Welcome to Ask Jerry, where we talk about any and all the questions you might have about the smart things in your life. I'm Jerry, and I have spent the better part of my life working with tech. I have a background in engineering and R&D and have been covering Android and Google for the past 15 years.
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What's the best setup for automatic lighting that's smart, too?
Thomas asks:
I'm looking for a fully automatic smart light solution for my entrance way and garage. I'd like the lights to come on automatically if it is dark and I walk in with my hands full so I'm not stumbling around in the dark until I can reach for the light switch.
I see a lot of advice and potential solutions, I'm just wondering what is the easiest and best way?
Thanks
Hi Thomas! Sometimes, we get a question that really interests me, and this is one of them. Your problem sounds like something a lot of people will encounter, with plenty of solutions, both good and bad.
I like to answer right up front in case someone isn't interested in reading everything, so I'm going to say that after looking at plenty of different hardware and app solutions over the week, smart lamps from WiZ look like the best answer because of their SpaceSense feature. They do have a few drawbacks though, like every other solution does.
Wiz advertises that you can take two of its smart bulbs, make sure they are at least two meters apart, and configure the app so that they automatically turn on and off as you walk past their position. The company says that the tech uses interference in your home's Wi-Fi signal to tell the lamps that you have entered their field, and you can set the sensitivity in the app on your phone.
I've never used this product, but the idea is sound. It's not difficult to disrupt a Wi-Fi signal, and a human-sized absorbing thing will certainly do it. They offer the same sort of smart bulbs you would see from any other company, made for a variety of fixtures. Of course, you also have things like adjustable color or brightness through the app, and they're compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant.
What I don't like about this product is that you're tied to this brand in any place you want automatic lighting, though that would apply to any solution like this. I'm also not sure how quickly the company could make any adjustments to work with Google as it transitions everything from Assistant to Gemini. Hopefully, a move like that would be seamless for developers, but you know it won't be.
There are two other easy but imperfect solutions. I'm familiar with both and have each installed here at my house, so I can say they work as advertised. However, they don't exactly fit your needs.
The first is a motion-sensing light switch. I use two of Lutron's Maestro switches that have a built-in "occupancy detector" (think motion sensor), and they work really well. However, there are plenty of different brands of switches that do exactly the same thing in the same way. I picked these because they were on the shelf at Lowe's.
They turn the lights on as I enter the room and turn them off one minute after I leave it. They also sense when it's not dark and won't turn the light on. I've never messed with any of the "learning" features that are supposed to tell how bright I want my lights, but it's there if you're interested.
The problem is that this isn't a smart solution that can fit into the rest of your smart home. There is no app or adjustment other than setting how long to leave the lights on after I leave, and there's no integration with a voice assistant because there's nothing to integrate. Think of these as dumb switches with built-in motion detectors.
The other easy solution is to just use "regular" smart bulbs and yell out to something like an Echo Dot or Nest Mini when you need the lights to come on or turn off. You'll still have all the features of a smart light, including adjustable color and brightness, but it's not really automatic because you need to yell into the darkness before anything happens.
If you're not familiar with virtual assistant integration and smart lights, you're in for a bumpy ride. Sometimes, they work flawlessly. Other times, you're left telling Assistant or Alexa to stop playing some random YouTube video and turn the lights on, only to hear "I'm sorry" and a reason why it can't. Voice control is not a reliable way to do anything.
Finally, I want to add that there could be an even better solution out there. No matter how much one person searches, reads, and investigates, he or she can't see everything. What I've recommended is the best solution(s) I know of based on things I know and things other people are saying about products I haven't tested.
If you have a solution that is simple (setting a routine with an NFC tag and Home Assistant isn't on the simple end of the spectrum) and readily available, shout out in the comments because I'd love to check it out.
