Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home have brought the dream of a fully automated smart home closer to reality more than ever before. Yet, one question hangs in the air: Do you even need a smart home?

You could get a video doorbell that shows you who’s at the door. But maybe people don’t come to your door that often. You could get a smart thermostat and let it adjust your AC automatically. But maybe your basic, programmable thermostat does the job just fine.

Most smart home gadgets, no matter how useful, tend to appeal to a subset of people, but smart lights are a different story. If you’re frequently moving from the couch to turn off a light, or forgot you left the lights on in a room hours later, it’s easy to imagine how smart lights can improve your life. To nudge your imagination, though, here are a few key benefits.

If you can screw in a light bulb, you can set up “smart” lights

You could probably install a new thermostat if you watched a tutorial on YouTube, but we trust you already know how to screw in a light bulb. The best smart lighting systems, like Philips Hue and LIFX, put all the important electronics in the bulbs themselves, so you can go ahead and use your existing lamps and light fixtures.

Over at Wirecutter, the product review website owned by The New York Times, senior editor Grant Clauser prefers Philips Hue, not just because it’s easy, but because it’s flexible and reliable.

“Among smart bulbs, I prefer Philips Hue because it has a wide ecosystem of products, including basic white bulbs, color changeable bulbs, wireless dimmers, strip lights and outdoor LED lights,” he explained. “Hue lights require a Zigbee gateway, which creates a mesh network in your house that’s more reliable than some of the other smart bulb systems we’ve used. If you don’t want to use the Hue gateway, an Amazon Echo Plus can serve the same purpose, and it also plays music and tells bad jokes.”

Philips Hue requires a smart hub with a relatively simple installation. Plug the box into the wall, press a single button when the app tells you to and you’re good to go. LIFX lights require no hub at all, though they’re a bit more expensive and only as reliable as your Wi-Fi network. For both, most of the setup process takes place in an app on your smartphone. Since you don’t have to modify your home to use them, even renters can get in on the fun.

But the hardest part of getting started with smart lights is altering your light switch habits. For bulb-based lights like the LIFX, you need to leave your light switches on, which takes time to get used to. Fortunately, Philips Hue offers a solution for this. The Smart Dimming Kit lets you stick a switch to your wall to directly control your smart lights. The “switch” is actually a remote, stuck to the wall by magnets, so you can pull it off and use it from the couch if you prefer.

Controlling lights with your voice (or an app) just makes sense

With traditional light switches, you can only turn your lights on and off from one, maybe two spots in a room, and only if you have a free hand. It’s an inconvenience we’ve learned to live with, but there’s an even better way that goes beyond controlling smart lights through your phone. When paired with a voice-controlled smart speaker, the smart lights reach another level.

Walking into a room and your hands are full? Turn the lights on with a voice command. Sitting on the couch and want to turn off the overhead lights? Turn them off with a voice command. Best of all, you can crawl into bed and turn them off once you’re nice and cozy under the covers. When you’re free from the switch, it’s immediately obvious how much voice-controlled lights, again, make a lot of sense.

It even frees you to turn off lights in rooms you’re not in. In the old days, if you remembered leaving the lights on downstairs, you would have to stop what you were doing, run down the stairs, flip the switch and trudge back up. With a cheap smart speaker in your bedroom — or even the voice assistant on some phones — you can control any light in the house without going anywhere.

If you want to put in a little extra effort, Mr. Clauser also suggests automating your lighting tasks. “If there are lights you turn on and off at around the same time every day, you can schedule those actions with smart lights,” he explained.

“I have my porch light on a dusk-to-dawn schedule, with the light brightness automatically fading up and down as the daylight changes. I also like using motion sensors together with smart lights, so when I walk into a room, the lights automatically turn on, and will turn off again after a set amount of time without motion going by.”

The apps on your phone for Philips Hue or LIFX can set schedules, but if you want to automatically turn on lights when you enter a room, you’ll need to buy a motion sensor. Philips Hue, for example, sells its own, or you can get a slightly cheaper one with the Samsung SmartThings platform.

