We can help you take a look at smart light bulbs vs smart light switches, so you can decide if they’re worth your time. Turning your home’s lighting appliances “smart” can be made possible by purchasing smart home lighting accessories. There are two options when considering automating your lights, which include smart light bulbs and smart light switches. Considering that the price isn’t exactly cheap, it’s important to research your options before investing. Here are a few tips to help you choose the right setup for your home!
Smart Light Bulbs vs Smart Light Switches – Is one better than the other for controlling light?
You might be confused about purchasing devices meant for your lights. You can just get up and switch lights on and off, and that seems like it serves the same purpose as smart lighting accessories.
We’ll admit that it’s difficult to understand the added functionality of these smart products, but they do serve a purpose. We just have to let go our current understanding of what we think home lightning is suppose to be. We’ll take you through some of the different ways we found them useful, and how you can choose between a smart light bulb and a smart light switch.
What are smart light bulbs and smart light switches?
A smart light bulb is a light bulb that you can control remotely without having to manually turn it on and off. This means you can turn it on and off remotely, and even schedule a time for it to go on and off in some cases. It’s important to note that you can still manually turn the light on and off with your regular switches if you don’t feel like using the smart feature at any given time.
It’s also decently more expensive compared to regular bulbs. The Phillips Hue Color bulb is nearly 10 times the cost of a regular LED bulb. For many, LED bulbs are expensive on their own, so you’ll definitely be hesitant to purchase your first smart bulb.
In similar fashion to smart bulbs, smart light switches work remotely, meaning you can access them without having to walk up to a light switch to flip it on.
Smart light switches are a little easier to figure out, but more difficult to install. Having basic knowledge of home wiring is definitely an asset when installing smart light switches. If you’re totally clueless, definitely seek some help from an electrician, or at least a handy friend. The switches do come with instructions if you want to take your chances.
When should you use a smart light bulb or smart light switch?
Which of the two smart accessories is right for you? It all depends on what you hope to achieve with smart lighting.
A smart light switch will be useful when you need to know whether lights are on or off. If you’re a forgetful person, you can check this remotely without taking multiple trips to different rooms all the time. You might use smart light switches to turn on your lights before coming home from work so you don’t have to walk into a completely dark house. Just make sure you get products that are compatible with your preferred smart home platform.
Smart light bulbs seem to be more useful for rooms you’re in the most. That might include the living room, your office, or your bedroom. Between both products, the smart light bulbs seem the most functional. We’ve been using a set of Philips Hue lights in our office and our favourite setting was “concentrate”, which brightens the light and helped us focus on our morning work.
Smart lights and switches in the bedroom
In the bedroom, we put the Phillips Hue Color bulb in the night light, and an Elgato Eve Light switch for the bedroom lights. We didn’t think the light switch was useful, because we can’t necessarily think of a reason you would need to remotely access this bedrooms light remotely.
If you have kids, it might be nice to remotely access the lights in their bedroom to stop them from switching lights on and off, or to turn on in the morning to get them out of bed.
If you decide to get a smart light bulb for your night lamp, we’d definitely recommend getting a coloured bulb. You can get creative and set the mood with different shades. Setting up different colours for different times of the day can help you get to sleep or wake up. As we mentioned before, waking up to the light is a lot nicer than your default iPhone alarm.
Smart lights vs smart light switches in the office (and basement)
Our home office is situated in the basement, and we would definitely replace all the lights with smart lights if it was cost effective. The ability to change the colour of the bulb in the office has been life changing. Set your smart lights to the concentrate setting if you’re feeling sleepy, or to relax if you’re winding down. When we’re filming, the cool light setting works wonders.
Similar to the bedroom, smart switches don’t seem very useful because we don’t need to access these lights remotely. Basement lights aren’t usually very visible from the street, so turning them on when you’re on vacation won’t scare any potential intruders away. In our situation, these lights are always on since the lights are connected to the switch in the stairwell.
Smart lights vs smart light switches in the living room
The living room is where you can find multiple uses for both smart bulbs and switches. The light switches make perfect sense in this room, because you can easily see it from the street and you can set it to turn on when you get close to home. This prevents you from coming home to a completely dark house.
Smart light bulbs are good to splurge on for this room, especially to invest in the multicoloured bulbs. Replace the bulbs closest to walls, because lights in the center of the room won’t have as much of an effect. Having the coloured lights bounce of the wall definitely changes the mood of any room. If you have art in your living room, it gives you a different appreciation for it.
That’s our comparison of smart light bulbs and switches. If you liked this post and are considering getting some for yourself, click on our links to purchase your products! Let us know if you have any comments or questions in the comments below.
