5 things you need to keep in mind before installing smart lights
With the era of technology 4.0 Smart Lighting or smart lighting systems are gradually becoming more popular. You may have come across some basic smart light devices such as: street lights automatically turn on at 6:30 p.m., passing by a certain location the lights will automatically turn on, opening the door lights on…. These are all basic effects of smart lights. When applying smart lighting to your home, you will have more choices. And there are some notes for you when starting to make smart lighting system. Follow BBSmartnha to start a simple and easy house.
Table of contents
1. What is smart lighting or smart lights?
Smart lights are LED lights that users can control with devices such as phones, tablets, etc. Smart lights are born to bring safety and convenience to users. In addition, this device will also bring efficiency in energy saving.
Although the cost of smart lights is higher than that of traditional lights, other LED lights on the market. But it will give you modern features, modes, and a better quality experience. Common features of the most common smart lights:
– Can increase or decrease the brightness arbitrarily from 1-100%
– Remotely turn on/off by phone app
– Automatic timer for light device
– Change color according to preference
– Combined with smart sensors to create an automatic system
Some more special functions in some high-end Philips Hue and Nanoleaf lights such as:
– Synchronize 16 million colors light with TV, PC screen
– Touch the color changer right on the lamp face
– Smart lighting supports user health
– Synchronize lighting with music, games, videos, etc.
– Compatible with many major smart home platforms
2. Smart lights combined with smart switches?
2.1 Using smart switches
How to use smart switches is often used for newly built apartments or families who want to change the entire switch in their home. These switches have built-in smart home technology. So you just need to connect them to the light lines in your house to be able to use them normally.
With the solution of using a smart switch, there will be its own advantages and disadvantages that you can note as follows:
– Only the light bulb can be turned on/off. It is not possible to increase or decrease the brightness or change the color of the bulb at will.
– Will need additional cold wire (ground wire) available for the switch
– Divide the light string (line of lights) reasonably according to the maximum number of buttons, for example:
(Aqara switch D1 – Square version with 1 to 3 buttons, including cold wire and cold cord. Compatible with Apple HomeKit, Aqara Home.
Smart Switch Aqara Q1 – Rectangular version – up to 2 push buttons. Includes cold wire and cold cord. Compatible with Apple HomeKit, Aqara Home.
Tuya Smart Switch: Up to 4 push buttons, requires cold wire
The advantage of this method is that it can control all kinds of different devices and the cost will also be lower.
2.2 Using smart lights
When using smart lights, you can customize any feature related to the characteristics of the bulb, not just the usual on/off like a switch. This way will be simpler and more time-saving, without requiring complicated electrical systems. The most basic and easy to replace light bulbs are:
– Bulb type, using E27 holders, such as Yeelight Smart Bulb, Philips Hue Bulb E27
– Thin lamps, called downlights, such as the Philips Garnea Downlight
– Ceiling lamps, usually large and mounted in the center of the ceiling, such as Yeelight LED Ceilight Light
Smart bulbs will bring a better experience when you want to change the light to suit all family activities.
3. Notes before installing smart lights
3.1 Ceiling light
For smart ceiling lights, you just need to replace or pull more wires to the position to be installed. Most smart ceiling lights are designed to be thin and light. So you can easily do the replacement and installation at home. The most prominent in the line of ceiling tiles has Yeelight. You can choose shapes and sizes to suit your home and preferences such as:
– Ceiling light with thin bezel, with RGB Yeelight Arwen C 50W
– Yeelight Arwen S 50W . soft edge lamp
– Starlight Yeelight Starry A2101
– Yeelight C2001S500 . square lamp
As for the light, you can install it with plaster ceiling and concrete ceiling. As long as your home has a ladder and a drill, everything will be extremely simple to install.
3.2 Smart recessed lights
Bulbs to mount on the ceiling need a light can. If your plaster ceiling is not thick enough to hold the cans, then you have to switch to thinner lights like Spotlights. For houses under construction, it is possible to install a ceiling that is more suitable for the line of lights to be used. You should also pay attention to the size of the ceiling light before construction and installation. Different lights will have different sizes depending on the design.
4. Choose the right brightness and power
Current smart bulbs have a power of mainly about 9-10W / bulb, which is also equal to normal light bulbs. For example, the living room is about 20 square meters, you use 6 downlights, if you need to increase the brightness you can use more ceiling lights in the middle.
The higher wattage ceiling lights usually fall in the 20-50W range and can go up to 100W with the Yeelight Halo Pro 960 and Yeelight Starry R900 series. Normally, you should choose lamps with high power to avoid the case of not being bright enough, you will have to change another lamp. Because when installing smart lights, you can adjust the brightness down to a better fit without changing the lights.
5. What is the connection of smart lights?
Normally, smart lights will have 2 types: 2.4GHz Wifi and Zigbee. With high-end lights, need to use a large number, there are many features that will use zigbee waves to be more stable. However, a Zigbee hub kit will be required. Then there is no need to worry about overloading because there is actually only one device connected to the Wi-Fi in the house (the hub).
See also: What is the Zigbee system in a smart home?
For Wifi devices, when using low-profile Wi-Fi routers, it will often be overloaded when there are too many devices connected to it. When you use too many Wifi smart lights, then the connection will be unstable, or drop, slow speed, unresponsive… Then not only smarthome devices are affected but also computers, phones, TVs … your problem is also. The fix will usually use a separate set of high-capacity WIFi RAM for Smart home devices
The overall summary is
- Need to check the size, ceiling, lights, power for the lights before installing
- Consider buying smart lights vs smart switches
- Choose a brightness that is suitable for the function of the room, not easily dark and uncomfortable
- If you use a light that connects directly to Wi-Fi, use a good Wi-Fi kit.
