The timeless question: Should I use smart switches or smart bulbs.
Smart light bulbs are a sensation of the new generation. These bulbs come integrated with Wi-Fi radio, Bluetooth, or Zigbee, allowing the user to control the attributes of the lights themselves.
If you’re making your house smart, automated lighting is a must. It has the capability of changing how your home looks. And not only that, but the user-friendliness will increase by many fold.
Although smart bulbs are amazing, there are some drawbacks that restrain them. And they might end up irritating the user from time to time. Luckily, there’s a great alternative: smart light switches.
Smart Bulbs
First things’ first: Smart bulbs are irreplaceable in certain situations. They can create beautiful scenery in your home. Many smart bulbs come with intelligent features that allows the user to control the color, brightness, and ambiance of the bulb.
With these bulbs, the addition of beautiful colors can make your home much more captivating. If you can opt for Philips Hue bulbs – which are definitely some of the pricier options – you can get incredible control of scenes as well.
See our rundown on the best Zigbee Edison light bulbs here.
But if the colors don’t concern you, and you’re fine with white lights, smart bulbs might be overkill. And they will often irritate you with some inconveniences.
Two Main Problems With Smart Bulbs
The Switch must Always be ‘On’:
This is the major issue, and a deal-breaker for most. If you’re using smart bulbs, you can’t turn off the switches. This leaves you with two options.
You can leave the switch on at all times. This means energy will always be flowing through the smart bulbs, and makes them very power-hungry. You can always turn them on and off remotely with your phone or any other smart device, but the fact is, you have to turn the switch off physically if you want to turn them off completely and stop the draw of “phantom power”.
The second, and much more common, reaction to this problem is turning off the switches supplying the smart lights. This usually happens because someone forgets that there are smart light bulbs in place. Turning off the switch kills the power to the bulb. This results in the bulb not responding to remote commands from your phone/smart home controller, and nullifying any smart functionality the bulb may posses.
Buggy Sensors
The sensors of the smart bulbs can be hit or miss. These sensors work great in smaller and constricted rooms with open floor plans. But if they’re in a small room with a lot of doors and walls, such as bathrooms and storerooms, the lights might go out from time to time. Take it from me – this can really get on your nerves.
Just imagine trying to carry a load of clothes down to your laundry room and tripping over the ironing board because your bulb radio isn’t picked up by your voice assistant. This can be very annoying, yet was a common problem I faced when I only used smart bulbs for my lighting.
Smart Switches
Due to these problems, I recommend a better smart bulb alternative: Smart switches. Smart switches are amazing tools that are a logical progression for home automation enthusiasts currently using smart bulbs.
Now, a lot of people have logical apprehension about making the switch from smart bulbs to smart switches. People are scared of messing with any wiring. And on their face, smart switches seem more expensive than bulbs. If you’ll hear me out, I’m going to make the case that these apprehensions actually point to why smart switches are superior.
Installation of Smart Switches
Smart switches have to be installed on the walls of the room, just like any standard light switch. The difference is, with smart switches, they can be turned on and off both physically, and by controlling them remotely.
The ability to turn on and off remotely negates the issue of not being able to use the lights remotely. No matter how smart a bulb is, if there’s no power at the wall, you can’t turn it on remotely. With smart switches, however, if someone turns the light off at the wall, you can still turn it back on with your phone or with Alexa, Google home, etc.
Anyone Can Use These
As we’ve said previously, smart switches can function as standard switches as well. So, if you have family members who aren’t so great with technology, they can still turn the lights on and off physically while still leaving the chance for remote control.
Another amazing thing about this: you don’t have to rely on Alexa or any device whenever you enter a room. You’ll find no trouble turning the lights on even if you aren’t carrying your phone with you.
Now, you not be excited about wiring a wall switch if you’ve never done it before. Neither was I. Neither was anyone on their first try. But now it takes me less than five minutes to add a new switch to our house. There are a ton of great videos on YouTube dedicated to this exact topic. You’ll never learn until you try.
If you are totally against setting them up yourself and have a few extra dollars, there is absolutely no shame in hiring someone to set them up for you. With smart homes becoming more and more common, the vast majority of handymen have educated themselves on their set up. The reasons I push for you to try it yourself are twofold. (1) It’s free. And (2) it’s a challenging new skill that can be rewarding and fun. But I get that not everyone will find it exciting to do such projects. Some people just want to pay some extra money to have it taken care of. Again, no judgement. You should set up your home in whatever way you think is best.
Relatively Cheaper:
“How can a smart switch cost $30 and be cheaper than a smart bulb that costs $15?” It’s a fair question. The answer comes in the form of scale.
If you have 1 switch connected to 1 light bulb, it may make sense financially to opt for a smart bulb.
If you have 1 switch connected to 2 light bulbs, you seem to be at a break-even point for the example prices listed above. But the upfront cost is not the full story. For starters, you’ll see a financial benefit on your electricity bill as we saw above. You will also gain the added convenience of not having to worry about someone accidentally turning off the light switch and killing all of the “smart” aspects of the lights.
When you get to 1 switch connected to 3 bulbs or more, you’ll see the benefit of the upfront costs. And you’ll get the added benefits of convenience and reduced electricity use.
Therefore as you can see, if you have a lot of bulbs that you want to control, it makes a lot more sense from a budget perspective to go with smart switches. In this way, you can save a fair bit of money and capitalize on the added convenience.
This naturally leads us into the next benefit of smart switches…
Energy Saving
Whether your motives are to decrease bills or to care for the environment, saving energy is a good thing.
As many of you already know, smart lights can be quite energy consuming. But, as we saw above, smart switches can be turned on and off whenever you need to. This will allow you to save some electricity when you aren’t using them. Many also have a dimming feature, meaning you can adjust the brightness to your needs and not have them on at full blast the whole time.
Most Switches use Z-Wave:
Z-wave is an amazing technology that uses a wavelength which doesn’t overlap with Wi-Fi signals. Most smart devices can interact with Z-wave through a hub (see #4 in our Top Tips for Smart Home Beginners article). And they come with greater security – the protocol is virtually tamper-proof with respect to hacking. Thus, if you’re looking for the best security option, switches are the way to go.
Something to Keep in Mind
Now, a drawback to keep in mind with smart switches comes with color. A switch can turn a dumb light into a smart one. But it can’t turn a white bulb into a color one.
Here, many people consider combining smart switches with smart bulbs. While this is the most expensive option, when done, you get the best of both worlds. The question is, how often will you be using the color functionality? If you have a living room that serves as a karaoke room when hosting a dinner party, the cost may be worth it. Combining the two in the laundry room? Probably not worth the price. Just know that it can be done, and it will be pricey.
Conclusion: Smart Switches vs. Smart Bulbs
Although smart switches have some drawbacks, they are definitely a better alternative to smart bulbs in most settings. If you’re ok with your lights not showing color, installing smart switches will be cheaper, more eco-friendly, and will make your life a lot easier.
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