It seems like the electrical industry is trying to catch up with the electronic industry.
Technologies like those mentioned in my last two articles (Logitech Harmony and Google Home) are part of the slow movement toward home automation. I says “slow” because home automation has been a catchphrase for decades … a technology that seems perpetually “on the horizon”.
Now that we have smartphones, smart TVs, smart speakers, smart thermostats, and other smart devices, the next step is smart lights, outlets, and thermostats. Oh, they’re out there now, but their price will have to reduce substantially to make them affordable enough to entice you to replace their “dumb” equivalents.
With smart lights, you currently have a couple of choices:
- you can get smart light systems that includes a “bridge” that wirelessly connects each smart bulb to your home network
- you can get smart light switches/dimmers that replace your existing switches/dimmers and wirelessly connect to your home network
With smart outlets, you simply plug a wifi-enabled outlet into an existing outlet and join it to your home network.
The going price for smart light switches is around $50/switch, and smart outlets are around $40/outlet. Philips has a smart light system called “Hue” that needs their bridge, but you can control up to 50 of their smart lights with that one bridge. Their starter kits (that start at $70) come with a bridge and 2 or 3 smart bulbs. Philips Hue lights have the added bonus of colour and dimming control.
The beauty of smart lights/outlets is: you can control them locally or remotely using a smartphone app, you can control them by voice by using Google Home, or you can program them to go on/off on a timer to make it appear that you are home. Some will even monitor the amount of power you are using with connected devices.
With smart thermostats, you can put one in place of an existing thermostat and connect it to your wifi. From that point, you can wirelessly/verbally perform the functions you would manually, including adjusting scheduled temperature changes. These devices are still in the $220-$320 range.
“OK Google, submit article.”