With a few touches on your Smart Lights, you can create a warm, inviting ambiance with the best smart light.
Whether you want to brighten or dim the light, turn it on or off, or even change the colour it Smart Lights, the best smart lighting eliminates the need for you to leave the sofa. The finest smart light can also be a useful tool for energy conservation (and money). Most smart lights are LED designs that are designed to replace your old incandescent bulbs and consume less energy.
Even better, although some smart light bulbs utilise Bluetooth and can only be controlled while you’re close by, many smart lighting solutions use Wi-Fi and can be turned on or off regardless of where you are. This means that if you’re forgetful, you can turn off the lights remotely rather than leaving them on while you’re away.
What should you know about smart light bulbs?
1. Begin by deciding on a platform.
While most smart light bulbs come with their own control app, you can improve your lighting experience by connecting them to your smart home hub as well.
2. They are becoming less expensive.
Because of government subsidies and business incentives that encourage the adoption of energy-efficient lighting and electronics, what was once a significant investment in household illumination is now becoming increasingly affordable.So, if you’re on a tight budget, don’t be put off by smart light bulbs.
3. Smart light bulbs can help you sleep better.
You can better prepare your body for resting and awakening by programming your smart light bulbs to replicate sunrise, sunset, or a low, calming light.You can also avoid blue light, which adds to sleep issues.
4. They are incompatible with traditional dimmer switches.
Consider replacing your switches to smart switches to avoid the irritating strobing effects caused by regular dimmer switches.
5. Some smart light bulbs can be tampered with.
Hackers can access your network with certain smart light bulbs, just like any other gadget that connects to WiFi or employs smart technologies.Consider running your smart light bulbs on a separate Internet network that is not connected to your main WiFi network and does not have access to your sensitive data.
Top best smart lights for 2022
These are the following smart lights :
#1. Philips Hue White & Color ambiance
Back in 2012, the Philips Hue was an Apple HomeKit exclusive, available at Apple Stores nationwide as part of a $199 starter set that included three lamps and a hub. Additional bulbs are $59 each. The Philips Hue range of lights was revolutionary as the first fully adjustable and wirelessly controlled lighting system.
#2. Max Cree Lighting Connected
At about $10 per bulb, this smart light bulb is an excellent choice for those on a tighter budget. And because you can use these with just your smartphone and a 2.4GHz network connection, there is no need for a hub, which saves you even more money than some other solutions. These Cree smart lights come in millions of colours and white temperatures ranging from 2200K to 6500K, and they can be controlled by Alexa or Google Assistant.
#3. Kasa LED Smart Light Strip
Adding smart functionality to a colour LED light strip is akin to adding sprinkles to ice cream: it just makes everything better. You can establish up to 50 colour zones at once with these Kasa smart LED light strips, with 16 million colours to select from, to completely adjust your lighting according to your mood—or to make your walls light up in hues that match the sprinkles on your ice cream cone.
#4. Electric Recessed Lighting Kit Fraud
Feit Electric sells high-quality smart bulbs at a reasonable price. This is an example of a recessed light kit that may be used to replace existing recessed lights. And by seamless, I mean it. Because no bulb is required for this built-in LED smart light, it can be used to replace most existing 5- to 6-inch recessed lighting fixtures and provide 25,000 hours, or nearly 22 years, of illumination.
The Most Important Considerations
Color Choices
Smart light bulbs come in a variety of shapes and sizes.The first is a simple white bulb aimed to be as near to natural light as possible.They frequently have dimming capabilities but do not change colours.The other choice is a colour bulb that can change to almost any hue you desire, whenever you want.They can act as regular lights but can be switched to mood lighting at any time.The third option, which includes some of our best picks, allows you to modify the light’s “colour temperature,” which regulates how similar to natural light the bulb is, a.k.a. how “warm” or “cool” the light seems, even if it isn’t totally changing colour.
Options for Dimming
Some smart bulbs, including the majority of our top recommendations, include dimming capabilities, allowing you to use anywhere from 1% to 100% of the light bulb’s brightness.This allows for additional customization, as well as the ability to adjust brightness based on how dark it is outside, which is ideal for tinkering until you find the optimum levels.Dimming bulbs, on the other hand, necessitate dimming-capable wiring, which usually implies the switch includes a neutral wire connection.Dimming may be impossible without a neutral wire connection.
