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Smart bulbs have revolutionized many homes across America. And you can easily see ways through which smart bulbs have transformed many smart homes.
First, these modern bulbs use less electrical energy to provide brighter lights in many homes. Second, they are more convenient to control since you can control them via dedicated mobile Apps on your smartphone.
As a result, you will not have to disrupt your comfortable resting position to go and flip wall switches to turn the lights on/off.
Since smart light bulbs use light-emitting diodes to provide light, they usually have better luminance than traditional incandescent bulbs. Also, led lights could be of any color you desire.
What’s more, smart bulbs emitting many colors could sync up with your favorite television series to bring out a mood that only blends with your movie-watching sessions.
As such, investing in smart bulbs is a noble idea, especially if you’re looking to save energy in the long run.
But all your favorite smart bulbs might come from different brands, and you want to mix them to light up every corner in your residence.
The great news is that you can mix smart bulbs and have a perfectly functional lighting system. But this will require a hub to connect all your smart bulbs, allowing you to control them from one control panel.
Be sure to read on for more information if you’re looking for ways to control your favorite smart bulbs from different brands.
Controlling Your Smart Bulbs Using a Hub
If you’re looking to mix your smart bulbs and control them efficiently, a smart home hub will be very useful.
Therefore, a smart hub is one of the smart home devices you will invest in to control your smart bulbs that might come from different brands.
Generally speaking, a smart hub is a small box, usually white and made of plastic. It connects to your router using an ethernet cable. But some smart hubs connect wirelessly to your home Wi Fi network.
The hub communicated with the connected smart lights wirelessly via various protocols: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, and ZigBee.
As such, you want to place the smart hub in a central place where it efficiently communicates with your light fixture. Although you can use any smart hub, we recommend Smartthings hub.
Unless, of course, you’re using Philips Hue bulbs, in which case, a Hue bridge is the best hub choice.
Adding your smart bulbs to the Smartthings hub is very straightforward. You will use the Smartthings App to add all your smart bulbs to the Smartthings hub.
Even if you’re using a different hub, you will use the respective mobile App to add all smart bulbs to the hub. So, consider installing the hub’s App on your smartphone or tablet before proceeding.
How A Hub Controls Your Smart Bulbs
Since your smart hub connects to your home network either wirelessly or via an ethernet cable, you can use the smart hub’s App to control the connected smart bulbs from anywhere.
You only have to launch the hub’s mobile App and tap on a button to command the hub on what to do. And the hub will control the connected smart bulbs wirelessly via Bluetooth, ZigBee, Z-Wave, or Wi-Fi.
For example, you could tap on a button to switch your smart bulbs off. And the bulbs will turn off no matter where you are!
This makes a hub an ideal investment if you usually forget to switch off your lights on your way to work.
The hub could also allow you to group your smart bulbs. And this allows you to control them at once. For example, you could group your security lights in the App.
So, if you tap a button to switch off all lights in the same group, you will be sure no security light will remain switched on.
Grouping smart bulbs together in the Smartthings App could save time besides guaranteeing an efficient control of multiple smart bulbs.
With a single tap of a button, you control every device in the group at once. As such, you don’t have to control the smart bulbs in the group individually.
How To Add Smart Bulbs to Your Hub
Whether you’re looking to light up your residential space with color changing bulbs such as Philips Hue bulbs or you want smart bulbs with only white luminance, you will add them all to the hub if you want to control them at once.
But how do you add smart bulbs to your hub?
Each smart hub has a dedicated App to help you out. And the steps tend to be similar. But for illustration purposes, we will explain how to add smart bulbs to a Smartthings hub using a Smartthings App.
Of course, the first thing you want to do is download the Smartthings App to your control panel (smartphone or tablet).
You will then place the smart hub in a central place where your smart bulbs connect wirelessly with it. Afterwards, you will place your smart bulbs in your desired light fixture.
For excellent functionality, ensure all your smart bulbs are within 15 feet from the hub.
Your smart lights need electrical energy during the set-up phase. As such, ensure you switch the smart lights on using your wall switches.
When adding your smart bulbs to the Smartthings hub, you will launch the Smartthings App first.
