Smart Lighting: is it Worth It?

          Smart homes are slowly becoming more common especially with the wealth of products being introduced on the market. And this doesn’t just pertain to lighting, the term “Smart” in this context refers to the item’s ability to automate certain day to day tasks. Voice assistants such as Alexa or Google Home are arguably the most common smart gadgets found in one’s home. 

           So now we have to ask ourselves two things, firstly how can we automate our lights to ensure efficiency at home. And secondly is it truly worth spending the extra time and money to have a smart lighting system in your home. At the present moment Smart Lighting is in its early stages of the product life cycle, which means that the range of products available are still somewhat limited. Manufacturers are still working on creating products that can be innovative yet still integrate with any current Smart Home setup. 

           The main feature of Smart Lighting is being able to control your lights without having to be next to the switch on the wall. Depending on how the Smart Lighting is set up this can be controlled either through a cell phone, tablet, or voice assistant (Alexa,Siri, etc…) Controlling the lights usually means you can switch them on or off, alter the dimness, set a timer for specific lights to switch on or off, and if you’re using RGB enabled lights then you will be able to change the colors as well. 

           At the present moment, this is the current maximum potential that smart lighting can achieve in terms of automation. The difficulty of installing and setting it up is dependent on the type project. A house that’s being built from the ground up will not face any serious challenges with respect to Smart Lighting installation.