Are smart lights worth it?
They’re a great way to transform how your home works and can make life more convenient. Whether you want them to turn on automatically when you get home in the evening, or to ask your voice assistant to set a certain mood for movie night, it’s possible once you’ve got everything connected and created scenes, schedules and automations. They can have an added home security benefit too, by making it look like you’re home when you’re not.
How do smart lights work?
Setting up your smart home might feel intimidating at first, but these bulbs can replace any of your traditional ones. They come in a lot of different sizes and types, including bayonet and screw fit, so they’ll fit into your existing ceiling fixtures or lamps.
Hub or no hub?
The way they work can differ from brand to brand. Some connect to a central hub that’s usually included as part of a starter kit. This hub connects to your wifi router and then wirelessly hooks up to everything linked to it (sometimes including other smart devices, depending on the hub). Other bulbs have builtin wifi, so they’ll “speak” directly with your router and you won’t need a hub.
The difference in connectivity can affect how easy they are to set up and how many lights you can control at once (some hubs can manage over 60), but whether they have a hub or not, you’ll still be able to manage your lights from your phone or tablet.
Colours
Before you buy, make sure you’ve checked whether the bulbs are just white or have colourchanging abilities. Many brands have a mix of colour and white bulbs. Doublecheck whether they’re dimmable too, as colour control and dimming can be ideal if you’re setting a mood for a date night or a party.
Voice control
It’s also worth checking if they connect to the likes of Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit for centralised control via the voice assistant or app. Not every bulb connects to every voice assistant, so we’ve listed their compatibility in our specifications.
