You can add the best smart lights to your home to gain a wide level of control and customization over its aesthetics. Connecting these lights to your smart home allows you to use your phone or voice commands to instantly transform the atmosphere of any space. For example, you can use outdoor lights to illuminate your property or change the color of a smart bulb to set the mood.
Installing smart lights is one of the easiest and most affordable upgrades any home can make. You can turn your smart lights on or off remotely, schedule the times they should run, and even have them turn off automatically if no motion is detected in a room. Beyond their convenience, smart lights can save you a lot of money despite rising energy prices. Their LEDs are cheaper to run over time (compared to energy-hungry halogen and incandescent bulbs) and you can check their status to turn them off from anywhere with an internet connection.
Smart lighting comes in a variety of different shapes, sizes, and colors, which means there are many things you’ll need to consider before purchasing. For example, what type of smart light would be best suited for your particular home? Do you want smart lights that connect locally via Bluetooth or do you prefer to have them connected to a smart home center? We’ve tested a wide selection of smart lights and bulbs to help you find the best options for your smart home.
How to choose the best smart lights for you
Before choosing the best smart lights for your home, you should first have an idea of where you are going to place them and the space they will illuminate. You should consider how many smart lights you will need in total and whether or not a bridge will be necessary to connect them. If you only need a few, you may be able to skip using a bridge, but the more you need, the more likely you’ll want to take some of the strain off your home network. If you use smart lights that require a bridge, they are generally more compact and less expensive than Wi-Fi smart bulbs, depending on the price per bulb.
If we look at the overall cost, smart lights are more expensive than traditional LED lights due to the technology they contain. However, their price has dropped over the years, so they are more affordable – a good quality smart light or smart bulb can cost anywhere from $10 to over $40. If you buy one with an accessory, such as a wall panel or outdoor reflector, the price can be around $100. If you frequently replace many light bulbs in a room, then a smart light switch might be a better investment. For more information, check out our guide to the best smart light switches.
Here are 9 things you never knew you could do with smart lights in case you want to know more about some of their other unique qualities compared to traditional light bulbs. Plus, I turned this smart light into a sunrise alarm clock, and it’s a game changer.
How we test the best smart lights
We test the best smart lights based on a number of criteria, including ease of setup, brightness, value, and feature library. We compare most smart lights and bulbs to Philips Hue lights, which are expensive but offer everything you could want from smart lights. Some budget smart lights boast of having a lot to offer, but we only recommend the ones that live up to your expectations.
Smart home compatibility is key to our testing. The smart lights above work with at least two of the best smart home systems, if not more. You don’t want your smart lights to limit you to a specific virtual assistant when there are plenty of options that work with Google Assistant, Alexa, Siri, SmartThings, and IFTTT.
All of the brands we tested are reliable and we feel comfortable adding them to our home networks. However, be careful when purchasing smart lights from unknown manufacturers.
