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Pretty much everything is becoming wireless these days. Intelligent controls that take the teenager out of the equation and turn off lights when they are not needed or adjust the mood to suit are particularly suited to retrofit projects. Using radio-frequency-based systems, they require no invasive hard wiring to be installed to existing homes.

There are also technologies that use mains power circuits to carry data to and from your fittings, and even for traditional hard-wired lighting circuits, it’s going to be more and more common for the user’s control device to be a tablet or mobile phone instead of a switch on the wall.

The ‘internet of things’ is the current term used to describe what happens when we no longer just connect computer or phones to the web but also our kitchen appliances, exercise monitor and, of course, your home’s lights. Lighting is an ideal network for the internet-of-things services to be built on to because it’s already there in the ceiling, all wired up and ready to go. You only have to add a few daylight or PIR sensors, timers or cameras and some kind of data connection to start making it controllable from wherever you are. Switching it on at the wall is likely to become rare.

Connectivity is the current vogue with the internet of things, and although we have had dimmers, timers and PIR detectors for years now, they will be able to communicate with other devices and require less human input. I have walked through new school corridors lately with the lights tracking my progress; turning on immediately before me and switching off immediately behind. A weird feeling to begin with, I admit, but the point is that it is now possible to use intelligent lighting that knows where we are and what level of lighting we need. In the near future we will not need to think about using lighting; it will be something we take for granted as just being there when we are.