The ways in which Smart Lights can add to your home are many and varied! Not only can they enhance your home decor, but they’re also incredibly convenient and can even cut down on your monthly energy consumption by a significant margin. Of course, today’s blog is all about another of the key benefits of smart lighting—security. Read on if you’d like to learn all about using smart lights to enhance your home’s security. You’ll discover how smart lights can give you peace of mind and help you to sleep better at night.
What Are Smart Lights?
Before we can take a productive look at how they can enhance your home security, it’s important to first consider just what exactly smart lights are.
At first glance, smart lights don’t appear to be all that different from any other lights. It’s true, most smart light systems look much like their less sophisticated counterparts, and the main function they perform—keeping your home well lit, is also much the same. But where smart lights become vastly different is in the additional things they can do.
Smart lights, for instance, offer users app based control over when they are (and are not) turned on. That is, you can control these lights entirely through your Android or iOS smart phone simply by pressing a toggle switch icon.
What’s more, app control also allows you to set timers for your lights, so they can come on and go off whenever—and as frequently, as you want. This not only allows you to schedule an outside light to come on when it gets dark outside or a hallway light to come on early in the morning when you first have to get up while it’s still dark, but it has security applications as well, as we will soon discover.
Finally, smart lights work with various different smart home ecosystems (such as IFTTT, Works with Nest, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa) as part of a larger overall system, they allow you to choose from millions of different lighting colour options, and they offer a variety of different styles and designs (both of lights and light fixtures) to suit virtually any home’s decor.
Of course, we’re still only scratching the surface of what smart lights are and what they can do, but let’s now break off from these details to take a closer look at their home security benefits.
How Can Smart Lights Enhance Your Home Security?
A well-lit property is no place for criminals. Those that are up to no good want to avoid the light. They prefer to hide in the shadows and lurk in darkness. This is where they can most easily avoid detection, and it’s why having appropriate lighting is crucial to home security.
As criminals will very rarely be inside your home without first going through your yard (unless you don’t have a yard—perhaps you live in an apartment?), I’m mostly thinking of outdoor lights when I discuss using smart lighting for home security. However, the same principles apply to indoor lights as well: all light is a detriment to crime. It’s the very reason that stores and banks keep their indoor lights on at night.
In addition to deterring trespassers and potential intruders, smart lights also serve to make your home look lived in when you’re away. This is because you can set them to timers to come on and go off at various times that will seem random to outsiders, thus making it appear as though someone is at home even when they’re not.
You can also hop onto your smart phone at any time (and from wherever you may be) to manipulate your lighting, thereby creating the same “at home” effect. If your home appears to be actively lived in, the odds of someone attempting a break-in will go down significantly.
Smart lights can also be made to cooperate with other smart home products, such as smart security cameras. The way this works is that when your smart security cameras detect movement and begin to record, your tied-in smart lights can come on and light up the area being recorded. This way your lights will help your security cameras to get a better look at whatever they’re recording.
Of course, the lights themselves can also be motion triggered, which is particularly useful for outdoor security lights. Not too many trespassers are going to want to linger in an area that’s just been lit up like a ship.
In fact, one of the best examples of outdoor smart lights that are ideal for security purposes is floodlights. Examples such as the Philips Hue Lily Smart Outdoor Spot Light Base Kit and the Philips Hue Ludere PAR38 Smart Outdoor Wall Light (both shown immediately above in the order given) are ideal choices, as is the Philips Hue Econic Discover LED Smart Outdoor Floodlight (shown at the very top of the page).
Though not quite as focused as the bright floodlights above, the Philips Hue Calla Smart Outdoor Pathway Light Base Kit (shown immediately above) is another good outdoor lighting choice.
Not only will these lights bathe your yard in just enough light to deter undesirable wanderers, but they’ll also keep you from tripping over rocks and sprinklers as you move about your own property at night, as well as assisting visitors such as trick-or-treaters to make their way up your walk without taking a header over a flower pot!
Choosing the Right Smart Lights for Your Home
Choosing the right smart lights for your home is not necessarily an easy decision in today’s product rich environment. There’s a lot out there to choose from, as well as a few key things you need to know before you proceed to purchasing.
For example, Philips Hue smart lights require the Philips Hue Bridge to work, meaning an additional purchase is required to use this brand of smart lights (bridge version 2.0 is linked here and shown above).
Luckily, the Hue Bridge is not considered difficult to set up and use, but is does represent a minor barrier to entry into the world of Philips Hue lighting. For some this may lead to a different choice of brand, though I personally think that you can never go wrong with Philips Hue.
Another consideration is that not every smart light brand and model is necessarily compatible with every smart home ecosystem.
For example, not everything necessarily Works with Nest, though smart home brand and ecosystem compatibility is continually expanding. Even so, one should always check for compatibility with your chosen smart home ecosystem before selecting your brand of lights.
While there are pros and cons to every possible decision, the benefits of employing smart lights in and around your home far outweigh any impediments. Whether it’s the security benefits you love most, or some of the other conveniences (or energy savings potential), smart lights are one of the most useful and beneficial smart home products there is. They’re also highly economical. Find your own ideal Smart Lights at best Buy Canada today!
