Installed by Shield Low Voltage
Ketra, Rania, Lumaris.
Lutron’s Own Light.
Lutron now makes the fixtures as well as the controls: three light sources, from tunable white to the full spectrum of daylight, each wireless, each needing only line voltage, each on the same keypads and scenes as the rest of the house.
The dimmer company started making the light.
For sixty years Lutron controlled other people’s fixtures. Then it bought Ketra, the Austin company that built a light engine out of red, green, blue and white emitters and tuned it to the sun, and put the intelligence inside the fixture: each lamp or downlight has its own Clear Connect radio, so the electrician runs line voltage and nothing else. Ketra is the flagship. Rania brings the same natural-white idea to the whole floor plan. Lumaris is tunable white and warm dim at a price that belongs in every room. This page is how we tell them apart and where we put each one.
Three Sources, One System
Lutron’s own comparison, in Lutron’s own numbers. All three dim to 0.1 percent, run on HomeWorks, and talk to the processor wirelessly over Clear Connect Type X.
| Lumaris | Rania | Ketra | |
| What Lutron calls it | “Intelligent lighting starts here” | “Natural white light” | “The world’s most innovative light source” |
| Light engine | Two or more channels, tunable white and warm dim | Three-channel, built on Ketra’s colour mixing | Four-channel full spectrum, 16.7 million colours |
| Colour temperature | 1,800K to 4,000K | 1,800K to 5,500K | 1,400K to 10,000K |
| Colour rendering | CRI 90+ | CRI 90+ across most of the range | CRI 90+ (2,700K to 5,000K), R9 above 90, plus Vibrancy control |
| Natural Light (tracks the sun) | Presets by time of day | Yes | Yes, the full curve, with Color Lock holding it for 50,000 hours |
| Formats | 3 in and 4 in downlights, remodeler and retrofit cans, tunable white and RGB tape light | D2 downlights (new construction and remodeler), A20, S30 and S38 lamps, natural white tape light | D2, D3 and D4R downlights, A20, S30 and S38 lamps, G2 and LS0 linears, track |
| Control systems | RadioRA 3, HomeWorks | HomeWorks, RadioRA 3 | HomeWorks, RadioRA 3 |
| Wiring to the fixture | Line voltage only — the control is wireless and inside the fixture. No dimmer module, no control wire, no central panel required. | ||
| Lutron’s price tier | $ | $$$ | $$$$ |
Ketra. Light that matches the sky at every hour, renders colour the way the sun does, and goes to candlelight without going grey.
Four emitters blended into any white from 1,400K to 10,000K, or into saturated colour when a room wants it. Natural Light moves the house through the day on its own; Vibrancy is a third dial that changes how colours render without changing the light’s own colour; Color Lock watches the output 360 times a second so a ten-year-old fixture matches a new one.
- Downlights — D2 two-inch (new construction and remodeler), D3 three-inch, D4R four-inch remodeler
- Lamps — A20, S30 and S38 in E26 or GU24, for the fixtures you already love
- Linear — G2 for coves and high output, LS0 Lightbar Slim under cabinets and shelves; track heads for galleries
- Where we spec it — great rooms, kitchens, art walls, primary suites: anywhere light is the design
What full spectrum buys you. Ordinary tunable white moves between two whites. Ketra draws the whole curve.
- Morning light that is genuinely cool and bright, evening light that is genuinely warm, and every step between them correct
- Skin, wood, stone and paint rendered the way they look outside, at every level
- Dimming that warms like a filament if you want it to, or holds its colour over art
- Scenes that set colour and level together: one button for the dinner party, one for the morning
Rania. Natural white for the rest of the house — built on Ketra’s colour mixing, without the colour.
Lutron describes Rania as “more true-to-life than typical tunable white and warm dim.” A three-channel engine sweeps from 1,800K incandescent glow to 5,500K midday sun with CRI 90+ across most of that range, follows the day like Ketra does, and shares the D2 housing, trims and aiming. It is the fixture we put through the balance of a Ketra house so every room speaks the same language of light.
- Downlights — Rania D2, new construction and remodeler, fixed, adjustable or wall wash
- Lamps — A20, S30 and S38, so a chandelier or a track head can match the downlights
- Tape — natural white tape light for stairs, mirror edges and under cabinets
- Where we spec it — bedrooms, halls, baths, offices and secondary rooms in a Ketra home, or a whole house that wants natural light without the flagship budget
Ketra or Rania? Same housings, same trims, same scenes. The difference is the engine.
