How cool would it be to be able to turn on the lights in your house without flicking a switch? This post takes a look at Lifx bulbs, which allow you flexibility and ease of use to automate your home’s lighting.
Lifx works with voice control through Alexa to turn lights on and off in whichever room you indicate. They are super energy efficient with the equivalent of 75 watts only consuming 15 watts of power. Also, they are LEDs so they last a really long time. It’s true, the initial investment on the cost of the bulbs is higher, but they don’t need to be replaced nearly as often as traditional bulbs.
Lifx bulbs also have color changing capability, so you can set different ambiances in different rooms and for various occasions. The included Lifx app has a color wheel that you can scroll through to customize just about any shade you want.
The bulb is a standard size, so will fit easily into your existing light fixtures. Lifx also makes LED strips to put under cabinets or behind desks or your TV for softer ambient lighting.
Your Lifx lights are like most other smart devices – they connect to your Wi-Fi so you can control them from your phone or any of your smart home devices. There is no hub required; they all work independently of one another, so you could have as few as one bulb or as many as 50 in your house. Everything you need is in the bulb itself -and there’s no additional equipment required.
Just in case you feel like going old school, you can actually still just click them on and off with a switch.
A bit more about the app – set up is quite simple. Everything can be segmented for easy control – your lights will be individually listed and you can group them by room, or whatever makes sense in your home. Groupings can be controlled individually or all together. That includes color changes and cycling, dimming and brightening, on/off, candle flicker effect, music visualizer, and more.
Having smart lights also adds security to your home – for example, you can set up your lights to turn on and off at certain times if you’re going to be out late or you’re travelling.
You can ease into your day in the morning by programming the brightness to gradually increase as you wake up – mimicking the sunrise!
While there are many benefits to smart lights, here are a few drawbacks:
They’re hooked up to the Wi-Fi . If you have a power outage when the power comes back on you may lose connection and have to actually go over and unplug the light and plug it back in to reconnect. It doesn’t happen often, but is worth a mention.
The other drawback is the initial expense. A single blub is about $59, so depending on how much lighting you have in your place, you are looking at a potentially substantial initial investment.
The functionality and sustainability over the long term really outweighs the initial cost. You can shop around for deals and sales on Amazon for the best prices. Hopefully you found this information useful if you are considering smart bulbs that don’t require a hub!
