The future of lighting looks bright. You can now use smart lights to schedule a lighting wake-up call, program a wind-down routine before bedtime, or remotely turn off and on lights while traveling. The technology also allows you to control your home's brightness and lighting routine remotely via an app or by using your voice. But with so many options to choose from, it can be hard to know where to begin. We've laid out simple steps on how to get started using smart lighting, including expert advice from the American Lighting Association. Before you swap out your basic bulbs for high-tech lights, check out our tips on setting up smart lighting in your home.
4 Easy Ways to Get Started with Smart Lighting
If a state-of-the-art whole-house automation makeover is outside your comfort zone or budget, don't worry. There are still small ways you can try smart-home technology. Use these simple steps for integrating smart lighting into your home.
1. Choose an Assistant
Smart devices should make life easier. The easiest way to centralize smart-home operations is by using a digital assistant, such as Amazon Echo or Google Home. These voice-activated devices can be programmed to communicate with a wide variety of smart-lighting controls, including dimming, brightening, switching on, and turning off lights.
2. Start with Smart Lightbulbs
Switching out a lightbulb is the easiest way to dip your toes into smart-home options. Screw a smart bulb, such as the Philips Dimmable Connected Bulb, $11 at The Home Depot, into an existing fixture, connect it to your Wi-Fi network, and start experimenting with using the app to control the light. You can decide then if features like adjusting the brightness without a dimmer switch are worth further investment.
3. Switch to Smart Lightswitches
To make your entire home smarter, consider smart outlets or switches, such as the Kasa Smart Light Switch, $15 at Amazon. Once the smart switch is installed, you can remotely control your fixtures, even those with basic bulbs. After you've experienced how smart switches can work for your lifestyle, consider installing smart light fixtures, which have this technology built in and can be controlled with your voice or an app.
4. Get Creative with Smart Lighting Controls
Possibilities are nearly endless when you coordinate smart lights with other smart devices using free web-based services. Turn on a porch light when someone rings your smart doorbell, flash a red light if your thermostat detects carbon monoxide, or turn on the bedroom light when your fitness tracker indicates you're awake. Home automation provides so many ways to make your life easier if you're willing to explore the capabilities.
When you start small, smart lighting is a snap. Try this tech in your home to create an automated lighting routine that works for you.
Let's start with the specs, because there are some important differences to consider. For instance, if you're looking for a bulb that you can use in a reading lamp or some other light fixtures where brightness is especially important, you'll probably want to rule out the TP-Link Kasa KB100 and the Lifx Mini White. Neither of those get any brighter than 650 lumens -- bright as far as accent lights go, but not bright enough to shine as the primary light source for an average-size room all on their own.
Light spread matters, too, as lots of LED smart light bulbs have bulky heat sinks at the base that block a lot of the downward cast light. For instance, the Philips Hue White LED puts out a very respectable 850 lumens, but not enough of that light makes it down beneath the bulb. The Cree and Sengled LEDs both did much better, as you can plainly see in those comparison shots above.
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I'll have a full set of comparison shots from our lab in the months ahead, but for now, here's a look at how our new top pick, the Philips Wiz Connected LED, compares against Lifx and Philips Hue at its default soft white setting. Not much difference at all, really.
Those shots were all taken with fixed exposure and white balance settings. In addition to letting you get a good, comparative look at how bright each bulb is, they'll also give you a hint at how well they might illuminate the colors in your home. That wall in the background is plum purple, but different bulbs light it up differently, affecting the way the color looks. To my eye, the two that got it the closest were the Philips Hue White LED and the C by GE Life LED. Neither one is as exceptional at color rendering as, say, a GE Reveal LED" target="_blank, but they're both at least better than the average LED.
As for dimmability, each of these light bulbs will dim smoothly and without flicker or buzz -- one of smart lighting's top perks. Just don't try and use any of them with existing, physical dimmer switches, because the dimming hardware in your wall will clash with the dimming hardware inside of the bulb, causing it to strobe.
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Different smart bulbs dim differently -- the Lifx Mini White LED (top row) uses a logarithmic dimming curve, which gives you a greater number of distinct settings in the top half of the bulb's range. The TP-Link Kasa LED (bottom row) uses a linear dimming curve -- a lot of the settings above 50% look identical, but you'll see bigger differences between settings beneath 10%.
Another wonky thing worth knowing about smart bulbs is that some, like Sengled and TP-Link, will dim the light down using a linear dimming curve -- i.e. the 10% setting gives you 10% of the full lumen count. Others, including Philips Hue and Lifx bulbs, use a logarithmic dimming curve that dims the light faster in the top half of its dimmable range, where it's harder for the eye to detect changes from setting to setting. Bulbs like those offer a better overall range of distinct settings, but they won't offer much of a difference between any of the settings under 10%.
You can read more about smart bulb dimming curves here if you're interested" target="_blank, but know that all of the ones I've tested for this roundup thus far have passed my tests by dimming down well below 100 lumens at minimum settings. Lifx, GE and Philips Hue were all especially strong here, and able to dim down below 20 lumens at the 1% setting.
The bulb that went the lowest, though? That'd be the Sylvania Smart Plus LED -- it dimmed down to just 3 lumens at its minimum setting.
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As you shop, look for little badges on the box that tell you which platforms each bulb works with.