- Ketra reaches 1,400K and 10,000K and mixes saturated colour; Rania stops at 1,800K and 5,500K and stays white
- Ketra adds Vibrancy and Color Lock; Rania adds a lower price per fixture
- Both follow the sun, both aim after the ceiling is finished, both need only line voltage
- Most of our Ketra homes are a mix, chosen room by room on the reflected ceiling plan
Lumaris. Tunable white and warm dim from one light source, and the one that fits every budget.
Lumaris mixes at least two channels of colour, dims flicker-free to 0.1 percent, holds CRI 90+ and moves between 1,800K and 4,000K: warm-dim like the incandescent people remember, tunable white for the kitchen at breakfast. It is native to RadioRA 3 as well as HomeWorks, which makes it the light source for most of the homes we build.
- Downlights — 3-inch and 4-inch apertures, plus remodeler and retrofit versions that drop into finished ceilings and existing cans
- Tape — tunable white, and RGB plus tunable white for colour, in 16-foot and 98-foot rolls with seven aluminum channel profiles
- Control — wireless per fixture; a tape controller runs each 16-foot run
- Where we spec it — coves, toe-kicks, shelving and mirror halos in every home, and the downlight of choice on a RadioRA 3 house
Where the strip goes. The light you never see directly is the light that makes a room look designed.
- Coves and crown, washing the ceiling instead of pointing at the floor
- Toe-kicks and stair treads at night-light levels
- Shelving, niches and slat walls lit from inside the architecture
- RGB where the room asks for it: a bar, a theater, a kid’s room, a holiday
Which One, Where
The honest way to choose is by room and by system, not by brochure.
On RadioRA 3
Lumaris downlights and tape through the house; Ketra or Rania D2 where the great room, kitchen or art earns it. All wireless, all on the same keypads.
On HomeWorks
Ketra where light is the design, Rania through the balance, Lumaris for the strips. Add the lamps and lineals, which Lutron lists for HomeWorks.
Existing fixtures
Ketra and Rania A20, S30 and S38 lamps bring natural light to a chandelier or a track you already own, no fixture change.
Finished ceilings
The D2 Remodeler, Lumaris remodeler and retrofit downlights install through drywall or into existing cans, so a remodel is not locked out.
From the People Who Make It
How Lutron Builds the Light
Lutron’s own film on the thinking behind Ketra: why natural light drives the engineering, how the colour-mixing engine is built and tested in-house, and what full-spectrum light does in a home.
Video by Lutron Electronics, on the Shield Low Voltage channel. Shield is a Lutron dealer for Utah. The Seaholm penthouse film, a HomeWorks and Ketra home start to finish, is on our Lutron page.
Lutron Light, Answered Straight
Do Ketra and Rania need HomeWorks?
Not any more. Lutron lists the Ketra D2, D3 and D4R downlights, the G2 and LS0 linears, the Rania D2 and Rania tape light as RadioRA 3 components as well as HomeWorks. The lamps are listed for HomeWorks. Caséta does not control any of the three.
What wire does the electrician run to a Ketra fixture?
Line voltage, continuously powered, with no dimmer or switch in between. The fixture carries its own Clear Connect Type X radio and talks to the processor directly, so there is no control wire, no dimming module and no panel space per circuit.
Is Lumaris the same as a tunable-white strip from the lighting supply house?
No. Lumaris is Lutron’s own light source with Lutron’s controller inside the system: flicker-free to 0.1 percent, CRI 90+, warm dim that tracks an incandescent curve, and scenes on the same keypads as the rest of the house. It is also the only one of the three that is native to RadioRA 3 and HomeWorks alike at every format.
Can we mix all three in one house?
That is how most of ours are built: Ketra in the rooms that earn it, Rania through the balance, Lumaris for the strips and secondary rooms. One processor, one set of scenes, one language of light.
What do they cost?
Lutron publishes the tiers as $ for Lumaris, $$$ for Rania and $$$$ for Ketra. The Ketra D2 launched at $850 fixed and $950 adjustable, the Rania D2 at $625 and $725. A room is the fixtures plus the HomeWorks or RadioRA 3 system behind them; we price from the reflected ceiling plan.
Will the colour drift over the years?
Ketra’s Color Lock monitors output 360 times a second and holds colour across a rated 50,000 hours, with a five-year warranty on fixture, LED and dimming. Rania and Lumaris carry Lutron’s in-house end-of-line testing and the same dealer-serviced support.
Light
Worth Planning.
Send us the reflected ceiling plan. We will mark Ketra, Rania and Lumaris room by room, size the system behind them, and tune every fixture on the finished house.