Smart light strips are an awesome invention – they can instantly add interesting yet subtle lighting to various areas around your house, and their color can be quickly changed or dimmed to suit your needs. ZigBee (not WiFi) smart strips have added benefits too, but with so much choice, which one should you get? Philips … Read more
When I first moved into my house, it was fairly dark due to it just having two simple, A19 bulbs at either end of the kitchen-diner room. Whilst I have since changed these to spotlights to provide more light, I avoided buying smart spotlights due to the cost (up to $50/each for Hue or LIFX … Read more
Whenever I see newcomers to smart homes ask what the best smart bulb to buy is, I often see one or two replies saying “Noooo, smart bulbs are POINTLESS!! Just get smart switches instead!!“. And then they say nothing else to back up this view point. Mkay… that’s helpful! In reality, there can be some … Read more
Philips Hue’s range of smart bulbs is set apart from many other smart bulbs because Hue requires a separate Hub (also called a Bridge), and the bulbs communicate over something called ‘ZigBee’ to the Hue Hub. Equally some newer Hue bulbs can work over Bluetooth, linking with the Hue Bluetooth app on your smartphone. But … Read more
LIFX bulbs are at the more premium end of the market (just like Philips Hue), both in terms of build quality and also their price. However whilst Philips Hue bulbs usually require a separate Hue Bridge, LIFX bulbs don’t require any extra devices: they work out the box, via WiFi. This is great because you … Read more
An enclosed light is a housing which is completely sealed off, such that any light must shine out of the partially see-through exterior surface (usually glass or translucent plastic). Enclosed light fixtures are good where you want light to shine mainly downwards, without any ‘being wasted’ out of the side or top – bathrooms and … Read more
People sometimes think that in order to have a fully smart lighting system, you need to buy smart lights and also smart bulbs. But this isn’t always correct. In-fact it’s sometimes better to either have smart lights, or to have smart bulbs – not both. Having just smart switches means that you still get lots … Read more
Whilst I like controlling my Hue smart lights through Alexa, there are some annoying integration issues between the two, which I explore in more detail in my new YouTube video: The timestamps of each issue in the video is: 0:36 – issue 1 – bulb/room naming confusion 3:56 – issue 2 – Alexa think there’s … Read more
Philips Hue bulbs work really well in general, and are quiet to the point that you can only heard a noise if you put your ear right up next to the bulb. However sometimes they can make an annoying buzzing sound, so I wanted to cover why this (sometimes) can happen, and how to solve … Read more
I recently started to switch over to smart lighting in my house, and overall I really like the integration with Alexa. After all, being able to control your lights using voice commands to your Echo is much more convenient than pulling out your phone and launching the Hue app. However I have had some integration … Read more