Five Tips for Smart Lighting
Would you like to have total control of your home or office lighting? Imagine being able to turn everything off and on, change the colors and dim the lights even if you don’t have a dimmer.
Now imagine doing that by using a hub like Alexa, Google Assistant or Nest. It’s all possible when you get smart innovation at your home or business. Here are some tips for getting started.
1. The right bulbs are important.
With smart light bulbs, it’s easy to control the light levels and even colors. You can dim lights, change colors and program all of your lighting schemes from your smartphone or home hub.
If you’re worried that you have to throw out your entire lighting lineup, you can stop worrying. Smart bulbs will run perfectly well alongside your current, standard bulbs and lights. You may need to rewire parts of your home. A qualified electrician can help you determine if that’s necessary.
There are many smart bulbs on the market. The Phillips Hue, Lutron LED and Eufy Lumos are some of the best-known and most popular brands, but there are many others that will work for your lighting scheme.
2. Your home or workplace needs a hub.
In most cases, it’s easy to set up your home hub to run your LED smart lighting system.
- Download the app that works for the smart bulbs you’ve installed.
- Connect the app to your home or office internet.
- Connect to the device and start using the smart controls.
Some companies are now creating wireless bulbs that work without a hub. One of the first of these is the Elgato bulb.
Another recent advance is the Lightwave RF, a smart lighting unit that replaces your standard sockets. The unit has LED buttons that you can use to control every object in your home, from your coffeemaker to your laptop. You can even program these devices to turn off and on at certain times every day.
3. For smart lighting design in individual spaces, consider an LED strip.
When you’re ready to set up a controlled lighting system for specific rooms or areas, you may want to try an LED controller strip. Because some complex wiring is involved in this, you should consult an electrician for help.
An LED strip has three components.
- Controller: This is a device that contains buttons to control your lighting by pressing a few buttons.
- Strip: This contains the LED lights in a flat, wide strip. You can choose the colors and brightness. You will need separate wiring for each segment over a certain length.
- Power supply: LED bulbs run on DC current, so a LED strip setup needs its own power supply.
4. Know your colors.
Smart LED bulbs come in various colors and two shades of white. You need to consider what your lighting needs are for each room when you select colors.
LED colors are:
- R-Red
- G-Green
- B-Blue
- W-White
- WW-Warm white
White: This is a pure, cool white that is good for offices, kitchens, workrooms, and studios. It produces bright, clear light that is perfect for focused work.
Warm white: Warm lighting is a good choice for areas where you need light but aren’t doing focused work.
RGB: RGB lights are recommended for accent areas and backlighting. You can program them to produce almost any color.
RGB/WW: These bulbs allow you to switch between colored and white lighting from the same bulb.
5. Starter kits make it easy.
You can purchase complete kits that will get you up and running in no time with your smart lighting system. These include Caséta by Lutron, Nanoleaf, Insteon Starter Kit and many others.
If you need help with your home or business smart lighting, count on SESCOS to answer your questions about setup, installation, and wiring.
Check out SESCOS special deal on smart home installation!
SESCOS is currently running a special on smart home installation. You can get two connected switches controlled from a mobile device for just $400. Get ready for smarter home or office lighting with SESCOS help today.