Smart Home Lighting

The rapid advancement in technology plays to the advantage of the consumers. With the discovery and development of smart home lighting system, you no longer have to be worried about how best to make your home an outstanding beauty, thanks to the smart light system. Smart home automation companies have been working round the clock to ensure the effectiveness of their trendy products. Smart lights form part of the smart home automation systems. Smart lighting allows you to change the colors of your bulbs as well as their brightness from the comfort of your seat. All you need is to install the smart light app on your Apple or Android phone. You can then do whatever you desire with your bulb, including switching from one recipe to another, just at a touch of a button. Before going into the finer details of how smart home lighting is set up and probably its best providers in the market, let’s see how it works and what you require.

Functionality and the Requirements for Smart Home Lighting System

Smart light uses the mesh network technology in which neighboring smart bulbs wirelessly connect to each other. This network is basically controlled by a hub that is plugged into your router, thereby enabling effective communication between your bulbs and other networked devices such as tablets and smartphones. Other smart lighting systems are modified in such a manner that you can remotely control your bulbs from anywhere far from home.  You no longer need to worry about accidentally leaving your lights on while you are away from home. It is also worth noting that you don’t necessarily need a hub in order to set up your system. Alternatively, you may choose to connect your LIFX platform to your Wi-Fi and all will be set.

What are the Benefits of Having Smart Home Lighting System?

Smart home lighting system carries with itself a number of benefits. The first advantage is that it saves you money. Instead of spending a lot of money in the decoration of every room of your house, you can use the simple mesh network of smart lights to define whichever colors you desire for different rooms.

Secondly, smart light is cool and modern. It sets a clear variation between your home and neighbor’s home that still uses non-smart lights. Better still, it is techno-savvy as it allows you to switch your bulbs between different colors just from the comfort of your bed or seat.

The third advantage of having smart light is that it saves you the stress of making physical alterations whenever you wish to go out for a journey. Using the app on your smartphone, you can easily note which bulbs are on and switch them off whenever you wish.

Smart lights have sensors that can easily detect people and objects moving around your home. You can program them to detect strangers who move past a given circumference of your home. This, therefore, makes it possible for you to tell when intruders find their way into your home and are able to raise an alarm.

Lastly, smart lighting can put you on alert. For instance, you can link your social media account with your smart light. You can then instruct your system such that when someone pokes you or tags your photo on Facebook, the bulb switches to a pre-defined color, thereby attracting your reaction.

What are the Main Types of Smart Lights?

Even though smart lights have significant variations, they broadly fall into two major categories. These are Sensor-integrated and non-sensor integrated.

Sensor-integrated smart lights have sensors which enable them to detect daylight, objects, and people. When this happens, these lights instantly send signals to the smart lighting system network which in turn, responds by setting the relevant parameters for each light.

Non-sensor integrated lights, however, do not have these sensors. All the same, they still qualify as smart in that they can program the bulbs and bring about the desired effects.

What are some of the Smart Lighting Products Available in the Market?

When it comes to settling for a particular product for your smart lighting, there are quite a number of considerations that you will have to make. This ranges from the product brand to its cost and suitability. The following are some of the best smart home lights that are available in the market and could serve the best of your interest:

LIFX Color 1000 Wi-Fi Smart LED Light Bulb (3rd Generation): These light bulbs have amazingly intensive colors and basically feature as the brightest in the category of color changing bulbs.  They do not require any hub as they are connected through Wi-Fi.  Generally, these smart light bulbs are easy to set up. They allow you to calibrate various color moods and pallets. Moreover, you are able to program your lights such that they automatically switch on whenever you return home. The apps that are associated with these bulbs are user-friendly and easy to download. As an added advantage, LIFX Color Smart lights allow you to connect up to 100 bulbs to a single phone. Finally, the interface that comes with these bulbs is intrusive and you can easily dim your lights.

Element Classic by Sengled: This product is not only inexpensive but also user-friendly. Its setup enables it to be remotely controlled from any part of the world using a smartphone. The setup and the automation procedure seems more breeze. At the moment, this bulb is featured as the cheapest smart light on the market. This energy-efficient bulb has 650 lumens. More interesting is that it is compatible with smart home platforms. It is controlled by voice via Google Assistant.  This bulb has a lifespan of up to 22 years and it enhances smart control. If your aim is to illuminate your home in a cheaper and smarter way, Sengled’s element then becomes your best option. Its app allows you to adjust the brightness and color in addition to setting the on/off timer. To crown it all, the Sengled bulb is compatible with Zigbee, Amazon Alexa, Wink, and Google Assistant hubs. Once you have any of these hubs, you can easily install the bulb and your system will be up and running.