Then you will tap the Location drop-down menu on the App to locate the Add button, which you will tap. Tapping the “Add” button takes you to the Device button.
You will scroll down to By Brand and tap it to select the Smartthings option on the App. Be sure to choose Lighting and then Smart Bulbs to discover all smart bulbs in your lighting fixture.
Your smart bulb names will show up on the App, and you will tap on them to add your smart home lights.
Besides adding led bulbs to your smart hub to control them from the same App, you can also add other smart home devices to the hub.
These smart home devices include smart plugs for controlling the power supply to your electrical appliances remotely. Also, you can add a smart switch to control your priced electronics from anywhere.
Therefore, consider adding your smart home devices to your hub to control your smart home from anywhere on the globe.
Controlling Your Smart Lights Using Other Smart Control Devices
Besides controlling your smart bulbs with a hub from anywhere, you can also control your smart lights using a smart speaker such as Amazon Echo Dot.
Even a Google Nest Audio smart speaker using Google Assistant also allows you to control your smart bulbs by the sound of your voice.
As such, they are also worth the investment if you’re looking to control your lights through voice control.
Even if you’re looking to turn your lights on/off by voice, you can do so, but after adding your smart light switches to the voice control device, which is a smart speaker in this case.
The light switches will then control the power supply to your light bulbs, allowing you to control your lighting from anywhere.
After adding your smart bulbs to your preferred smart speaker, you can control them in various ways. First, you will use the smart speaker’s App to set the smart bulbs in groups.
You can then create a schedule to control multiple smart bulbs at once.
For example, you could schedule all your smart bulbs to switch off automatically at 6 am. You can also set them to turn on at 6 pm, a few moments before arriving home from work or a friend’s place.
And the beauty of it is you only have to command Alexa Google or your smart speaker’s virtual assistant to achieve all these effects.
Therefore, consider investing in a smart speaker if you want to control multiple smart bulbs by voice.
What Your Smart Bulbs Can Do
When looking for functional home security, adding smart bulbs to your home could improve your home security beyond your imagination.
But you will need a few smart home devices to control your smart bulbs in various ways. And one of these devices is a hub, especially if you’re looking to control smart bulbs from different brands.
Therefore, consider buying a smart hub as a starter kit.
Generally speaking, smart bulbs can do plenty of things, thanks to their feature-rich design. For one thing, they can add atmosphere to your home, thanks to their multi-color illuminance capability.
Some smart bulbs, such as the Unique Smart WiFi LED Bulb, have up to 16 million colors to choose from, giving you endless options for customizing your home’s atmosphere.
You can find plenty of these smart bulbs with RBGCW colors online.
Your bulbs could also allow you to select your preferred color temperature. But this might require you to invest in yet another smart home device – a dimmer switch.
With a dimmer switch, you could select 8,500K color temperature for harsh lighting or choose 2,500K for relaxing after a hard day’s work.
Therefore, consider adding dimmer switches to your lighting system for a perfectly functioning lighting system.
You can even spice things up by connecting your smart bulbs to a motion sensor.
With motion sensors picking up movements across the room, your smart lights will turn on, illuminating the way during one of those late-night bathroom trips.
Even better, you will know if someone has broken into your home since the lights will turn on. Therefore, connect your light bulbs to motion sensors.
Group the lights to turn on if one of the motion sensors has picked up movements for added security.
Since smart bulbs rely on wireless connections to communicate with other smart home devices, ensure you also invest in TP Link Wi-Fi equipment.
You will then control your lighting system efficiently if the Wi-Fi network is fast and reliable.
Conclusion
Smart bulbs could revolutionize your home security in many ways. Besides allowing you to control them remotely, they also cut down your monthly electricity cost.
And that’s because you control them as you please, ensuring they don’t use electricity during the day when there is ambient light from the sun.
Since they also improve your atmosphere with their RGBCW color spectrum, they rightfully find a place in your home. But controlling them to achieve sophisticated results relies on investing in other smart home devices.
We’ve covered some of these control devices, such as a smart hub and a smart speaker. As such, we hope you have an idea of some of the control devices to buy for the lights.
Therefore, invest in your preferred smart bulbs and control all of them with a hub, a smart speaker, or any other efficient control device!