Size
Most smart bulbs are designed to be roughly the same shape as ordinary incandescent lights, so this isn’t normally a problem.However, it’s still a good idea to double-check that the bulb is small enough to fit into the fixture you’re thinking about, and that the base design is the correct type for your socket.
Platform and Voice Assistant Compatibility
What does your smart bulb support?There are a few things to keep an eye out for here. If voice commands are crucial to you, ensure sure the bulbs are compatible with your preferred voice assistant, such as Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri.
App User Interface
You should also look at the app utilised for the smart bulbs and how it appears. This is how you’ll make schedules, change colours or brightness, and remotely control the light (except for voice commands). It should be simple to understand and use.
FAQ
Are Smart Light Bulbs Worth the Investment?
Smart bulbs are far more expensive than LED bulbs, however prices have dropped significantly in recent years, making beginning expenditures much more feasible. There are also long-term savings: Smart LED light bulbs use extremely little electricity and can last for a very long period; for example, Philips Hue bulbs are rated for 25,000 hours, which is far longer than most standard LED bulbs. You can also save money by carefully setting smart bulbs to turn on just at specific times of day. Those smart led bulbs will pay for themselves after a few years. Then there’s the added functionality that smart bulbs offer. If you absolutely want a bulb with the ability to schedule, dim, or change colours on demand, then paying a little more for such features is certainly worth it for you.Finally, it’s rarely worthwhile to convert every light in your home to an LED smart bulb, but it’s well worth it to select one or two key lights to offer these features to.
Can Smart Light Bulbs Be Used in Any Lamp?
The ordinary smart bulb is designed to fit into traditional US sockets with a medium screw base – the same type that used incandescent lights in the past.Fortunately, this medium-based socket is so widespread that it’s most likely the sort you have throughout your home (except for fluorescent tubes, of course).There are, however, several exceptions: Chandeliers may employ mini light bulbs, while some small lights may use double-contact bases, and various designs are available.It is feasible to get smart bulbs that fit these types of sockets, but it will require some investigation.
Do You Require a Smart Plug and a Smart Bulb?
Certainly not.A smart plug is intended to fit into a home outlet and provide smart capabilities to any device plugged into that outlet (setting schedules, measuring energy use, etc.).It is a completely different type of smart gadget than a smart plug.In reality, the two are largely mutually exclusive. If you have a plug-in lamp, you can either buy a smart bulb and screw it in, or you can buy a smart plug and control the lamp that way while still using a regular bulb – but utilising both at the same time is ineffective and confusing.The same may be said for a smart light switch.
Do Smart Bulbs Require WiFi?
Yes, if you want to use any of their other features.The bulb can still be turned on and off using the switch, but it will require a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connection to connect to the app and allow you to do things like set colours, dim the lights, establish routines, interact with voice assistants…and everything else.A smart wi-fi led bulb is useless without Wi-Fi, yet it will still light up.
When turned off, do smart bulbs consume electricity?
Yes, because they must remain connected to your Wi-Fi system, but when they are not actively used or controlled, they enter a sort of sleep state that saves a lot of power.So, about 0.15 watts every hour, which comes up to about 2 cents each month, depending on your electricity rates.In other words, it’s insignificant.
Which is the better option, Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant?
Alexa from Amazon What is Google Assistant? Choosing one smart assistant is superior to the other can be difficult because they both provide similar functionality for around the same price.Alexa or Google Assistant, Alexa or Google, Your mind is probably racing back and forth, trying to figure out which option is best for you. To be honest, both are good alternatives with a variety of functions, and the choice truly depends on what you’re looking for in an AI assistant.If we had to pick just one, we would go with Alexa for smart home connectivity.When you link smart gadgets to Alexa, they can do a lot more.Even seemingly simple devices like smart lights interact with Alexa in novel and creative ways.
Which is the better option: Homekit, Alexa, or Google?
Apple’s smart home solution, Homekit, allows you to control and communicate with smart home devices. Their Homekit compatibility allows customers to operate appliances with Siri voice commands and shares many features with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
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