Worry about brightness and color, not wires

If you’re lucky, the light switches in your home might be wired with a dimming switch. If not, your only option to dim your lights would be to pull the switch out of the wall and rewire it, or call someone who could. With the smart bulbs, you can adjust the brightness and even change colors with your phone or by a voice command, all without complex installation. As Mr. Clauser pointed out, this gives you a high degree of flexibility to redecorate your home:

“I love transforming the look of a room by just changing the color of the lighting,” he said. “Sometimes around holidays I place accent lights in corners and adjust the colors to suit the holiday. For regular days, I may adjust the tone of white for a more relaxing or warmer feel, and then brighten it up if I’m doing something that needs more attention, like cooking.”

“You can also set up scenes in the app for different activities, such as a preferred color and tone for reading and a different one for entertaining. Sometimes you just want a red room for a little while. Since LED bulbs last so long, with a standard soft white bulb, you’ll be stuck with that one color for ten years or more. With a color-changing bulb, you can have a new look every time you open the smartphone app.”

Using the same bright, abrasive lights in the evening that you use during the day can throw off your circadian rhythms. Here, smart lights have the potential to dramatically improve your life. You can set your lights to automatically dim or turn off completely during the evening, or set them to ease you into another light for the morning. The cool, blue colors closely match the light of the sun and are ideal during the day, while warmer, more orange colors, like the colors that incandescent light bulbs emit, are ideal for the evening. Smart lights can automatically adjust between color temperatures, that way your eyes are always comfortable and it’s easier to fall asleep at night.

Also, full-color bulbs provide extra fun as decorations for your home. Need some Halloween decorations? Accent the lights to purple or orange to get in a spooky spirit, then as Christmas rolls around, switch to a green and red color scheme. With the push of a button, you can transform the look of your home without hanging a single decoration.

Once you have smart lights in your home, it’s tempting to move on to hooking your thermostat, your doorbell or even your microwave up to the internet. Even if you don’t — and believe us, you don’t have to — smart lights are genuinely useful for just about everyone.

Source: nytimes.com

Smart bulbs aren’t your average LED. They don’t just sit in a socket and light a room like your basic bulb. That’s boring. Smart bulbs can do so much more.

Smart bulbs are called smart for a reason. They can wirelessly connect with phone apps, a capability that opens up major possibilities.

Here are just a few things smart bulbs can do.

They dim

One of the basic features of smart bulbs is that you can dim many of them without having to install dimmer switches in your home. Simply screw a dimmable smart bulb into your lamps or chandeliers and dim or brighten them using the bulb’s corresponding app.

Choosing the right dimmable bulb for your home is key, though. Here’s Taylor Martin’s tips for choosing a dimmable LED bulbs that won’t hum, flicker or buzz.

They can be controlled from anywhere

Some smart bulbs, such as the Belkin WeMo LED and GE Link Bulbs, have scheduling features which let you control your lights when you aren’t home. This is a great security option for when you’re on vacation, because your home never looks empty. It also means you can come home to a lit house without leaving your lights on and wasting electricity. Most light brands offer a hub that can sync all of your lights together so you can control all of them with one app.

They change colors

Dimming the lights to set a mood is fine, but you can take it a step further. Many smart bulbs also change color. In fact, some, including the Flux Smart LED Light Bulb, can produce a range of over 16 million colors. You can select the exact color you want by tapping a color wheel in the bulb’s app. With the Philips Hue, Siri can even change your lighting whenever you ask.

Why would you want a bulb that changes color?

Want to warm up the feel of a room? Change your light color to a golden yellow.
Want to cool it down? Change your light color to light blue.
During parties you can match the theme’s color with your lighting.
During the holidays you can turn your smart bulbs red and green for Christmas, black, red and green for Kwanzaa or blue for Hanukkah.
Hate your wall color? Change it without painting by adding a little blue, yellow or red hue with a low intensity setting to your everyday lighting.
Some can play music

Imagine not having speaker wires everywhere, but still being able to hear your tunes in any room of the house. Smart bulbs with built-in speakers can make it happen.

