How to Use Smart Lights Better | Reviews by Wirecutter

Oct 14, 2024

By Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

We’ve updated this post with our latest recommendations.

The light switch is a fine device, but how many other technologies from the 1880s do you still use in your home? Smart lighting—bulbs, switches, plug-in outlets—can transform the feel of your home, especially when you go beyond the most basic ways of controlling them, namely turning them on or off, through an app. With just a few accessories and some app magic, you can make your smart home shine.

Why it’s smart: Humans are creatures of habit—see light switch, must flick. But it’s a habit you have to break, or at least accommodate, when you use smart bulbs, since they need continuous power to do all their neat tricks—flip the switch off, and the bulb won’t respond to your app or voice commands. Adding smart accessories to your smart-lighting system makes it so you can continue to use a hardware switch while still having your smart bulbs work.

How to do it: If you’re using smart bulbs (rather than smart switches; see below), you can control them with a compatible smart remote or smart button that doesn’t disable the bulb’s smart functionality but still lets you use the light in a more traditional way. So your housemates can use a hardware switch if they want, and you still get the benefits of smart lighting. Win-win.

The Philips Hue line, one of our other good smart bulb recommendations, offers a separate dimmer switch and remote control that you can wall-mount for a more traditional yet wire-free way to control your smart bulbs. But you’re still left with the original switch, which someone may inadvertently flick. The Lutron Aurora Smart Bulb Dimmer solves this problem by installing atop an existing toggle switch and locking it in place. Then you simply turn lights on or off with one of three button presses. Just attach it to the switch, set it up in the app to control up to 50 Hue lights, and use it to turn them on, turn them off, set a scene, or dim them. (Note that it doesn’t work with wide, rocker-style switches.)

If you want to use your existing light bulbs and fixtures but add smart controls to them, consider installing smart light switches that control fixtures directly, instead of using smart bulbs. Such switches do require fiddling with wiring (depending on your skills, you may want to hire an electrician), but you can still control them remotely using an app or your voice, as well as put them on Schedules or incorporate them into Routines, Scenes, and Automations.

If someone in your home thwarts your smart lighting by flipping them off using wall switches, find peace by using wireless smart switches.

Why it’s smart: Sensors can turn your lights on when someone walks in a room or opens a door, and then turn them off when everyone is gone or the door closes. It works like magic, and it’s as easy to set up as tapping a few buttons in an app.

How to do it: Pairing your smart lights with smart sensors lets you use action (or inaction) to turn them on or off. Some manufacturers of smart light bulbs sell a motion sensor to pair with their lights. However, the Philips Hue motion sensor is one of the best options, as it can automatically adapt your lighting based on the time of day—for instance, turning your bathroom lights on low for midnight trips to the toilet but then fully bright after 7 a.m. when you need to get going in the morning.

If you have smart light bulbs from a smorgasbord of brands, you can control them all using sensors paired to a smart-home hub or speaker. You can then set up Automations that turn lights on when you open a door and off when you close it (ideal for closets, pantries, and laundry rooms) or turn them on when there is motion and off when no one is around (great for busy rooms such as kitchens and living rooms). You can add other elements into the mix, too, such as the brightness level, any color adjustment, and the time of day.

Alexa can make controlling a smart home far more streamlined. Here are three ways one family uses it to make a home more convenient, welcoming, and secure.

Why it’s smart: Returning to a well-lit home can be a comfort—and having lights shut off automatically when you leave saves you time and energy. You can make all of that happen in a snap just by allowing your lights to know the location of the phones in your household.

How to do it: Many of our top picks for smart-lighting systems can turn off when you leave and turn on when you come home based on where your phone is. This capability, known as geofencing, is baked into their systems and is simple to set up. Head into the app and look for a Home/Away setting, grant access to your phone’s location and those of your family members or housemates (you will have to do this individually on each phone), and then choose which lights will react and when.

We recommend restricting this sort of automation to the lighting in your main living areas, as you probably want to avoid accidentally waking up someone who’s taking a nap or turning off the light for someone who’s working in the cellar when you pop off to the grocery store.

For homes with multiple lighting systems, a smart-home hub can again step in and orchestrate everything for you. Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant, and Samsung’s SmartThings all have geofencing options that you can tie to your lighting. HomeKit even lets you set certain actions to certain people, so you can, for instance, have the lights in a child’s room turn on when they come home and off when they leave—pretty smart.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy writes about smart-home technology use and sustainable living, while trying to practice both (one is a lot easier than the other).

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