How To Use Smart Lights Better | Reviews By Wirecutter

Why it’s smart: Humans are creatures of habit—see light switch, must flick. But it’s a habit you have to break, or at least accommodate, when you use smart bulbs, since they need continuous power to do all their neat tricks—flip the switch off, and the bulb won’t respond to your app or voice commands. Adding smart accessories to your smart-lighting system makes it so you can continue to use a hardware switch while still having your smart bulbs work.

How to do it: If you’re using smart bulbs (rather than smart switches; see below), you can control them with a compatible smart remote or smart button that doesn’t disable the bulb’s smart functionality but still lets you use the light in a more traditional way. So your housemates can use a hardware switch if they want, and you still get the benefits of smart lighting. Win-win.

The Philips Hue line, one of our other good smart bulb recommendations, offers a separate dimmer switch and remote control that you can wall-mount for a more traditional yet wire-free way to control your smart bulbs. But you’re still left with the original switch, which someone may inadvertently flick. The Lutron Aurora Smart Bulb Dimmer solves this problem by installing atop an existing toggle switch and locking it in place. Then you simply turn lights on or off with one of three button presses. Just attach it to the switch, set it up in the app to control up to 50 Hue lights, and use it to turn them on, turn them off, set a scene, or dim them. (Note that it doesn’t work with wide, rocker-style switches.)

If you want to use your existing light bulbs and fixtures but add smart controls to them, consider installing smart light switches that control fixtures directly, instead of using smart bulbs. Such switches do require fiddling with wiring (depending on your skills, you may want to hire an electrician), but you can still control them remotely using an app or your voice, as well as put them on Schedules or incorporate them into Routines, Scenes, and Automations.

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  You Don’t Have to Ditch the Switch When You Switch to Smart Lights

  If someone in your home thwarts your smart lighting by flipping them off using wall switches, find peace by using wireless smart switches.