For example, the Playbulb Color has lights that pulsate and change colors to match the mood of the music coming out of its speakers. It’s like a party in a bulb.

In my experience, the only problem with this bulb is that it isn’t very loud. You really can’t hear it if you’re walking from room to room. It’s perfect for a teen’s bedroom, though. If you want better sound quality and don’t want colorful lights, the Sengled Pulse is a great choice. It offers high-quality audio and is also dimmable.

They can help you sleep better

Smart bulbs can even help you sleep better. The C Sleep emits several color temperatures that are designed to help regulate natural melatonin production in the body. Its light settings help suppress your melatonin levels during the day and increase melatonin as you get near bedtime. Lighting Science is another bulb that emits soothing light that doesn’t interrupt your natural circadian rhythm.

Source: cnet.com

CHENNAI: Greater Chennai Corporation is saving big on its electricity bills after it replaced 2.8 lakh street lights with LED lights. The civic body that was paying about Rs 6cr a month to burn sodium vapour lamps is now paying Rs 2.5cr less since March. At this rate, annual savings will go up to Rs 30cr.

While Tamil Nadu began implementing the scheme in 2013, it started in Chennai in 2015. The Rs 145cr project was completed this March. LED street lights reduce capital investment by 15% and consume 60% less energy when compared to vapour lamps. “In Chennai, however, we are yet to tap full efficiency as we need to bring the lights under central monitoring system for which tenders will be floated soon,” said corporation commissioner G Prakash.

Although defunct street lights continue to be one of the biggest grievances, residents are happy with the initiative as they are aware that LED lights reduce carbon footprint and are energy-efficient. “These lights are brighter and are more durable. The streets in the city are brighter,” said Vasanthi Kannan, a resident of Kodambakkam.

Not just bills, the LED lights will last long and will bring down operation and maintenance costs. Each light has a minimum life of eight years.

A corporation contractor who changed these street lights said that a 250 Watt sodium vapour lamp costs about Rs 3,000 but it requires replacement almost every year.

“Moreover, the bulbs and choke of these lamps need repair. But an LED light has a minimum life of eight years. Moreover, maintenance cost is 15% less. While we still have to pay for manpower, the capital costs will come down,” said the contractor.

Since Chennai has more high-mast lights, the conversion has led to higher returns. “For every high-mast with sixteen 400 Watt lamps, only 1,800 Watt LED lights are required. There is a direct 70% savings,” said an official.

But there are glitches. On Canal Bank Road at Kasturibai Nagar in Adyar, the distance between the poles of the street lights is longer and some lights do not burn most of the times despite complaints. “Some lights are covered by tree branches,” said Sanjeev, a resident activist. He said while lights on the main roads were in good condition, those fitted on interior streets were very dim. He said timers on LED lights were not synced with sunrise and sunset. “If these are rectified, there could be more savings,” Sanjeev said.

G Y Divakar Babu of Royapuram said many lights on main roads are switched off after 10.30pm. “I am not aware if its due to power failure or some other issue, but it is dangerous,” he said.

Corporation officials said once the remote sensing technology using GPRS is implemented to centrally monitor the street lights, these issues will be resolved.

Source: TOI

Infrastructure evolution using smart sensor nodes enabling new services like traffic monitoring, weather station, improved security.

  • Remote activation and dimming control for energy saving
  • Lamp failure monitoring
  • Connected station for monitoring air quality, security and traffic
  • Smart parking
  • Battery charging stations

As per the United States Department of Energy (US-DOE), lighting causes 5-6 percent of the overall greenhouse gas emissions globally. Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) can greatly help in mitigating the adverse effects of greenhouse emissions.

LEDs consume 80-85 percent less electricity than conventional lighting sources and have much higher operating lifetimes (more than 50,000 hours). Unlike the preceding generation of lights – Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) – LEDs release zero mercury toxicity into the environment.

Owing to such these merits, the global lighting market is witnessing a huge policy-driven deployment of LEDs.

