When people think of smart lighting, they usually think of the obvious: full color (RGB) bulbs. Setting rooms to bright green, or dancing to strobe lighting effects. But I actually prefer a less discussed smart lighting feature: motion sensitive lighting. This is simple to set up, and it feels like something out of sci-fi. I … Read more
Smart homes are great, but sometimes it’s not always clear how to use smart devices to make your home more Christmasy. This video covers five simply ways that you can use common smart devices to smarten up your Christmas. The individual sections of the video are at the timestamps below: 0:00 – Intro 0:19 – … Read more
So, you’ve got an Amazon Alexa device and you’re wondering if it can control the lights outside your home just as easily as it can control the inside lights. Alexa can be used in lots of surprising ways – and taking control of your outdoor lighting is just one of them. There’s plenty of ways … Read more
Smart light bulbs have changed how we approach indoor lighting, but can they work outdoors? There’s plenty of reason to want to use your smart light bulbs outdoors. This gives you all the same benefits of indoor smart lighting, but in a setting where smart lighting can be much more valuable. With outdoor smart lights, … Read more
Have you been having problems with the range performance of your ZigBee network? ZigBee repeaters can improve your experience with smart technology. Every smart device in your ecosystem is only as good as the connection that holds it together. The ZigBee mesh network is made stronger when more devices are added to it. ZigBee devices … Read more
If this question has never crossed your mind – congratulations, now here’s a new fear! On the other hand, if you have thought about it, well then, you’re probably having an ‘I knew it!’ moment and are going to find this particularly interesting. When we think of our smart devices spying on us, the most likely culprits … Read more
After working out that using Philips Hue’s Lightstrips for my kitchen would cost £170+, I set out to build my own smart light strips that cost me less than £40. Plus it’s still fully controllable in the Philips Hue app! This video covers all the steps required to do this yourself, including: 0:00 Intro 4:54 … Read more
I’ll openly admit that when I first started looking into smart lighting, I got confused by all the different terms. Should I buy WiFi or ZigBee bulbs? Do I want RGB, RGBW, RGBWW… or RGB-CCT?! Should I care? And when I finally settled on Philips Hue, I was confused as to whether I should buy … Read more
If you’re looking to add smart light strips to your home but you find that Philips Hue’s Lightstrip Plus options are too expensive, what options are open to you? This is the question I was asking myself when planning to add smart light strips to my kitchen. I firstly wondered whether ZigBee or WiFi would … Read more
Home working has never been more popular. Whilst just 8% of the global workforce worked from home in 2019 (around 260 million people), the 2020 global pandemic has seen the number of home workers increase to 50% or more in many countries – with billions of people now routinely working from home. This substantial rise … Read more