Get Smart About Your Home Lighting
You keep hearing about smart home automation, and you’re starting to feel like an old, out-of-touch dinosaur for not having smart technology in your house. You’re also a little miffed about the money you’re not saving. If you’re interested in testing the smart home waters, lighting is the best way to do it. Lighting solutions are a simple, inexpensive way to get started.
The timing is right. SESCOS is currently running a special on smart home installation. Here’s what you need to know.
It’s as Easy as Changing Your Bulbs
Switching to a smart home can be as easy as replacing your light bulbs with LED bulbs. These bulbs connect to a wireless network that lets you control them using your smartphone, tablet, or a home automation system. You can even control your lights from systems like Alexa, Google Home, and the Apple HomeKit. Look for bulbs from GE, Phillips Hue, Lutron, and Leviton. They all have programmable features.
Set Up a Lighting Schedule
Once you have the bulbs and the smart home system in place, you can start automating your lighting schedule. Program your outdoor lights to go on when the sun goes down. Program the kitchen lights and bathroom lights to fire up in the morning. Program the lights in your home and garage to come on when you get home from work.
Once you’re comfortable with the system, you can even program detailed instructions like having all the upstairs lights go into dimmer mode at a certain time. You can also set up a vacation mode that will turn your lights on and off randomly while you’re away.
Increase Your Home Security
Smart bulbs add an extra layer of security to your home’s motion sensors. You can synchronize your smart bulbs with any motion sensor lights or cameras in your house. When someone moves around in front of the sensor, the lights will go on. Sound activates some sensors. You can also link these to turn on the lights. Setting off floodlights is a good deterrent to would-be intruders.
Work With the Weather
You can’t change the weather, but you can adapt your lighting to it with smart bulbs. If you have a wireless personal weather station (PWS), you can link it to your smart home lighting system. Your PWS will react to changes in outdoor light by turning lights off and on.
Get a New Hue
Lighting technology continues to advance, and there are always fresh developments. One particularly appealing development is an “entertainment hue” synchronization that transforms your LED lighting to match the colors on your TV or gaming screen. Using this requires colored LED bulbs.
Keep Your Cool
Control how warm or cool your house is from anywhere. Smart lighting can control your linked smart thermostats. Use the smart system to set the perfect levels of coolness or heat when you’re home. When you’re away, your smart thermostats will conserve energy and save you money.
Set Scenes
You can set a perfect lighting scene for every occasion. For example, you can lower the overhead ambient lights and turn on a recessed light in your reading nook when you want to curl up with a book. Set the living room lights on a dimmer to produce a soft lighting scheme that’s perfect for guests. Once you have a lighting scene set, you can save it and then recreate it at the touch of a button.
Get Smart With SESCOS
If you’re ready to get more automation into your life, lighting is a smart place to start. It’s especially smart with the specials SESCOS is running. You can save on LED upgrades and smart home installations. When it’s time to be smart, it’s time to contact SESCOS.