Almost all major cities across the world are anticipated to replace about 50 million traditional light fixtures with LEDs. Currently, there are close to one billion efficient lights (LEDs and CFLs) operating in the US. Among them, LEDs are projected to save approximately 348 trillion watt-hours of energy by 2027.

In India, close to 230 million LED bulbs were distributed under the Ujala Yojana program (May 2017).

INDIA COULD SAVE NEARLY 50 PERCENT OF ITS ELECTRICITY USING LEDS AND SMART LIGHTINGIndia’s LED market is a mix of domestic and foreign players. The players’ share is volatile, as market dominance primarily depends on constant upgradation of innovative technologies.

Imported LEDs (from China, Taiwan and Korea) and the unorganised sector are currently dominating the market. This is due to an absence of national-level standardisation and regulations for the domestic supply chain framework. Indian industry lacks manufacturing technologies and research efforts for the upcoming technologies of the sector.

The first research breakthrough in LEDs came with the application of gallium nitride (GaN) in the early 1990s. At the time, gallium and its alloys showed capabilities of producing 10-100 times brighter luminescence than its predecessor materials, such as silicon carbide.

INDIA COULD SAVE NEARLY 50 PERCENT OF ITS ELECTRICITY USING LEDS AND SMART LIGHTING
INDIA COULD SAVE NEARLY 50 PERCENT OF ITS ELECTRICITY USING LEDS AND SMART LIGHTING

Currently, there are a wide range of LED applications using gallium nitride, designed for high and ultra-high brightness, such as automotive lights, traffic signals, big screen TVs and the like.

Despite high promise and market opportunities, large-scale adoption of LEDs will depend on improving performance aspects such as efficiency and efficacy.

For example, global adoption of highly efficient LEDs can reduce our carbon footprint up to 800 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

Further, with US-DOE’s work in Research and Development (R&D) of solid-state lighting (SSL), the lighting efficacy of current LED devices will be enhanced by 25 percent, reaching 200 lumens per watt (LPW) from 160 LPW. So far, the US-DOE has achieved a huge industrial footprint with over 260 patent applications in LED products; the technology is growing laterally.

As a result, many success stories are coming in niche LED lighting, such as marine, harbour, organic, smart lighting and the like.

INDIA COULD SAVE NEARLY 50 PERCENT OF ITS ELECTRICITY USING LEDS AND SMART LIGHTING
INDIA COULD SAVE NEARLY 50 PERCENT OF ITS ELECTRICITY USING LEDS AND SMART LIGHTING

Smart lighting has grown two-fold in recent years. It has integrated applications such as sensors for public transport movement, signal synchronisations, et al. Similarly, organic LEDs are seen as the next generation of SSL technologies, with applications currently seen in TVs and phones.

In India, lighting constitutes 18 per cent of the total electricity usage. The savings from LEDs, in tandem with smart metering, smart designing and connected lighting will be close to 9-11 percent (50 per cent and more) of the total consumption.

It is imperative that the government constitute a policy framework that can foolproof industry standardisation and regulatory mechanisms in the lighting industry.

INDIA COULD SAVE NEARLY 50 PERCENT OF ITS ELECTRICITY USING LEDS AND SMART LIGHTING
INDIA COULD SAVE NEARLY 50 PERCENT OF ITS ELECTRICITY USING LEDS AND SMART LIGHTING

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) could create standards pertaining to design and manufacturing of LEDs. This will create parity among domestic and foreign competitors.

Similar to the efforts seen in the US, a national level research programme on SSL can focus on improving the working outputs of the upcoming lighting technologies. It will strengthen domestic manufacturing capabilities that can cater to domestic and global demand.

In order to support domestic manufacturing, government can assist by facilitating financial incentives (such as subsidies in capital, production, et al).

Indian academic institutes and research laboratories can collaborate to pursue R&D of promising LED technologies.

The synergy of renewables and energy efficiency measures can enhance the ongoing carbon mitigation efforts and improve our national energy security.

Source: First Post