The best smart bulb for your smart health connected health home

What is the best smart bulb for your health home automation? Smart bulbs are LED based bulbs that can be controlled by a hub or smartphone app. The idea is not new, but what is new is how far this technology has come since its advent just a few years ago.

Also new: Products like Nanoleaf light panels fundamentally change the concept of light bulbs.

Smart LED bulbs aren’t quite a commodity, but they’re on their way to coming of age in the market. Today’s bulbs are more compact and much brighter. They have better color representation and, for the most part, have control apps that are better than ever and easier to configure. Prices have also dropped, with some unnamed, color-adjustable bulbs now available for less than $ 10 each.

White LED bulbs are smart too

With their rainbow of hues and countless artifices, colored LEDs are attracting all the press in the world of smart lighting. It’s fun, but the reality is that most of us will rarely need to turn on all the lights in the house blue or red.

White light is also important in itself, because today there is a lot of scientific data showing the impact of different shades of white on our psychological state. Cold light, closer to blue, has an energizing effect and is best in the morning. Warm light is relaxing and is best after sunset. Note, however, that not all smart white LED bulbs are adjustable in color temperature. Check the specifications before purchasing.

The best color LED smart bulb

Philips was one of the first players in this market. Physically, its Philips Hue Color and Ambiance bulbs haven’t changed much since their introduction in late 2012. But the latest generation lasts much longer and the company has added Bluetooth which makes the Philips Hue Bridge useless.

The Philips Hue ecosystem is the deepest and broadest in the industry. Featuring not only bulbs of every imaginable shape and size, but also indoor and outdoor fixtures including the Philips Hue Calla path light and the Philips Hue Lily outdoor spotlight, which we love a lot. .

Second place

LIFX is a very strong competitor in the field of intelligent lighting and comes very close to second place in our ranking. LIFX no longer has just A19 and BR30 form factors to offer, and we really like its LIFX +; which has a series of infrared LEDs that will help your health home security camera see in the dark. But Philips still offers a lot more diversity in its ecosystem and third-party support universe.

The best smart white LED bulb

Our choice will not surprise anyone who has followed this market. Philips dominates this space and is also our top pick for the best color LED smart bulb. The latest Hue bulbs can be ordered via Bluetooth or Zigbee; the latter requires the Philips Hue Bridge. They provide high quality light and come with a strong warranty.

Second place

If you want a smart white light bulb that doesn’t require a smart health home hub, the LIFX Mini White is a great choice. Although it is slightly weaker than the full-size LIFX bulb, it produces an equivalent of 60 watts at 800 lumens.

The most economical smart bulb

The new line of Cree smart health connected Max smart bulbs are aggressively priced and in all popular sizes; A19, A21, BR30 and PAR38. The A19 Tunable White + Color Changing bulb we reviewed costs just $ 10 and it supports both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so you don’t need to factor in the extra cost of a hub to integrate it into your health home automation. This is a very good product.

The best smart bulb to pair with a security camera

Most health home security cameras are equipped with infrared LEDs to provide a semblance of night vision. The LIFX + is equipped with its own infrared LEDs, which are active even when the bulb is switched off by software.

Infrared light is invisible to the naked eye, but the LIFX + can bathe a room in this light; so that your security camera can see more of the room and more detail than with its own infrared LEDs.

Protocols and characteristics of smart bulbs

Three control technologies continue to compete for the top spot in the smart light bulb market (Z-Wave is a major contender in smart lighting, but you won’t find it in light bulbs – just in switches, plug-in modules, control panels and smart health home hubs).

Zigbee

Bulbs that use the popular smart health home networking protocol require a bridge to communicate with your health home Wi-Fi network. This is the technology that Philips has adopted for its Hue range; But it is not the only one.

Wireless

This category of bulb communicates directly with your Wi-Fi router, without the need for a hub or a bridge. LIFX and TP-Link both make great Wi-Fi smart bulbs. But neither company comes close to Philips Signify’s Hue line in terms of the depth and breadth of the Hue ecosystem.

Bluetooth

These bulbs completely ignore your health home network and pair directly with your smartphone or tablet. They therefore cannot be controlled from outside your health home.

GE and a number of other manufacturers make Bluetooth bulbs; some of better quality than others. Signify recently added Bluetooth radios to its Philips Hue line of smart bulbs. Which eliminates the need to deploy the Philips Hue Bridge. Removing the bridge from the equation reduces the overall cost of deployment; but adds some limits.

Each of these technologies has its advantages and disadvantages. Before deciding on a specific bulb, first try to determine which technology is best for you.

Smart bulb or smart switch?

There is a significant debate about how best to install smart lighting, and two approaches present themselves. You can either go for expensive smart bulbs and control them all individually. Either use cheap light bulbs and install smart switches to control all the lights in that circuit. Both approaches make sense.

In the case of smart bulbs, the main issue is cost, but it is also complex to manage. While bulbs can usually be grouped by location, managing them is as intuitive as the bulb control app.

Smart switches, on the other hand, are much more complicated to install. To the point that some users may be uncomfortable with the exposed wiring and prefer to hire an electrician. Smart switches offer more flexibility in many installations, however.

Accustomed, having spent years flipping fixed light switches, many users (or their children) instinctively use the wall switch to turn off lights when they leave a room. Once this happens, all apps in the world will not be able to turn the light back on until the switch is returned to the on position. It won’t be a problem if you install smart switches, but they can’t change the color or temperature of the bulb.

A choice specific to each health home automation system

That said, smart bulbs, regardless of the technology, won’t be right for everyone. In particular, most of these bulbs cannot be dimmed by a hardwired wall switch. Some will fail even if a dimmer is present on the circuit; and if it is set to full power. The quality of the light emitted by an LED bulb will probably be much better.

The good news is that the price of light bulbs is dropping. So it’s easier to get started with smart bulbs; and less penalizing if you find that a product does not work for you. That said, we want to help you get started on the right foot. Without further ado, here are dives into the most interesting color and white LED smart bulbs on the market.

AB SMART HEALTH REVIEW