The First 8 Things to Do With New Smart Lights

Lighting plays an important role when it comes to interior design, doesn’t it? Therefore, households should think through the lighting properly. They should ensure that the whole home has an adequate amount of light, whether it’s a kitchen, bedroom, or living room.

The 21st century rethinks the way people use light. In the time of advanced technologies where smart devices are our best friends that follow us everywhere, lack of smart home lighting is a crime. If you are among those who agree, you probably have smart lighting systems installed. You did it on your own or with the help of handykith.com; we don’t care. 

Now that your new smart lights are working, what should you do next? They offer so many things to try: alarms, preset modes, color-changing modes. Here are eight things you literally must do to realize the power of smart lighting in 2020.

1. Let the Lights Welcome You Back Home

What does it feel like to enter a dark, cold house when all you seek is some warmth and comfort? Smart lighting solutions for home can solve this problem. You can set up the configurations so that the system will know when you are approaching the house and turn the lights on. The same works when you leave: it will turn them off. 

Only imagine how amazing it is: you barely crossed the borders of your house, and it already welcomes you back. You won’t have a feeling of loneliness. Your house is waiting for you to return.

2. Schedule the Lights

When you work out a smart lighting system project, you definitely aim to reap the benefits of automation. Why not? Let the system work for and turn the lights on and off when necessary. 

If you want to schedule the lights, start with checking the official app for specific hardware. It can be a smart light switch, plugs, or individual bulbs. The app will show you scheduling options. Some of them are sunset and sunrise timing. This is better than scheduling for specific hours during the day since you will have to adjust it from time to time.

3. Set the Scene

What do we mean by setting a scene? It’s saving particular configurations of your smart lighting. Never forget that you can play with brightness, hue, saturation, and temperature in the app. Smart lighting systems allow you to save particular settings and use them whenever you want. Don’t forget to give a unique label to each preset. This will help you to distinguish one from another.

The feature is amazing, indeed. Only imagine, you don’t need to dim the light and choose warmer shades when you want to rejuvenate after a difficult day. You can choose the preset mode, and it will be implemented the same second you touch the screen of your smartphone.

4. Control Them All Together

Smart lighting solutions for home aren’t limited to color-changing bulbs that are controlled individually by voice. You can do much more with them. In particular, we mean that you can control a whole group of smart bulbs remotely. Yes, yes – all of them together.

For that, you just need to group them in the app. You can do this by room or by zone. After that, control them manually or let the automated system do the job instead. By the way, you can group them by voice with the help of smart assistants, as well. 

5. Improve Home Security

A smart home should have smart security. And smart lighting solutions can significantly help you with this. Since they can be connected to the rest of your smart appliances, you can enable lights when motion and sound are detected. This will be a surprise for shady people who are trying to approach your home. 

Also Read: Smart Home Technology: What is it?

Another useful feature is a vacation mode. A smart lighting system can enable lights once in a while. This will create an impression as if someone is home. Yet, in reality, you are resting somewhere, sure that your home is protected.

6. Adapt to the Weather

Once again, let’s pay tribute to connectivity. We have already discussed that light can be turned on and off automatically, depending on the time of the day. However, what should you do when the weather enters the equation? 

If you have a personal weather station that tracks weather changes, you can connect it to the lighting system. The system will enable the lights once usually sunny rooms are no longer sunny due to clouds or rain. Once clouds are gone, and the sun enters your house again, the lights are turned off. 

7. Emergency Lighting

Smart lighting for home shouldn’t be limited to comfort and fun. It must be useful when the situation requires it. For example, in case of an emergency. Connect your lighting system to a smoke alarm (for example, a Nest Protect or Netatmo Smart Smoke Alarm). The lights will automatically turn on in case the emergency occurs. This can even save your life in dangerous situations. After all, it’s much easier to navigate around the house when the lights are on. 

8. Go for Dynamic Lights

Who needs static lights when smart home lighting options allow you to try dynamic lighting. It’s far more engaging. You can play with dynamic lights in the Lifx app. However, it’s much better to choose OnSwitch that also works with Hue.  

Dynamic lighting is basically a synonym to the fun. You can enable the warm glow of a fireplace or go for a spooky mode, typical for a haunted house. This will entertain not only your kids but you also. Only imagine what an amazing atmosphere for family celebrations you can create.

As you can see, smart lighting is very useful. Its advantages go far beyond fun. Smart bulbs can contribute to the enhanced protection of your house and help you in case of an emergency. Although some may say they are expensive, the benefits are priceless compared to those that provide a traditional 60w incandescent bulb that costs $4.80 a year.