Save Money: The Ultimate Guide Smart Lighting
Maximize Savings and Elevate Your Home with Energy-Efficient LEDs and Smart Lighting Solutions
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Before diving into the “smart” lighting section, let’s talk about saving money. If you still have any incandescent or fluorescent lights in your house, replace them with warm LEDs right away.
If you’re not interested in the smart lighting stuff below, here are the “dumb” LEDs we use where smart bulbs aren’t necessary:
Standard Indoor: GE’s Relax bulbs
Bathrooms: Luxrite BR30
Exterior: Sunco PAR30s
Chandellier (E12): Winshine Candelabra
Recessed Ceiling Lights: Luxrite LED Recessed
If you’ve avoided LEDs because you don’t like how they look, you’re probably thinking of the bright white ones often found in stores. Those are gross. Trust me, the warm LEDs I’m recommending are much softer and won’t give you a headache.
Why am I so insistent on LEDs? They use just one-quarter the electricity of incandescents. That’s right—if your current lighting bill is $20/month with incandescents, switching to LEDs will bring it down to $5.
With that out of the way, let’s move on to the fun part.
Smart Lighting
There are two types of products that can make your lighting smart.
Bulbs
Switches
Generally, I suggest starting with bulbs and adding switches once you better understand your needs. Bulbs are much easier to install and are perfect if you have many lamps. (Who wants bright overhead lights on in the evening anyway?)
However, smart bulbs can be tricky when your family keeps using the light switches even though you put the lights on a schedule. Since smart bulbs need consistent power, flipping the switch off can cause them to stop following your schedule.
The Best Smart Bulbs
Philips Hue is still the most reliable brand for smart bulbs, despite many competitors trying to match them. They offer nearly every size of smart bulb, and because they operate on Z-Wave, they won’t congest your WiFi.
The one downside is that they require their own hub, but you can usually find used ones on Amazon for about $30.
Hue bulbs come in two flavors: color and white. The color bulbs can be fun, but unless you want them to match your TV or you really like ambient blue lighting behind your furniture, I would stick with the white ones most places.
They’re incredibly easy to set up and they work with every smart home system.
Hue also offers accessories like motion sensors and switches. We use the dimmer switch in our kids’ rooms, so we can easily control their lamps as we enter or exit.
The Hue bulbs are pricier than some alternatives, but remember the money you’re saving by switching to LEDs. And you can extend these savings even further by scheduling them to turn on and off.
Many competitors’ bulbs will congest your WiFi, and in my experience, the “warm” smart bulbs from other manufacturers don’t look as good as the Hue bulbs.
The Best Smart Switches
Once you’ve installed Hue bulbs throughout your home, you might notice certain rooms or hallways still have “dumb” lights. Why can’t the closet light be as smart as the others?
For these areas, I recommend Lutron Caseta Dimmer Switches. They come in four colors and don’t require a neutral wire.
I had no idea what a neutral wire was when I purchased my first Caseta switch. But neither of the homes I’ve lived in have them!
Unfortunately, you’ll need a separate hub for these as well, but like the Hue lights, this prevents your WiFi from getting overloaded.
The coolest feature of the Caseta switches is how they handle two-way and three-way switches. Instead of needing an expensive switch at every location, you only need one smart switch and can replace the others with remotes. You can see how this works in this video.
Summary
Start with Bulbs: Philips Hue remains the gold standard for smart bulbs. They are easy to install, reliable, and integrate seamlessly with every smart home system. Although they require a hub, their efficiency and versatility, with options for both white and colored lights, make them a worthwhile investment.
Add Switches for More Control: For rooms with overhead lights, Lutron Caseta dimmer switches are an excellent choice. They’re user-friendly, don’t require a neutral wire and allow you to convert multiple switch locations into smart ones with just one switch and additional remotes.
In summary, start with LEDs to save money, then enhance your lighting experience with smart bulbs and switches. The investment will pay off in convenience, efficiency, and the overall ambiance of your home.
News
Apple Intelligence Rolling Out in October
The new Siri along with some impressive AI writing tools should land on iPhone 15 Pros and the upcoming iPhone 16s in October. It’s still unclear how much of this is going to completely change how we use our phones and how much is going to just be a party trick. But I’m really excited to see what LLMs can do when trained to help us with everyday tasks across devices.
Toy Story 5 Is On the Way With Recycled Ad Animations
Pixar announced Toy Story 5 on Twitter this week, and apparently they just reused the animations from the Toy Story Apple Watch faces. Check out this tweet comparing them.