One of the smartest pieces of technology in the home will soon be the light bulb. For too long, users have only had the choice of turning them on or off. But newer, smarter, bulbs have more features, including speakers to play music, offer different intensities of light, be adjusted or activated by smartphones and have the ability to turn themselves on and off if they detect motion.
True, motion detecting technology isn’t all that new for outdoor security systems. But these are more due to the system’s hardware and less about the bulb itself.
But it is particularly innovative as part of more and more elements of smart homes, a term for various devices and appliances that can be controlled by a central source, such as a console, a tablet or a smartphone.
For instance, home automation allows owners to adjust things like the heat or air conditioning or open or close the blinds when somewhere else, or see who is at the door from another part of the house.
One new feature of smart homes lets you program your lights to sense your occupancy patterns and turn themselves on and off at those times. This is handy during a normal day when you’re home, but especially handy when you’re not home, since, from the outside, it still looks like you’re home.
When people go on vacation or are away from home for prolonged periods, there aren’t always a lot of good lighting solutions, other than having someone come and housesit, leaving a light on the whole time or leaving the lights off and alerting people that you might be away.
The home automation option is able to adjust lights on and off throughout the day, like normal behavior. A related service lets you know if someone comes into your home. The “occupancy alert” bulb system and monitoring service can be an inexpensive alternative to a more extensive security system. Embedded sensors in the bulbs will alert smartphone users when someone enters the room with the special bulbs, and also tell them the last time the room was occupied.
If you're interested in any of these smart home automation features, give us a call to see how we can help!