Use of Keypads by guests/visitors

I was curious what people's experiences are with using keypads in guest homes, air B&Bs, etc. I'm working on laying out the system for a bathroom in a new outbuilding on our property that will get a lot of use by guests. I was planning on putting all the switches in a closet and a single keypad to control all the lighting (4 lighting zones + an exhaust fan and supplemental panel heater). My wife is concerned a keypad full of buttons, even when labeled properly, might be confusing for people. That got me thinking I could add a 2-button pico along with the keypad in a 2-gang box with the pico setup for a typical bathroom visit + fan as a "simple version". Just curious what the best practice is for spaces often used by visitors. Thanks.

There are a lot of valid ways to do this. If you are doing remote, you have a lot of flexibility.

I would do something a little different.

I would have a keypad with 3 lighting scenes and all off. 3 scenes are good, as you can have "bright" for makeup, getting ready etc, "evening" when you want a more calm atmosphere and "night" for late night trips. If you have a nice soaking tub I might add "bath" to be very dim to enhance the ambiance.


I would also have a 4 button Pico. The Pico will be on/off for the heater and fan. That way you can manually control those loads. I would use the model with the on-off engraving, then engrave "Fan" and "Heat" on the wallplate.

This is scene-based lighting instead of remote loads. Instead of just having keypad buttons for each light, leaving the lighting decisions up to the end user, you are making scenes so that everyone who presses the button is presented with the best possible lighting in the room. This is the major benefit of having RA2 with real keypads. I think if the house has Ra2 the guests will be able to figure it out. The first button press is the most terrifying. After that most people get used to it really quick.

Thanks Evan. Putting the fan and heater on a second Pico is an interesting idea. That isn't too far off from what I had originally - 3 Lighting Scenes, a toggle for the heater, and an "All Off" button - all on a W4S keypad. I really like the W4S form-factor as that button on the bottom is a great place to put the All Off and make it easy to find. I was originally just going to just turn the fan on with any scene and then turn it off with a 15-min delay on the all-off button but it probably needs its on toggle as well. Maybe the problem was my labeling or my wife is just making much to do about nothing. This is a pool house bathroom and we do a fair amount of entertaining and this is the bathroom most guests will use. There is a shower but no tub. Thanks again for the input.