Smart lighting is more than a cool gimmick; it can save energy, provide a security boost and make your home more comfortable. It can also help you maintain your home’s ambiance and give you peace of mind when you are away.
The best smart lights are easy to use, and offer a wide range of features that can help you control your light settings and even create custom light scenes. You can also find hubless bulbs and switches that don’t require a separate hub to function. Many smart lighting products support multiple connectivity protocols, but it is important to choose a system that supports the one you will be using with your devices.
Many smart lighting options allow you to control your lights remotely with a mobile device. Some of them work over Wi-Fi, others through Bluetooth Mesh or Z-Wave, and some use a proprietary wireless protocol.
Some of the most popular smart lighting options have voice activation, meaning they can respond to your commands without you having to grab your phone or tablet. This makes them simple and convenient, but it’s worth noting that it is important to choose a product with this feature from one of the top-rated brands to ensure that everything works together efficiently and reliably.
Other smart lighting systems can learn and automate your light usage based on data. For example, they can connect to your digital calendars and turn on and off at times when you are most likely to be in the room. This can be a big help when you are traveling for business and want to give the impression that your home is occupied, or for those who often forget to turn off the lights before leaving for work.
Smart lights can illuminate your driveway or front yard when you arrive at home from work, which is a great way to let in guests or deter burglars. You can also set up the lights in your home to turn on and off randomly while you are away, to suggest that someone is there.
The perks of smart lighting don’t stop at your house; you can also use it to monitor and automate the lighting in commercial buildings. For example, you can integrate it with the digital calendars of staff members and automatically turn the lights on and off at certain times when meetings are scheduled. This can help reduce wasted energy and electricity, as well as the stress of remembering to turn off the lights before leaving the building.
It’s also possible to create customized light schedules that will dim to a preset setting at night to signal that it is time for bed. This can be particularly helpful if you are the type of person who tends to fall asleep with the TV or computer still on, or who often forgets to turn off the lights before going to sleep. You can also set up the lights to turn off at sunset or sunrise, or use geofencing to make sure that your smart lights will always turn off when you leave the property.