So you’ve replaced your old bulbs with smart ones, you’ve set things up through a compatible gateway- now what? Here’s a quick guide to organising your new smart lighting setup.

1)     Give Them A Name

The key to a seamless smart home is simplicity. The whole reason home automation appeals is because it removes the friction from your life. Getting into good habits with how you manage yours now will save you a headache later.

Therefore, it’s really important that you set things up with a consistent naming scheme. This makes it really easy for anyone to pick up and use your system with minimal fuss.

Imagine you have three bulbs in your living room, but you name one Living Room 1, another is Lounge 2 and a third is named Bulb because you forgot to change it to something else. You’d never remember how to turn on the right light at the right time!

Most smart home apps will let you assign names to different devices, so go ahead and do that now.

2)     Put Them All Together

Once you’ve given all your bulbs names, it’s time to tell your smart home hub where they are!

This is a lot less intense than it sounds. Simply put, most smart home apps have something called ‘zone control’. This allows you to group your bulbs together. This lets you control them as a group, making it really simple to create a consistent look.

For example, Zone 1 could be your living room lights, while Zone 2 is for your dining room. Zone 3 could be for the table lamps in both rooms, creating a more subdued ambience.

3)     Create The Scene

With your zones in place, you should be able to create various ‘scenes’ in them. This isn’t like shooting a movie! Instead, it’s just telling your light how you want it to look in advance. For example, you might set up a relaxing blue light display for your media room, or a striking purple glow for a dinner party.

Some smart home apps let you attach various triggers to your scenes. For example, with Geofencing, you can set your lights to turn off when you leave the house.

4)     Set A Schedule

Scheduling is where your lights can become truly smart. You just need to tell them when you want them on and off.

One really popular option is to set bedroom lights to slowly dim over the course of a night, going form functional cool white light to warmer colour temperatures as the night progresses, helping match your circadian rhythms and get your relaxed before bedtime.

Take a look at the areas where automated lighting could make your life easier and build schedules around it!

5)     Control Them From Anywhere!

Once your lights are properly paired with the correct app, you’ll be able to manage them from literally anywhere in the world, as long as you have an internet connection! So all the above? You can do it all wherever you like.

Want to learn more about smart lighting? Get in touch with us on 0116 321 4120 or send an email to cs@wled.co.uk.

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