Lighting for Dummies

As always thanks to everyone with your help and support for helping get this far.
I purchased an OmniPro ii to do the brunt of my security and automation.  I read the Wiring your Home and have all my zones drawn out.
 
I am still fuzzy on lighting.  I was able to wrap my mind around security, zones, EOLR, types of contacts, etc... but I guess I don't understand the technology behind lighting.
 
We are going to have a two story home around 2200SF of heated space and I am not sure what I need to control the lights.  The guy I bought the board from is throwing in aUPB interface 36a00-1 for free.  
 
I am hoping someone can explain how to automate my lights and what I will need.
 
I have already instructed my electrician to run the neutral to each switch.  Is there anything else he should know or do before he starts on electrical (I thought I read something about keeping the lights on one load or circuit).  
 
I've also read that SA switches are the best bang for the buck.  Then I got lost when people started talking about Gen 2 Gen 3.
 
Thanks for the help.
 
Mike

I don't do UPB (yet) so I'll leave that for someone else.
 
RE: keeping the recepticles and lights on different circuits. This has the benefit if you pop a breaker, you still have some power/light in the room from the second circuit. Likewise if you shut a circuit down to work on something, you still have power elsewere in the room. Another way to do it is to split circuits between rooms, i.e. if you have adjoining bedrooms, put half of each bedroom on the same circuit. Of course, in a properly designed system, you should have more than enough power that you don't pop breakers to begin with. It's really a personal preference thing.
 
For the lighting itself, you need to decide what you want the lighting to do. You can generally break it down into three catagories; security, scene, and occupancy. The three are not mutually exclusive, and most people do a combination of at least security and scene.
 
Security is generally outside lighting. At the basic level, it's just turning outside lights on/off depending on the time of day. Get a little more fancy and add in ground and scenic lighting. I have a detached garage with a covered walkway to the house, along with the main entrance. Between dusk and 10:30, the lights on the front of the garage turn on ~30%, lighting the parking area. When I'm not home, the lights stay on until midnight. The spiders LOVE to build webs around the lights, so the actual door lights are kept off for the default setting. Nothing like walking out the door and getting a face full of spider web. If motion is detected in the walkway, or on the driveway, or any of the three doors are opened, the front garage lights and all the door lights turn on at 100%. Five minutes after the last trigger, the lights return to the original setting. This way, you come home, the parking and entry way is nice and bright for unlocking and unloading, and once your inside doing other things, the lights automatically return to the low power, low spider setting.
 
Scene lighting is exactly that, scenes that are specific to a task or time. For a kitchen you might have a cooking scene (cootop & counter lighting), entertainment (possibly countertop + low level overhead), cleanup (everything on), etc. Depending on the level of automation, the scene can also include music (type and volume), setting of the shades, etc.
 
Last is occupancy, meaning the lights are only on when the room is occupied. Of the three, it's probably the most difficult and least used. However, if you can get it to work, you'll love it. Based on some type of trigger (usually motion detectors), the lights turn on and then turn off again after the motion stops. The problem is determining how long the light should stay on, and if the room is actually empty, or the person is just sitting still. If you have large pets, you can forget about occupancy, as the system cannot tell the difference between a100 lb dog and and 100 lb child. Closets and laundry rooms are perfect for occupancy lighting, as they are rooms were you frequently have your arms full, and while you're in them you're usually moving. Dining and living rooms are more problematic, as you frequently will sit relatively still for periods of time. If the "on" period is too low, you end up waving your arms madly when the lights turn out in the middle of reading the paper.
 
Hope this gives you some ideas.

I've written up most of my thoughts on the subject in the article linked in my signature.  It doesn't account for the specifics of HAI's HLC protocol, but that's more a logical arrangement of switches and doesn't change anything about how the switches communicate.

Read Work2Play's tutorial, very comprehensive.
 
If you do a search for HLC there are several threads discussing it.
 
It is essentially just a strict allocation of link numbers and unit numbers in groups.
There are a few "tricks" to using it, but once you start they are fairly intuitive.

I am still a little fuzzy.
The UPB PIM plugs into the the controller serial port and to a 110 outlet.
 
Do each of the switches have a unique ID that is then programmed into the board.
 
Does the UPB remained plugged in at all times or is it just for initial configuration.  Should I have a back-up UPB on standby.
 
Thanks,
Mike

Do each of the switches have a unique ID that is then programmed into the board.
 
Yes
 
The UPB PIM plugs into the the controller serial port and to a 110 outlet.  Does the UPB remained plugged in at all times or is it just for initial configuration.
 
Yes.  Think of it as like a cable modem for your lighting. 

FWIW, I have 3 or 4 PIM/CIM's - that's what talks on the powerline to whatever your controller is - be it computer, automation panel, etc.  I keep one for Elve, one for my Elk, and one for WebMountain's RUC which I also use for programming; and I have a 4th USB version laying around for laptop use if I really need to get into troubleshooting...
 
When you get down to it, you'll have a unique network ID - so that if you have neighbors on either side of you using UPB (quite unlikely) they won't interfere with your system... then each switch gets a unique ID and your links have unique ID's.  UPB is a controller-less system, meaning there's no single brain that listens for signals.  When doing anything other than controlling the local load, all the switch does is send a link command - and it watches the powerline and has a set of links that it listens for - if a particular link is observed, it reacts - without having any idea what any other switch on your network is doing.  This makes it very scalable and responsive, but with the one drawback of not always being able to keep an accurate status without active polling.  That's where HLC comes into play - it's a particular arrangement of links/switches in such a way that the panel can keep track of groups of switches and if anything in a room changes, it knows which switches to poll for any status updates.