Philips Hue: Philips Hue is an outstanding brand with a bulb system that allows you to control the intensity and color of your home lighting wirelessly. This all-powerful and easy to use system has a combination of up to 50 Hue LED lights. The system features a wide range of lights which are core elements of its wonderful experience. In order to set up a Philips Hue system, you need a router, Ethernet connection cables, and an Android or iPad app. Philips’ ability to instantly change colors by choosing from 16 million methods makes it a sort after brand.

TP-Link Smart Wi-Fi A19 LED Bulb: The setup process for this product is considerably easy and it effectively works with Alexa. The apps associated with it are fantastic and easy to use as well. This lighting product, which is Wi-Fi savvy, is compatible with both Amazon Echo and Alexa devices and it allows you to control your lights from anywhere. The bulbs come in 50w and 60w with additional color options readily available. To serve you even better, these bulbs come with a variety of colors and dimming options. It further provides you with the ability to program your lights and successfully work with them as long as you are connected to Wi-Fi. Its amazing tunable white bulbs enable you to mimic the daylight and to set a defined group of lights to work at the same time. It is notable that you do not require any hub for you to install this gadget in your home.

Flux Bluetooth LED Light Bulb: You will definitely find a lot of fun with this smart light due to the wonderful features that come with it. To begin with, the system is easy to install and operate. It is connected to your Android or iDevices via Bluetooth. Flux Bluetooth LED light bulb features more than 16 million colors from which you can make a choice depending on where you need a particular color to be. As the operator, all is at your disposal to choose whether to control a single bulb or a group of bulbs. Just like the other smart light bulbs, you can set a timer on when you want each of your lights to switch on or off. This is yet another product whereby you do not require additional hubs and controllers for a successful installation and operation.

What are the Pros and Cons of Smart Home Lights?

Pros

Easy installation process: The procedures involved in the entire installation process are quite simple and clear. All you need is to screw up the bulbs at the intended positions then link them up using the mesh network topology. Once this is done, you can then install their apps on your smart gadgets such as Android and smartphone and you are good to go.

Saves you time and money: With the automated system in your home, you no longer need to worry about going around the house to either switch the bulb on or off manually. All you need is to program them to either switch on or off all at once or simultaneously.

Energy-Efficient: Theses bulbs are energy efficient in that their wattage is considerably low. Furthermore, the ability to control them remotely helps you save power by switching them off without necessarily going back home. This saves you time and any unnecessary disturbance.

No additional charges for Features: You do not have to spend an extra coin on the features. Even if you need other features like motion tracking and camera functionality, they will cost you less in smart lights as compared to the basic LED lights.

They are versatile: The bulb can easily work with any fixtures. You can install it at one point of the house then move it around at will.

Cons

Shorter Lifespan: The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communication devices used to increase the bulb’s heat sink which may, in turn, decrease the lifespan of the smart LED bulb.

Fewer Options:  When it comes to compatibility with other fixtures, Smart lights tend to have some limitations. They are basically compatible only with fixtures created for them hence limiting your extent of usability.

They do not interact well with Dimmer switches: Installing a light bulb on a fixture that is connected to dimmer switch may trigger the buzzing or flickering of the bulb.

Which are some of the Home Automation Companies?

A number of companies have in the recent past, launched their programs in home automation. However, a closer look at the industry gives five major companies with outstanding reputation when it comes to smart home automation. These are Vera, Savant, Wink, Smart -Tings, and August Smart Lock.

August Smart Lock: This company tops the list of automation companies due to its incredible performance in this industry.  Alongside other products, it offers convenient and high-quality automated doors.

Vera: Vera provides both powerful and consistent remote access in addition to its dependable technical team.

Savant: This company provides the user with the low-cost solution to dynamically control over their domain.

Wink:  Wink continuously strives to improve the existing technology with an aim of making life more secure and convenient.

Smart-Things:  This is an automation system company owned by Samsung. It basically deals with apps. It provides some of the market ready services.

Other than these there are other companies in this niche that offer HOME THEATER SYSTEM INSTALLATION.

Considerably, the world is getting digitalized at a faster speed. With the latest discovery and availability of the aforementioned products in the local market, life can only be made better and more enriching by considering the usage of these products tailored for home modern home usage. You no longer need to go an extra mile in installing security alarms and other sensors from other brands as all these are covered by the smart light system that you opt for.

It is however very necessary to develop a clear understanding of the various packages of home-automation products before settling on the best. This consideration could be done with a focus on the pricing as well as the intended function not to mention the cost of maintenance.