The Best Home Light Fixtures for Smart Home Bulbs
The Best Home Light Fixtures for Smart Home Bulbs
In today's home tech trends, nothing is more exciting than building a personalized smart home. With a friendly AI hub and a collection of WiFi or Bluetooth devices, you can make so many aspects of your home responsive to voice commands. What makes each smart home so unique is the devices you choose. Some people integrate their coffee pots and alarm clocks, some connect their smart home to pet feeders and automated toys. Most at least consider a smart thermostat, video doorbell, or voice-controlled home security system.
But the smart light bulb is the one feature that every smart home must have.
Smart Home Light Bulbs
Smart bulbs are an incredible innovation of wireless technology, and are usually the first smart-devices purchased after the hub itself. Once you have a smart bulb, they provide an astounding amount of personalization to your home. More than anyone could imagine from a simple light bulb. And the best part is that smart bulbs are screwed into standard light fixtures. The fixture runs power through the Wifi controller base and all the 'smart' is completely wireless.
So the real question is: Where do you put your smart bulbs once you buy them?
Anyone who has looked into buying a smart bulb knows one thing: They're a little pricey. Especially if you go for the best kind with a full range of color and a WiFi controller. While normal light bulbs are easy to buy in bulk and stock the entire house with, smart bulbs should be placed carefully. You want to put them in prominent locations where your fine-tuned voice controls can have the most impact.
As home lighting professionals, we're here to offer a few expert pointers on the perfect way to use smart bulbs in your home.
Setting the Mood
Even one smart bulb can have a surprisingly powerful effect. The ability to dim the lights on command, change the color of the entire room, and adjust the settings at will can make you experience your home differently and is only scratching the surface of smart home joys. Most of all, a smart bulb allows you to set the mood, but only if smart bulbs have a prominent position in your home lighting.
The way to take control of your lights and take advantage of your smart home is strategic placing of the bulbs you have. Ideally, you can put each bulb in a place where it can have the most impact on each room, and won't compete with other lights that are not yet 'smart.'
This may require a change in light fixtures if what you currently have installed is not ideal for smart bulb use. Fortunately, choosing a new fixture for your home is a wonderful way to continue your smart-home update.
Central Locations and One-Bulb Fixtures
The most important thing about placing your smart home bulbs is choosing central locations. The domain of your voice control will spread as far as your smart lights can reach, and with high-quality bulbs, a single bulb is quite capable of lighting a whole room.
The problem is that many older light fixtures and quite a few designer fixtures feature two or more bulbs, sometimes dozens. To make the most of your lights, you're best off with a single flush light, semi-flush fixture, or a pendant light. If you have a ceiling fan, the ideal fixture features a single bulb with a cover rather than one of the four-bulb arrangements that are also popular.
Choose fixtures that are centrally placed in each major room, especially in rooms that get a lot of use. The living room where your smart home hub is, the bedroom, kitchen, and don't forget your favorite outdoor porch. Any room with a single prominent light or a nicely located central fixture is an ideal candidate for one of your precious smart bulbs.
Highlight Special Areas with Smaller Bulbs
If you have a collection of smart bulbs or a more dynamically lit house, the other way to place your bulbs is to choose areas to highlight. Remember that while you can change all your smart light settings together, you can also change them one at a time. For directional lights or selective inset canister lights, consider a different color or highlight illumination for each area of your home.
A small reading nook, for instance, might be lit in a pool of warm yellow light to clearly make out printed pages. A cool white light makes great illumination for a computer workstation, or a festively colored light for your relaxing patio. You can even use a smart light above your stove or sink in the kitchen that can be brightened for cooking or dimmed at night to light the way only for midnight snacks.
Small Bulbs and Size Adapters
Mostly, we have talked about placing your smart bulbs into centrally placed and one-bulb fixtures. However, sometimes the fixture you love doesn't come in a bulb size that is easy to find. You'd be hard-pressed to find a full-color smart bulb in chandelier size, for instance, though many elegant light fixtures feature this as their primary bulb size.
Fortunately, you don't have to worry. If you already have a chandelier-bulb fixture or have your eye on one you'd like to install, there is a way to adapt normal smart home bulbs to the purpose. Because smart home bulbs can sit in a perfectly normal bulb socket, normal adapters work as well. All you need is a small socket adapter that transforms an unusually sized fixture socket into something your smart bulb can be safely screwed into.
The Perfect Fixtures for Your Smart Home Bulbs
Building your own smart home is all about personalization. As you decide how to interact with the technology of your home, it can also cause you to rethink the fixtures that are already in place. If this is the first time you have really considered your light fixtures, now is your chance to really make the home your own. Smart homes are the wave of the future and your light fixtures should reflect how you will use them.
Choosing the perfect fixtures for your smart home bulbs may is all about understanding your home and how you plan to use it. For more insights into designing the perfect home lighting experience, contact us today!
