Smart LED Lightbulb guide

Incandescent bulbs are pretty much a thing of the past now. Consumers get to choose between three primary types: CFL, LED, and Halogen. How do you choose which type of your home? It looks like LED bulbs will be the bulb of choice for most lighting requirements.

Incandescent bulbs used wattage as a measurement of brightness. When you want a bulb with more light, you buy one with a higher wattage. However, with the introduction of LED lighting, we can no longer accurately measure lighting with wattage. Instead, we now use lumens, which is a measure of brightness and is far more accurate. We still compare the wattage of bulbs, but we do with lumens and a range of actual energy usage.

There is now a sub-market of LED bulbs, which are the smart LED bulbs. It is the easiest method of enabling smart lighting in your home, although it can be more costly than traditional LED’s. The best method of getting started in smart lighting is to get a starter pack, which is has a hub and a set of bulbs.

The best starter kit you can buy is the Phillips Hue White Starter kit. You get two bulbs and a Hue hub. The Hue hub is the standard for smart lighting and enjoys built-in support with almost every home automation platform.

The next option is the Philips Hue Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit. It is more expensive than the white starter kit but comes with four bulbs which can also change color.

There are other starter kits from other manufacturers which are cheaper but don’t enjoy the platform support and the features of Hue bulbs.