Conveniently turn lights on and off from anywhere with an app or smart display. Many models are also dimmable and offer color and warmth options.
You can set them to increase gradually throughout the morning, waking you up gently. You can also program your lights to turn on and off at different times, suggesting that you are home to deter burglars.
Controlling Your Lights From Anywhere
With smart lighting, you can use an app or voice assistant to control your lights. With endless customisable options, you can change the colour, brightness, and timing of your lights to fit around your lifestyle. Smart lighting systems are also compatible with other IoT devices, like audio equipment and thermostats, allowing you to create a full smart home.
You can even set up a “mockupancy” mode when you’re away, with the lights turning on and off at random times to make it appear that your house is occupied. All of this is possible because smart lights work with smart apps, which communicate directly with your light bulbs, switches, and outlets using your wifi network or hub. They can be operated by touchscreen panels, mobile devices, or voice assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa. Many of these apps offer multitasking, enabling you to control all of your smart home devices from one place. A great example of this is the Philips Hue app.
Having Control Over Your Energy Use
Unlike traditional bulbs, smart light bulbs can connect to your home’s wireless network and be controlled via an app on your phone or through a voice assistant like the Amazon Alexa or the Google Home device. This makes it easy to turn your lights on and off remotely.
Additionally, some smart lighting systems use a form of machine learning to monitor the habits of occupants and determine when lights should be turned on and off. This could help you save energy and money by turning your lights off at night as you prepare for bed, or even by giving the impression that someone is in the house when you’re away for a long trip.
The most common smart lighting system uses a central hub that you can either buy as a standalone product or install as part of your home’s Wi-Fi set-up. These devices communicate with the bulbs and switches using industry-standard technology such as Zigbee.
Having Control Over Your Atmosphere
When you use a smart lighting system, it can create an incredible atmosphere. With features like dimming, changing color ambiance, syncing lights to music or movies, and simulating occupancy for security purposes, you can create a completely unique experience in any room.
Many systems work with a central device called a hub that connects to your Wi-Fi network. From there, the devices communicate with each other, and you can control them from your phone or through a voice assistant.
Some systems also use industry-standard protocols such as Zigbee to allow your products to talk with each other. This allows you to control multiple bulbs in the same system from a single app. This is important because it means you won’t need to have different apps for each individual bulb or switch, and that will help keep your security setup simple. You can also get smart light features with switches and plugs, so you don’t have to replace your current fixtures.
Having Control Over Your Security
Most smart lighting systems can be interconnected with other home automation devices, including security sensors. That allows you to set lights and other devices to turn on at random intervals to make it appear that someone is home to scare off criminals or even trigger a real alarm if the burglary detectors pick up a signal from a basement window, side door, or back yard light being opened.
You can also control your lights with voice commands through your smartphone or digital assistant device. Most smart bulbs and switches work with different platforms, but a new smart home standard called Matter promises to allow for cross-platform compatibility. In the meantime, you may want to start with one brand to get your feet wet, and then grow into a larger smart home system as you become more comfortable with the technology and how it fits your needs. Ultimately, a smart lighting system is a great way to cut down on wasted energy, and to make it feel like you’re always at home.
