Whether it’s simply upgrading standard light bulbs to smart ones or adding whole-home systems, smart lighting offers the potential to improve comfort and control energy consumption in your home. There’s also the ability to monitor and track usage which provides valuable insights into peak times when lighting is used in different areas of your home or building.

With smart lighting, you can control a bulb remotely using an app on your phone or a voice command through a digital assistant like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. This means you can switch a light on or off without having to leave bed or reach over to the switch panel. You can even schedule lights to turn on and off at a set time. Plus, if you’ve forgotten to shut off the lights before going to sleep, you can use your Cync App or a compatible voice assistant to turn them off from anywhere.

You can also create a variety of lighting scenes for specific uses. Waking up to a gradually increasing light is gentler than an alarm clock and can help you feel more energized during the day, while using a preset “bedtime” scene helps you wind down at night. Preset and customizable lighting scenes can also be useful in commercial settings to create a welcoming impression for guests or clients.

The capabilities of smart lighting are endless, with products available to replace almost any type of light fixture or lamp. There are smart light switches and add-on plugs for existing switches, as well as smart LED bulbs that can be installed in place of traditional ones in fixtures that have the space to accommodate them. Some models require a hub that connects to your router and controls multiple lightbulbs, while others connect directly over Wi-Fi. Some of the most popular smart lighting options include multicolored, Wi-Fi-enabled LED bulbs from Sengled and Eufy, as well as Phillips Hue White.

Many of these bulbs offer customizable color as well as temperature and brightness settings that can be controlled with an app or a voice command. They can also be linked to other smart devices such as speakers or doorbells to control them with a single tap, and they’re compatible with services like IFTTT that allow them to react to other apps and devices.

Another great feature of smart lights is that they can be configured to turn on and off at random while you’re away to give the appearance that your home is occupied. This is ideal if you’re away for work or vacation and you want to deter burglars.

For those that have a home cinema, you can even set the smart lighting in the room to flash red and green when your movie starts or ends, making it clear to anyone watching that there’s a special event taking place. With so much choice and convenience, smart lighting is more than just a cool tech gimmick. It’s an effective and affordable way to save energy, enhance your home environment and improve the safety of your family or business.