What is a Rako lighting system?
Rako Controls is a lighting control company based in Rochester, Kent, and it says it manufactures its products in the UK. A Rako lighting system puts dimmer modules out of sight and scene keypads on the wall, so one press sets several circuits to the levels chosen for that moment, instead of a row of switches that each do one thing.
The range splits three ways. Wireless modules sit near the lights they control and take commands from keypads by radio. Wired systems link keypads and dimmer racks over a data cable. Combined systems mix the two in one house. A Rako Hub (the RK-HUB for wireless systems, the WK-HUB for wired) connects everything to the home network. It runs timed events, holiday mode and dawn and dusk settings, and it opens up the Rako app and voice control through Alexa, Siri or Google Home.
Why Rako suits retrofits as well as new builds
The main reason to choose Rako is that it lets each project decide how much wiring it needs. On a retrofit, where walls are finished and there is no data cable to the switch positions, Rako's own planning advice treats wireless as the obvious route. In practice we fit the dimming modules at points where the existing lighting cable is already exposed, a downlight cut-out being the classic example, and the new keypads reach them by radio. Plaster, cornicing and decoration stay largely as they are.
That matters most in older houses, where chasing walls for new cable is often the most disruptive part of a lighting upgrade. Our guide to smart lighting in listed and period homes covers the wider picture. On a new build or a full strip-out, a wired Rako core makes more sense. Mains-fed keypads mean illuminated buttons you can find in a dark room, radio range stops being a question in a large house, and with every device on one data network the system can be checked and extended from a single point years later. The trade-off is cost and commissioning time: wired needs a laptop to programme, while a modest wireless scheme can be set up without one.
Planning a Rako lighting system: wireless, wired or both
The first decision is which platform forms the core, because Rako wired and wireless products can be combined in one system. We work it out room by room:
- Finished rooms and period interiors: wireless modules near the fittings, with keypads that need no new data cable.
- Rooms being stripped back: a wired keypad network and centrally mounted RAK dimmer racks, which keeps the dimming electronics together in one place.
- Coloured and tunable light: the Rako app has a colour wheel for RGB and RGBW fittings and colour temperature control, so we check that every driver and fitting suits the chosen modules before the ceilings close up.
- Keypads: Rako offers its keypads in seven finishes, and its modular keypad comes in wired and wireless versions. We agree finishes, button counts and labels with you or your interior designer at the same time as the scene list.
Scene names should describe what happens in a room, not which circuits are on. Getting that list right before first fix saves reprogramming later.
