sound to the room with Trueplay. Real, room-filling sound, with nothing on the shelf and nothing on the counter.

The TV, upgraded

The same system does the TV. A Sonos soundbar — Arc Ultra at the top of the range, Beam for a smaller room — sits under the TV and connects with a single HDMI cable. Your TV remote controls the volume; there’s no second remote to lose. And it grows: add a Sub for bass you can feel and a pair of Era speakers behind the couch as rear surrounds, and it’s a full home theatre — all connected over WiFi, no speaker wire to run.

Start at any level and grow to the next when you’re ready — everything you add keeps working together. Any of it can go in on a later visit, next month, or next year. Just ask.

Questions