8 Cool Things You Can Do with a Smart Lighting System in Your Home

So, you’ve set up a smart lighting system for your home. But what can you do with it? Here are some ideas.

Bedtime & Wake-Up Routines

You can program your lights to dim at a certain hour or even start turning off. Similarly, you can make your lights turn on or gradually brighten at a certain hour in the morning.

Sunrise & Sunset Simulation

Perhaps you want a gentler wake-up or sleep routine. You can get your lights to mimic sunrise and sunset, dimming up or down at certain times. For example, maybe you want a gentle wake-up by 7 a.m., so you program your bedroom lights to turn on super dim at 6:30 a.m. and gradually brighten by 7 a.m.

But if gentle isn’t for every member of the family, you can do the opposite. Maybe you have a sleepy teen and you blast them with full bright lights at 7 a.m. on the dot.

Security & Vacation Lights

You could set up a little routine for your lights to go through every day while you’re on vacation, so it looks like you’re there. You could do it during the workday too.

Geofencing & Location-Based Automation

Make your lights anticipate you by turning on automatically when you (or more accurately, your phone) approaches home. If you really want to go nuts, you can even get music to start playing before you walk in the door.

Voice-Controlled Lighting

Most smart lights are controlled by your smartphone, but most also link into a home hub or assistant such as Alexa or Google Assistant. You can set it up so you can control your lights with voice commands. Kind of like the clapper but more specific. And presumably there won’t be a million sitcom jokes about it.

Remote Control

The nice thing about controlling stuff from your phone is you can control it anywhere. Forgot to turn off the lights? Not only can you check on your phone, but you can also turn them off via your phone.

Or let’s say a sketchy looking character is in front of your door camera. You can turn on some lights to make said character think there’s someone home.

Sync Lights with Music

If your smart lights project colour, you can turn every up-tempo playlist into a dance party. Or you can project a soothing blue that matches your calming classical mix—perfect for work or homework time. Admittedly, this is a bit of a silly reason to use smart lights, but it can be fun, especially if you’re having a party.

Dynamic Colour Changing

Speaking of using lighting to complement your musical mood, you can do the same thing without music. Maybe some spooky orange and red lights for your next Halloween party, festive green at Christmas, or hot pink when you host movie night and watch Barbie. There’s a lot of fun to be had with easily programmable coloured lights.