Hunter
Hunter Hepburn 4 Light Vanity Light in Brushed Nickel
Lighting to make you feel like a movie star – no filter needed. The Hepburn modern 4-light vanity light blends the grandness of 1920 theaters with the retro,...
$230
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What Is Smart Lighting?
The word "SMART" in technology refers to "self-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology." Smart technology does allow the lighting fixtures in your home to increase their scope and functionality. At the most basic level, smart lighting systems can be controlled remotely, most often via an app that you operate on your smartphone or computer. For this to work, smart lighting generally relies on different types of wireless transmissions to send and receive their signals. Smart lighting can connect to your smart home hub via built-in Wi-Fi radios to connect directly with your router or Bluetooth connectivity.
Other smart lighting options incorporate motion and lighting sensors that will automatically turn on and off, given the amount of detected light or the presence of people and movement in a given space. These simple features can reduce wasted energy that comes with accidentally leaving lights on when the home is unoccupied.
Some of the most advanced smart lighting systems also incorporate certain types of machine learning techniques. The lights automatically monitor and learn the everyday lighting patterns of people who live in the home. This "learning" allows the lights to automatically turn on and off at certain times of the day, given the occupants' everyday habits, thus giving the impression that people are at home when the house is left empty for extended periods.
What Types of Smart Lighting Are Available?
There are dozens of smart lighting options for homeowners to choose from, including smart switches and dimmers, smart light bulbs, and lamps to whole home smart lighting systems.
Below, we will briefly review a few of the most popular types of smart lighting options.
What Are Smart Light Bulbs?
An individual smart light bulb can be connected to an existing socket and subsequently paired with your home's Wi-Fi system at the most basic level. This feature allows homeowners to control these individual bulbs from a dedicated smartphone app. You can choose how many individual smart light bulbs to install and which room they could be most helpful. Different smart light bulb products offer several additional features, including adjustable brightness, programmable scheduling, and mood-based lighting schemes.
What Are Hub-Controlled Smart Lights?
Hub-controller smart lights are generally larger in scope and can act as a whole-house smart lighting system. You need to carefully source this type of smart lighting system to ensure it is compatible with the smart home hub that you use. For homes with several different smart gadgets, incorporating hub-controlled smart lights can allow for several IFTTT (if this, then that) applications. For example, you can program your smart lighting to change hues given interior temperatures or even outside weather events (purple rain, for all those Prince lovers, for example).
What Are Smart Switches and Dimmers?
Smart switches and dimmers are other smart lighting technology types that give homeowners more control over their lighting fixtures. These smart switches and dimmers can generally exist with your existing light bulbs and tend to be less expensive.
How Much Energy Can You Save with Smart Lighting?
One of the most critical advantages of smart lighting products is that the increased controllability reduces energy consumption. Smart bulbs connected to an app, for example, can alert you if a light has been left on in the home when no movement is detected, allowing you to turn off the light. Almost all smart lighting products are made to work with LED lighting fixtures, 75% more efficient, and last 25 times as long as traditional incandescent bulbs. The exact amount you could save by switching to smart lighting depends on the type of lighting fixtures you currently have in your home and the homeowner's behavior and habits. If people in your household regularly forget to turn off lights, smart lighting will most likely lead to immediate savings.
How Long Does Smart Lighting Last?
As we mentioned above, smart lighting products are almost universally designed to work with LED lighting technology. This fact means that the average smart light bulb will last for anywhere between 15 to 25 years or 15,000 to 25,000 hours. In some cases, smart LED lights might have nominally shorter lifespans than non-smart LED bulbs. However, they continue to be much more durable than older incandescent bulbs.
How To Install Smart Lighting
Installing smart lighting can be as simple as taking the smart bulb out of the box and screwing it into your existing socket. Most individual smart light bulbs are compatible with any existing light fixtures and switches, making installation a breeze. To get the added level of control, you will need to download the bulb's dedicated app. Almost every product will give detailed instructions on the box for how to download and operate the app.
For whole-house systems or hub-controlled smart lighting systems, installation can be slightly more complicated. You will first need to ensure that you choose the smart lighting system compatible with the smart home hub you use. If your hub allows IFTTT applications, you can experiment with different custom modes for your smart lighting fixtures.
What Are The Best Brands of Smart Lighting?
There are dozens of different companies and brands producing a wide diversity of smart lighting products. Below, we offer a few suggestions for some of the top brands and products on the market.
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Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
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