A few weeks ago I published a blog article entitled How to Brighten Up Your Dorm with Great Smart Lighting Options, in which I suggested a few smart lighting products and explored several fun ways in which students could use those products to spruce up their dorm rooms for the (at the time) impending school year. Today I take a very similar approach to exploring smart lighting options that will contribute to the ambiance of the upcoming holidays, including both Halloween & the approaching Christmas season. Read on if you wish to celebrate the holidays right!
First up today is the Philips Hue 2m (6.5 ft.) LED Lightstrip Plus, which is sure to brighten any festive season! Among the features of the Philips Lightstrip is the useful ability to control the set with your iOS or Android based smart device. This makes it possible to control your lighting even when you’re away from home, thereby adding a serious element of security to these otherwise playful lights. Also great is the flexibility of this set, which can easily bend to take on any shape you desire. And they’re super easy to install too, having the ability to adhere to any solid surface you can think to attach them too. The Philips Lightstrip is even expandable—you can add 1 metre long extension strips (sold separately) to make your strip reach up to a total limit of 10 metres. Finally, this fun lightstrip is 100% compatible with the Philips Hue Bridge, thus allowing for its seamless integration into your overall smart home environment. It’s a truly can’t miss concept!
If you wish to generate a proper Halloween atmosphere in your home using one of these lightstrip sets, may I suggest using it as an orange archway liner with which to outline your main Halloween entrance? Or, possibly use it to outline (once again in orange) a ledge for some jack-o-lanterns to sit on? One way or another, these light strips are great for outlining other objects. As for Christmas, you could wrap the strip, candy cane style, around a beautiful bough wreath, or around a post or pillar in your home—possibly the banister post of your staircase. Or, if you have a rounded white pillar, a lightstrip lit up in red would turn it into a giant candy cane clone. Alternatively, you could use it to outline a border around a Christmas village set (if you have one). Of course, the choice is all yours, and there’s no shortage of great ways to enhance your holiday season with the Philips Hue Lightstrip. So be creative and see what festive ideas you can come up with for your own holiday decorating!
One unique product that also bears mentioning is the Philips HUE Smart LED Tap Control Switch. This handy little item allows you to conveniently operate your Philips Hue lighting without the necessity of using your smart device. So, if your phone or tablet goes dead, you can still control your lights. Its various buttons are also fully programmable, meaning you can set them to control/change your lighting in whatever manner you wish. It’s also compact, portable, and highly energy efficient, employing the power of kinetic energy to function (i.e., it’s powered by your touch), so you’ll never have to purchase batteries for it. The Philips Hue Tap is destined to become one of those unique smart home products that in days to come you’ll wonder how you ever lived without. Just remember that as a Philips Hue product you must consider compatibility. Other Philips Hue products should generally be fine.
If traditional style lightbulbs are more to your liking, you may with to consider the MIPOW Multi-Colour PLAYBULB Rainbow A19 Smart LED Light Bulb. This bulb will light up your life with an incredible colour palate of 16.7 million unique colour options. There’s literally no mood you can’t achieve with MIPOW! They also feature built-in Bluetooth connectivity, iOS & Android based smart device control (via the PLAYBULB X App), a ridiculous life expectancy of over 20,000 hours of total running time, incredible energy efficiency (the equivalent output of a 50W bulb coupled with low power consumption), and suitability for either indoor or outdoor use. There’s simply no doubt that the MIPOW PLAYBULB Rainbow Light Bulb is a wonderful smart lighting option that’s suitable for all occasions!
Possible ways of using MIPOW PLAYBULBS to celebrate the holidays include setting one or more bulbs to a very dark setting (similar to a blacklight) so as to create a more spooky atmosphere for Halloween. Since these particular bulbs are suitable for outdoor use, you could create a spooky Halloween holler in your back yard, complete with scary spooks and goblins. Come Christmas time you can select more season appropriate colours and set up a beautiful winter wonderland in the same backyard space. Build a festive snowman and light his way with green & red hanging lights, or use your PLAYBULBS indoors to bring holiday cheer to every room in your home. With 16.7 million unique colours at your disposal, there’s no excuse not to go absolutely Christmas crazy this holiday season!
Another fun option is the Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED Light Panel – 9 Pack, which consists of 9 modular LED smart lighting panels that you can arrange in any configuration you wish. These triangle shaped lights offer a number of convenient control options, from voice controls via your smart device (whether iOS or Android based), to the Nanoleaf Smarter Series App, to good old fashioned manual control. And with panels that easily snap together (using small, link pieces) in myriad configurations and offer double-sided mounting adhesives, both installation & removal are 100% tool-free and incredibly easy. With over 16 million colour choices available, pattern/scene customization options, timing triggers for scheduling when those patterns come on or go off, up to 20,000 hours of useable life, and compatibility with with Apple HomeKit & Amazon Alexa, you’re sure to enjoy your Nanoleaf Aurora Panel Lights for many years to come!
With so many wonderful colours to choose from, and endless arrangement options, Nanoleaf Aurora Smart Lighting Panels will significantly enhance the ambiance of any holiday season. For instance, at Halloween you might choose to go with an orange ‘pumpkin’ theme, or you may wish to mimmic the many bright colours of the beautiful Autumn leaves. You could have different panels showing colours like red, orange, yellow, green, and brown—the perfect Fall colour palate. Similarly, for Christmas you may wish to alternate panels between the festive colours of red & green. Or, you may decide that soft pastel colours remind you of Christmases of old, when the lights at Christmas time used to be softer. One way or another, Nanoleaf Aurora Smart Lighting Panels are sure to set the perfect atmosphere for any festive occasion!
Thus ends another smart lighting session. But before I go, I’ll just mention that a new Smart Mirror is coming soon to Best Buy. Details are scarce at the moment, but it’s expected to arrive in November at some Best Buy locations. If this sounds interesting to you, be sure to keep an eye out for it. For now, have a Happy Halloween et al!
