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Smart Lighting

Smart lighting opens up a broad range of aesthetic and practical possibilities around the home. Bulbs, accent lights, outdoor lights and smart switching solutions all form part of a complete smart lighting solution.

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Articles
Philips Hue Motion Sensor Review: A Must For Hue Owners
Philips Hue Motion Sensor Review: A Must For Hue Owners

The Philips Hue motion Sensor is a little more pricey than some, but if you have a Hue Bridge it offers a much better addition to any smart home.

The Best Flame Light Bulb: 2022 Buyers Guide
The Best Flame Light Bulb: 2022 Buyers Guide

LED lighting offers more than just power efficiency, such as the ability to create animated effects within the bulb. See how you can add convincing flame lamps to enhance your evening ambience.

Smart Outdoor Lighting: Options for Every Situation
Smart Outdoor Lighting: Options for Every Situation

Smart outdoor lighting options offer convenience and security outside. Here are the best options in each category.

How to Extend Philips Hue Light Strips
How to Extend Philips Hue Light Strips

Extending a Philips Hue Lightstrip is easy, but more advanced designs are possible if you want to do more than just make it longer.

Nanoleaf Lines Review: A Powerful New Take On Smart Lighting
Nanoleaf Lines Review: A Powerful New Take On Smart Lighting

Looking for a smart feature lighting solution? For the ultimate design flexibility, a unique lighting approach, and great software support, check these out.

Best No Neutral Smart Switch: 2022 Buyer’s Guide
Best No Neutral Smart Switch: 2022 Buyer’s Guide

So you want smart switches, but don’t have a neutral wire? This guide offers a variety of no neutral switches and other options to solve this.

Evvr Smart Relay: Flexible Installation With no Neutral Wire
Evvr Smart Relay: Flexible Installation With no Neutral Wire

Smart lighting control, multi-way switching, HomeKit support, and no neutral required? The Evvr Smart Relay promises it all.

Best WiFi Flood Lights: 2022 Buyer's Guide
Best WiFi Flood Lights: 2022 Buyer's Guide

Flood lights can really spruce up your home and yard at night, but adding WiFi brings a bunch of new possibilities. Here are the best products to use right now.

Boost Your Security Cameras With LIFX Nightvision Bulbs
Boost Your Security Cameras With LIFX Nightvision Bulbs

A smart light that can also help your security cameras see in the dark? The LIFX Nightvision offers something a bit different.

Getting the most out of smart light strips
Getting the most out of smart light strips

Smart LED strips are bright enough now to be a very versatile lighting option. There are a couple of basic rules to follow to ensure you get that soft, classy look though.

Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus Review
Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus Review

Smart LED strips are becoming fairly common now, but with varying levels of quality and performance. Hue’s Lightstrip Plus is a high quality option that delivers all the key requirements. See how it stacks up in this review.

Nanoleaf Essentials: Starting out with Thread
Nanoleaf Essentials: Starting out with Thread

Nanoleaf is known for expensive (but cool) smart light panels. This new range of basic smart lights comes with a twist, full Thread support. That makes these an interesting option.

How to wire a smart switch
How to wire a smart switch

Installing a smart switch involves some electrical wiring, but it’s not as hard as it sounds. These step by step guides will help you through it.

LIFX Switch solves a sticky smart lighting problem
LIFX Switch solves a sticky smart lighting problem

A simple switch setup to handle both smart and dumb lights has been elusive, but LIFX has the answer.

Aqara Smart Wall Switch: US Review
Aqara Smart Wall Switch: US Review

Aqara’s US smart switch offers a versatile no-neutral model with broad smart home integration support.

Hue Outdoor Motion Sensor: Review
Hue Outdoor Motion Sensor: Review

Automating your lights based on presence is super convenient, and now you can do it outdoors as well with this Hue device.

Philips Hue Lily Spotlight: Review
Philips Hue Lily Spotlight: Review

Philips offers a strong contender in the garden spotlight segment with this little smart light.

Philips Hue Calla Pedestal light: Review
Philips Hue Calla Pedestal light: Review

Philips Hue now has a growing range of outdoor lighting options, and this path light is a top tier option for smart entertaining.

Click Switch for Philips Hue: Review
Click Switch for Philips Hue: Review

If you have a Philips Hue system, this device offers a super simple replacement for existing light switches.

Philips Hue Play bar: Review
Philips Hue Play bar: Review

Philips expands their range of luminaries again with the Play light bar, but this product is intended for more than just lighting your book shelf.

Smart Lighting: Hub or No Hub?
Smart Lighting: Hub or No Hub?

Smart lighting decisions have many factors, but one that comes up in marketing often is the issue of Hubs. Take a look at the reasons for and against choosing a hub-based solution. 

HomeKit Mood Lamps: Eve Flare vs Hue Go
HomeKit Mood Lamps: Eve Flare vs Hue Go

HomeKit compatible lighting continues to grow, but these two products offer portability and the ability to add a unique ambience or any situation in or out of the home. 

Legrand brings HomeKit power options to Australia
Legrand brings HomeKit power options to Australia

For users of HomeKit in Australia and New Zealand, smart power outlet options have been pretty scarce. Now Australian electrical supplier HPM is bringing a range of smart in-wall devices through it’s parent’s ownership of smart device company Netatmo.

Lutron's new smart dimmer fits over existing light switches
Lutron's new smart dimmer fits over existing light switches

The Lutron Aurora Smart Bulb Dimmer is a compact rotary device that attaches to the face plate of your existing wall switch. The base plate has a slot for the switch to sit in, and a metal strap to hold it on the on position, with the knob spanning into place on top.

How to configure Hue dimmer switches for HomeKit
How to configure Hue dimmer switches for HomeKit

Earlier this year, at the IFA trade show, Philips announced upcoming Apple Homekit support for the Hue accessories. Specifically, the accessories to be included were the Hue Tap Switch, Hue Dimmer Switch, and the Hue Motion Sensor. The support has now come to pass through a firmware update for the Hue Bridge.

LIFX releases HomeKit firmware update
LIFX releases HomeKit firmware update

After Apple removed the hardware requirements for HomeKit certification in iOS11, a number of device makers jumped on board with promised HomeKit support for their products. LIFX is the first out of the gate with a firmware update for their capable line of full color smart lights.

New Philips Hue products and more HomeKit support
New Philips Hue products and more HomeKit support

Philips had quite a lot to announce at IFA2017. Not only are we looking at a bunch of new light models, bundles and starter kits, but ZigBee 3.0 support, expanded HomeKit compatibility, and a new interactive media SDK.

Replacing old switches with smart dimmers
Replacing old switches with smart dimmers

Smart lighting has it's challenges. How do you keep people turning them off at the switch while still begin convenient to use? Here is one novel use of Philips Hue Dimmer switches to acheive the best of both worlds.

Painting with light...or not?
Painting with light...or not?

My Philips Hue bulbs were not playing ball with my color settings. Was I imagining things, or was something wrong? A bit of digging found the answer, and it was more nuanced than expected.

Turn off lights with Elgato Eve Motion
Turn off lights with Elgato Eve Motion

Using a HomeKit motion sensor to turn lights on is trivial, but turning them off again has proven less clear for many. Here's how to do it using the Elgato Eve app to create a Motion Clear event and trigger a new scene.

 

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