Debunking Smart Lights - So many lights, so many features, how ah?

Welcome On-Board Home-A-Genius! Before you get so excited on your smart home journey, HALT. Not everything needs to be smart. Believe it or not, 60% of our customers purchase the wrong lights due to the various options out there. Buying the correct lights will save you tons of money and also save you lots of unnecessary automations.

Here is a simple workflow to help you out before you purchase your lights:

 

Here's a breakdown of how our On/Off switches look like:

 

Here's our dimmable switches:

 

 

What are Smart Lights

Normal lights come with drivers. Smart Lights are lights that come with a smart driver. The difference between those 2 is the ability to be controlled by means other than the main switch e.g. Remote Control, App Control, Voice Control.

Always remember that dimmable lights with "Dim to Warm" functions are not smart lights. These are TRIAC Dimming lights with Leading Edge/Trailing Edge Drivers.
- Dimmable lights only allow for brightness to be controlled at 0% to 100%.
- Dim to Warm lights allows for brightness to be controlled at 0% to 100% and at low brightness approx <10%, the color of the lights will be warmer i.e. 2700K.

 

Smart Lights allows for color change in 2 forms:
1. White Ambiance (WA): 2700K to 6000K
2. RGB Color Change

Both WA and RGB color changing lights allow for brightness control.

What should you look out for when buying a smart light?

1. How the lights are controlled

Lights can be controlled in various ways: Remote control, App Control, Voice

 

- Remote Control: An additional device other than your swtich is provided by yur light vendor to control the light display.
HAG Solution: Note that we usually we don't recommend this method, however, we can control lights via remote control through the Broadlink IR/RF blaster. Note that the remote control must be compatible with the Broadlink device.

- App Control: These are the most commonly recommended smart lights sold by lights vendors out there. These lights usually come in aesthetic and beautiful design exclusive to their shop. Most of these lights can only be paired with Tuya/Smartlife application.
IMPT: Some vendors made their own application. Some of these white-labelled mobile application cannot be intergrated with Amazon Alexa or even Google Home. Do check with your lighting vendor if the lights you've used can be intergrated with Amazon Alexa or even Google Home before any purchase. If the lights' application is standalone, we can only automate the on/off function of the lights.
HAG Solution: : We can link up such lights via Amazon Virtual Relay (AVR). Note that additional fees are required for this option. AVR allows for: On/Off, brightness control and temperatre/CCT changing functions.

For us to work on this, you will need to get your lighting vendors to link up the smart lights to Tuya/Smartlife app and link up to Amazon Alexa before Team Home-A-Genius can take over. Team Home-A-Genius will not be able to assist in linking up to the Tuya/Smartlife apps as we are not the specialists in this area; hence any connection issues with Tuya/Smartlife cloud should be handled by the light supplier. Note that should the lights be not linked to the Amazon Alexa app before the team heads over to work on the smart home, a second trip will be required.

2. Cloud or no Cloud?

 

Now that you've decided on color changing lights, next step is to deicide on cloud or no cloud. FYI - Home-A-Genius only recommends no cloud options.

No Cloud Options: Philips HUE, Nanoleaf, Yeelight

Cloud Option: Tuya, Smartlife, Near, Sol Luminaire Isa V3 Smart Light, Verde Smart Light, VIO lights

3. Zigbee or Wifi Lights

Zigbee Lights: Philips HUE, Tuya/Smartlife Zigbee Lights

Note that at this point, we have not verified the stability of Tuya/Smartlife Zigbee lights. Hence, we will advise against Tuya/Smartlife Zigbee smart lights at all cost.

Wi-Fi Lights: Yeelight, Nanoleaf, Tuya/Smartlife Wi-Fi Lights

Note that Wi-Fi lights will take up a single IP address in your router, causing additional load on your bandwidth. Zigbee lights do not have this problem.

We have a winner!

 

 

After many years of sourcing for the best smart lights in the market, we've decided on a stable and reliable one - Philips HUE.

This giant has proven its stability by using the Zigbee protocol. In terms of IoT, HUE has been in the forefront and moving towards Matter integration in the near future. On top of that, Philips HUE works on a no-cloud basis just like Home-A-Genius does. This also means that your smart home will function without the use of cloud. If you are looking for aesthetics, the Philips HUE GU10 allows you to pop them in a beautiful light holder that comes with a GU10 fitting.

 

The Philips HUE GU10 option even comes in WA and RGB option, giving you the flexibility to swap out the lights as much as you need.

You are now ready to start your smart home journey! Speak with our consultants if you require more information! We can't wait to embark on the smart home journey with you!