Residential Lighting Will Never Be The Same Again

Now available in Europe, affordable, smart home lighting is set to revolutionize how we interact with our home and its contents. And with today’s wireless offerings, it’s not only newly built homes that can benefit from smart technology.

I have long wanted to take advantage of the control, security and energy savings of digital lighting. But because I live in an area of very old homes, it meant unsightly wiring had to be surface mounted on walls and ceilings in order to take advantage of these products – something I wasn’t prepared to do.

With wireless products, I don’t need to rewire any light points to connect them to a central hub. Instead, I simply ‘screw in’ smart light bulbs, introduce them to my network, and give them each a unique name. Then I can access them via my mobile phone or tablet.

Traditional players like Philips and GE and new contenders such as SmartThings, Belkin and LIFX are on the market with more and more connected lighting products to replace our humble light bulb. These products can give me total control over my lighting, whether I’m at home or not. And I can make sure that no-one has to come home to a dark house ever again.

VB News have a good review of the Belkin product which they installed and tried out, compared to the Philips Hue.

Although not yet available in Europe, start-up Avi-On have created a wireless, movable Avi-on Switch which can be placed anywhere (no screws, wires or paint) and connected to a socket or light point. Avi-On’s series of products are powered by Bluetooth mesh technology so products in the system can talk to one another without needing to be connected to a Wi-Fi network. You can pre-order Avi-On’s suite of connected lighting products via their website and they will go on general sale starting in March 2015.

Written by Julie Allen

26 Oct