How Philips Hue Can Enhance Your Smart Home

What’s on your list for top 5 smart home devices? Some people will say home security cameras, while others will list doorbell cams, Wi-Fi door locks, and connected security alarms. While these are great devices and great smart home additions, I really think that Philips Hue smart lights should be firmly in the top 5. That’s because I know these lights will make an immediate impact on your home and how you live in it.

Want to make it look like you’re at home when you’re not? Just tap to turn your lights on. Want to simulate the sunrise or the sunset on those dark days of winter? No problem; just download a scene or two and you can wake up to (or relax with) the perfect cozy glow.

Remote access from anywhere and cozy scenes are just two of the reasons why you’d want Philips Hue in your home. With such a wide variety of Hue products on the market now, there really is something for everyone.

Here’s a look at just a few Philips Hue products and how they’ll enhance your smart home.

Start with the Philips Hue starter kit

If you’re just setting up a smart home and you’re wondering where to start, I highly recommend picking up the Philips Hue White & Colour A19 starter kit.

This starter kit has 4 bulbs and the Philips Hue Bridge. The bridge is required to link most Philips Hue products together, and the bulbs will feature all shades of white and millions of colours. Once connected to the app and your home’s Wi-Fi, you can change your light’s colours according to your mood or the time of day.

By choosing the starter kit first, you’re setting yourself up to use all Philips Hue products, both indoors and out. You’ll be able to add your Hue bulbs to Google Home, or sync them with Apple HomeKit, and you can link them together in rooms so you can turn an entire room off and on at one time.

Add versatile lights without an electrician

If you’ve ever stood in the aisle of your local home store and wondered which dimmer switch to buy and whether or not you’ve got the technical know-how to install it, you’ll appreciate Philips Hue even more. You can dim your lights at any time, and all you have to do is slide your finger along the screen of your phone. Choose bright, bright white or dim them down to candlelight tones for a movie night, all with no dimmer switch required.

Brighten up hard-to-access areas

Philips Hue gives you the power to add light to areas in your home that would require you to hire an electrician. If you’d like light underneath your kitchen cabinets or surrounding your flat screen TV, you can easily do so with with Philips Hue Lightstrips. Light strips are a 2m LED base strip that’s expandable up to 10m with additional 1m strips. They adhere to any solid surface, and you can bend them and twist them to suit the space.

Light strips work just like other Philips Hue lights. You control them via your smartphone, brighten them or dim them, and access over 16 million colours to set the right mood whenever you’d like.

Say goodbye to changing light bulbs

It’s annoying when your light bulb stops working, and standard light bulbs seem to burn out quickly and at the most inopportune moments. With Philips Hue, you have light bulbs for the long haul. The Hue A19 Smart LED Light Bulb will last approximately 25,000 hours in its lifetime, and that means you won’t have to worry about changing it for a long, long time.

I’ve had my Philips Hue A19 bulbs for 3 years and counting. They’re still going strong.

Philips Hue offers you extra security and power savings

If you make it a practice to leave your home’s lights on when you go out at night, just to make it look like you’re at home, you know you’re going to be spending money to light a house that’s empty. With Philips Hue light bulbs, you can control your lights from anywhere you are, and that means you can save on power too.

Within the Philips Hue App you have access to scheduling. If you want your lights to turn on when you’re out, you can schedule them to turn on at dusk. If you’re out of town and you want it to look like you’re at home, you can turn your lights on at dusk and off at 11 pm when you normally go to bed.

Complete automation with geofencing and motion detection

Philips Hue also has accessories that work with your lights to save you power. The Philips Hue Motion Sensor is a battery-powered sensor that you can put anywhere in your house. You don’t have to wire it in, and it will detect movement in your room and turn on the lights for you. When there is no motion, it will turn them off.

You can also set your Philips Hue App to turn your lights on when you drive into your driveway or off when you leave. Geofencing is an amazing addition to the app, and it saves you both time and money by controlling your lights without any effort on your part.

Control your lights with your voice

With Philips Hue, setting up your room for a movie or adding a light show to your favourite playlist is as easy as saying, “OK Google” or “Alexa.” Hue voice commands work with Google, Alexa, HomeKit, and IFTTT, and they’re great for turning the lights off and on when you’re a distance from the switch or using them with one of the Philips Hue accessory lights.

If you’ve got a Philips Hue Light Bar in front of your TV, all you’ll have to do is ask your assistant to cast a scene that’s compatible with what you’re watching. You can change up the colours and enjoy your favourite blockbuster with the perfect movie lighting, all without lifting a finger.

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

Have you ever stayed in a hotel, turned on the bathroom light, and instantly thought, “Wow, this mirror makes me look great!” I’ve been in hotels where I’ve wanted to take the mirror home, just because of the perfect lighting surrounding it.

With the Philips Hue Adore LED Smart Wall Mirror you can adjust the light until you look perfect. Place it in your bathroom or bedroom and change up the light in the morning to give you energy or dim it down at night when you’re getting ready for bed. Any way you use this smart wall mirror, it will make you look good.

Light up your outdoor space, easily

Outdoor lights have been one of the best additions to the Hue lineup. They’ve recently added Philips Hue Lily Spotlights, Philips Hue Calla Pathway Lights, and the Philips Hue Lucca Outdoor Light.

I reviewed the Philips Hue Calla and the Philips Hue Lily and was so impressed with how easy it was to cast coloured light all over my yard. Normally you’re restricted to only white light for your yard, but with Philips Hue, the sky is the limit. You can change up your lights for Halloween and create a spooky atmosphere, or add a festive red and green glow to your home for Christmas.

There’s just so much you can do with Hue outdoor lights that you’ll want to add them all over the yard.

To enhance your smart home, just turn on the lights

Philips Hue lights are easy to set up and use, and you can control all of your lights with just a few taps. Choose to use the Philips Hue App or branch out and try out a few of the ‘Friends of Hue’ apps to have even more fun with your lights.

Whether you’re just building your smart home or you’ve already got a few devices, Philips Hue brings the fun and that instant I’ve-got-a-smart-home gratification. You can find the complete lineup of Hue lights and accessories at Best Buy right now.