EGC Electric: 5 Smart Lights You Can Control With Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant

Thursday, 25 May 2017

5 Smart Lights You Can Control With Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant

Two of the hottest technologies to recently hit the home automation scene are voice control and smart light bulbs and switches. A natural partnership, it enables you to operate one of the most basic and necessary parts of your home—a light bulb or wall switch—by just uttering a simple voice command.

You can turn a bulb off and on, dim it to a certain level, or have it illuminate in your favorite color. The following 10 smart light bulbs can be controlled directly through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant—without any additional hardware, like a home control hub. You just plug in the voice-enabled speaker of choice, screw in the light bulb or install the switch and your verbal wishes are carried out. You can find many of this voice-enabled bulbs and switches at Amazon.com or buy them directly from the manufacturers’ websites.

TP-Link Smart LED Light Bulb (LB100)

This smart LED light bulb from TP-Link offers two voice-controlled options: Amazon or Google. Whichever method you choose, this bulb, which provides lighting the equivalent of a 50 watt incandescent bulb, can also be controlled via a companion mobile app. The app also lets you set up on/off schedules and dimming levels.

Around $20

Leviton DW1KD-1BZ Decora Smart Wi-Fi 1000W Universal LED/Incandescent Dimmer

Voice controllable lighting doesn’t only come in the form of a light bulb. You can also find switches that can make an ordinary recessed light fixture listen for your commands. Leviton offers a plethora of switches; one of its newest, the DW1KD-1BZ is connects with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

The switch replaces an existing single pole or multi-way dimmer and works with LED, CFL and incandescent lights.

It comes with a free My Leviton iOS or Android app to add/name devices and to control switches individually or as a room with a single button push. You can use the app to create schedules, scenes, and customize your experience with adjustable fade rates.

Around $65

FluxSmart WiFi LED Light Bulb

Colors can be added to your Amazon Alexa vocabulary with the FluxSmart LED Bulb from Flux. Its light output is comparable to that of a 40-watt incandescent bulb.A color palette of over 16 million colors, plus various tones of white light, are available at your fingertips through a companion mobile app.

The Flux Wifi Pro app also offers a wake up mode allows you to set a timer to turn on your light. Music sync lets your light change to match your music. As many as 50 lights can be connected and controlled, individually, or in a group, from the app.

Around $40

Wemo Light Switch

Using the free Wemo app, you can schedule your lamps to turn off at sunrise, or synchronize your front light with the sunset so you never come home to a dark house. The switch can also be paired with Nest’s Thermostat, so that when the Nest Thermostat knows you’re away, it can signal the switch to turn off the light.The Wemo Light Switch allows you to control your home lighting using just your phone or tablet, or though Google Home or Amazon Alexa. From porch lights to ceiling fans to recessed lighting, Wemo Light Switch can control nearly anything that a traditional light switch can.

Around $50

LIFX LED Colored Light Strips

Bulbs and switches are the most prevalent types of voice-controllable illumination solutions; LIFX offers a colored light strip. Ideally suited for tucking within cabinets, around cornices or behind televisions, the strip can shine in a rainbow of colors that you select with your voice or mobile app. As many as 8 different colors can be selected per 1 meter of strip.