Gadgetory

if you want to make your home a little bit smarter a great place to start is with your lighting smart lighting systems can be really convenient and really cool I have mine set up so my life turn on just before sundown that way I'm never left sitting in the dark but there are a ton of systems out there and some are going to be a huge headache so here's what a good system does number one it's easy to set up number two it's easy to use day-to-day remember this has to be more convenient than a light switch and third it has to be really flexible you have to have a lot of options for how you can set up your home there is no perfect smart lighting system right now but the one that comes closest to nailing all three of those things is Philips hue Phil Chu is emergency go shew name and smart lights and for good reason it's just really easy to set up and use basically just plug everything in and you're good to go it's app is a big part of that you can control entire rooms or individual lights without digging through menus that includes just turning lights on and off and even dimming them by dragging around on a slider the app also lets you set up triggers that your lights can respond to what's happening so they can turn on when you come home or off when you're leaving and if you want to get really nerdy about it you can even hook up the lights to if this then that and then have them respond to all kinds of weird things you could have your lights change color when it's about to rain we can have them flash if you get a new text message or Facebook like or an Instagram heart or a slack message or an email or you know don't get carried away you also works with Siri and Alexa so you can control your entire home's lighting system with your voice just by talking to your iPhone or your Amazon echo for me the one downside to Philips U is that you can't fit up to your light switch so if you turn your light switch off you suddenly can't control your lights at all there is one solution though Philips does sell these little controllers that you can on the wall they work pretty well and they're convenient enough oh and I should mention that like most smart lighting systems she also offers a bunch of different color options you can do lights that are just plain all-white or you can do want to do basically any different color from white to purple to red to green to whatever you should just consider whether you really need a purple light in your house the thing that I like the most is something that's a little bit in between the two of them it's a white bulb that could be a little bit warmer or a little bit colder so you can still sort of dial in on your exact preference there are a lot of other smart lighting options out there and I'm just going to quickly run through them because some of them are kind of interesting and others you should just completely ignore lifx is a nice color-changing bulb that's really great if you just want one or two because it doesn't require a hub just know that if your Wi-Fi is a little patchy they might be a problem Sivaji you don't require a hub either they're cheap temperature changing bulbs but you can only control them inside the home so there's sort of just something to get if you're curious about what smart lighting might be like Lutron's can see the wireless is an interesting option because you can turn your existing lights and choose smart lights but it's not quite as elegant because you have to plug all these adapters into outlets around your house and then there's the headaches Ostrom Belkin and GE all make big bulbs but they become big headaches when you try to use them with their own systems so just a warning now say you want system that doesn't just stop at your lights then there's one other option for you consider that is Samsung smartthings be warmed smartthings is not just a lighting system it is a full-fledged smart home system that lets you hook up thermostat motion sensors security cameras and all kinds of different lights including the Philips hue so it's going to be a lot more complicated on the lighting front smartthings is a bit more challenging but it also gives you a lot more options you have a ton of different bulbs to choose between and there are a lot of different sensors that you can hook up to make your lights respond to different things one thing that I really like is that you can even replace your old light switch with a connected one that way you don't have to double up and have your existing light switch and your smart one right beside it if you do want to do a little bit more than that and integrate more smart home products throughout your home over time smart things is maybe the way to go for you but you can always add that down the road start with Phillips you to keep in mind the smart home market is developing rapidly and a lot is going to change over the next few years but if you want system that is already working well for lighting Philip Q is absolutely the way to go