Smart Lighting

Smart lighting trends are on the rise with more and more homeowners incorporating smart lighting and other smart features into their homes. With convenient wireless lighting controls and the ability to customise their operation, it’s no wonder that the smart light is becoming a fixture in the home.

Among our various LED lighting solutions, we offer a variety of smart home lighting options to choose from. From ceiling lights to wall lights and beyond, you can incorporate the power of smart lights into your home with ease.

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What is Smart Lighting?

At its most basic, LED smart lighting is a lighting solution that connects to a central control base, usually through the Internet or Bluetooth. It takes advantage of technology like sensors, connectivity and intelligent controls to allow you to use the lights exactly how you like them. Usually, they are included with other smart lighting systems, such as thermostat control, security cameras and more.

Smart lights either come as a bulb with network connectivity, or as systems that you plug an average light into. With the lights connected, you can control them through your voice, a smartphone app or automation. 

One of the biggest perks of a smart lighting system is the customisation options. You can tailor the functionality or even the appearance of the light in some cases to your preferences. Set timers, routines and certain circumstances for the lights to turn on or off, and let the system do the rest.

How Does Smart Lighting Work?

There are different components to a smart lighting system that all work together with the rest of the smart system in your home. The first of these are, of course, the bulbs themselves. 

Smart lights use LED bulbs more often than not. These energy efficient bulbs can generate a number of brightness levels and colour temperatures to allow for unique illumination. 

Smart lights usually have wifi or Bluetooth connections that let them “talk” to the other smart things in the house. Other smart lights instead use a hub or a bridge. This hub is responsible for the smart controls, being what communicates with the rest of the system. 

Once everything is connected, you can control the smart lights your way. Smart lighting control options are many and include: 

 

  • APP CONTROLLED. Lighting controlled by apps allows you to set routines, turn lights on and off and more with the touch of a button.

 

  • VOICE ACTIVATED. Lights that respond to your voice commands allow you to control the lights hands-free.

 

  • TIMED OR REMOTE CONTROLLED. Lights set up to follow certain routines or timer settings will work on a schedule that you set ahead of time. 

Is Smart Home Lighting Easy to Install?

Smart home lights are incredibly easy to install. As long as you already have light fixtures wired into the home, the process is simple. There is no need to get an electrician in there to set up your smart recessed lighting or smart pendant light fixtures for you. 

The process is simple, straightforward and can be done in a matter of minutes. Just follow these basic guidelines, or check the specific installation instructions that come with your smart home system:

  1. CONNECT THE HUB TO THE WIFI. If your smart lights require a hub to communicate, ensure they are connected to the internet. This will give your lights something to “talk to.”
  1. CONNECT THE SMART DEVICE. Connect the smart bulb to the fixture to begin. You can also plug the fixture itself into a smart power bar whose outlets are controlled instead of the bulb itself.
  1. DOWNLOAD ANY APPS. Your smart home will come with a dedicated app designed for use with your particular system. Download the app and create an account.
  1. CONNECT THE APPS. Using the app, assign the smart lights different names in the system. This will ensure the smart home knows which light is which when you control it.
  1. SET ROUTINES. On the app, you can set up timers, “scenes” and routines that will automatically turn the lights on or off. They can also be used to choose dimmer settings and in some cases colour temperatures. Use this time to also set up any voice control commands and trigger words you may need.
  1. TEST AND ENJOY. Utilize THE various app functions and be sure everything is working as intended. Talk out loud to your smart home system and make sure the lights respond to your voice commands.

What Are The Benefits of Smart Lighting in The Home?

Smart LED lights have many benefits that make them attractive options for the home or office. These include: 

  • CONVENIENCE. Smart lights for home can be set on timers, controlled with your voice or even turned on and off when you’re away from home. Their sheer convenience makes their use seamless and easy.

 

  • ENERGY EFFICIENT. Smart light fittings come with LED bulbs, which are energy efficient by nature. When you add the ability to put them on timers, they become even more efficient. This is not only good for the environment, but good for lowering your utility bills as well.

 

  • SECURITY. Smart ceiling lights and other interior lights may help deter crime. By setting the lights to turn on and off on a schedule, for example, you can give the illusion of occupancy, even when you’re away.

 

  • INTEGRATION. A smart light fitting can easily be worked into the rest of your smart home. 

Can you Use Voice Commands With Smart Lighting?

There are many different ways to control the smart lights in your home. One of the most convenient ways to do this is to use the voice command options. 

Voice commands allow you to control the smart lights just by speaking. Usually, this is achieved by connecting your lights to a service like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. A trigger word is used to activate the main system, and then you can tell it what you want it to do. 

Before you can use your voice controls, you’ll need to be sure it is enabled in your smart home system. From there, you will usually name different light sources with different names. This way, the smart home system knows which particular light you want turned on or off. 

It is possible to customise the smart lighting solutions to your needs. You can create “scenes” that you can set into motion with your voice. This includes setting groups of lights up together, adjusting the colour temperatures in some cases, adjusting brightness, setting timed routines and more. 

Once voice control has been activated, you can operate the lights hands-free from anywhere in the home. So long as your smart system can hear you speaking, you’ll never need to touch a physical switch again.

When cooking up some smart lighting ideas to incorporate into your home, many homeowners want to dim the lights and set a mood without getting up. The good news is that most smart lighting is capable of being dimmed. This can add a whole other element of relaxation and convenience to your home. 

Dimmable smart bedroom lights are especially popular. Not only can they set a nice mood in your room, but they can help you start unwinding and getting ready for bed. Smart living room lights that can dim are perfect for entertaining and watching movies with the family. 

Like any smart light, they can be dimmed in any number of ways. Use voice commands to dim your smart downlights in the bedroom or an app to do so before you plug your phone in to charge before bed. If you want the lights to automatically get dimmer, you can set a routine that will lower the brightness at certain times in the evenings.

Wifi controlled lights may leave you with a concern over hacking, due to their internet access. Fortunately, smart lights are no more susceptible to hacking than any other device you may have on your wifi network. 

Much like those other electronics and systems you want to protect, there are preventative measures to take. Just be sure your connection is secured and you have a strong password no one can guess. 

A lot of smart lighting systems also use encryption protocols to ensure that the communication between the devices and the cloud servers is safe and inaccessible. This will prevent unauthorised access from an outside party. 

Authentication puts another step between you and a third party wanting to unlawfully gain access to your wifi-connected devices. This comes in the form of PINs, passwords or even biometrics. 

As a final line of defense, you can put up firewalls or other systems to detect any sort of intrusion. These will monitor traffic to the network and look for any sort of anomalies. If any are detected, you will be alerted. Still, it is a good idea to remain vigilant, even with these security features in place.

In most cases, your smart kitchen lights, living room lights and bedroom lights work manually even when the wifi goes out. Certain systems, like Amazon Echo or Google Assistant, may still respond to voice commands locally. 

In other circumstances, the voice control functionality and even app control may not work if there is no network for communication. Features such as these rely on an ability to connect to the cloud to work. This may remove access such as scheduling and automation, as well as app-specific customisation.

Though smart lighting has many clear benefits, it is important to keep this in mind when considering integrating smart lights into the home.

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