Creating a Smart Home with LED Lighting and Smart Bulbs

Smart homes provide homeowners with convenience, energy efficiency, and improved security. This blog explores how LED lighting and LED smart bulbs are a big part of the components of a smart home. LED smart bulbs deliver both an easy way to create atmosphere and the ability to incorporate customized lighting when you entertain at home. Main benefits include:

• Convenience
• Energy Efficiency
• Improved Security
• Create Atmosphere
• LEDs Enhance Home Entertaining

The Convenience of LED Smart Bulbs

LED smart bulbs offer convenience by providing you with the ability to customize and control your home lighting. You can control Sunco smart bulbs via an app over WiFi with compatible smart phones and tablets or use voice control with your Amazon Alexa or Google Home.

Voice control of your smart bulbs is easy when you download and install the Smart Life App via iOS Apple Store or Google Play Store. Now you can verbally tell your lights to make changes when your hands are full, or your phone is elsewhere. Get ready to say, “OK Google” and “Alexa…” a lot. Our install manuals include more details on voice remote control.

With convenient management of your lights, you can customize and control your home lighting:

• Create a Schedule
  • Turn on/off each smart bulb when you want it scheduled, no timer required
• Set the Scene
  • Adjust each smart bulb in your home to specify your lighting style, including color selection, color temperature – warm to cool, along with establishing a dimming level that suits a particular room or light fixture
  • Choose from existing scenes in the app or create your own by customizing all the elements for your precise lighting style
• Color Temperature
  • Choose from warm to cool color temperatures

What to know more? Check out our blogs on this subject:

• Color Temperature Applications and Kelvin Levels Explained
• The Color of Light & CCT: Recognizing Color Temperatures
• Understanding the Visible Light Spectrum and Color

• Color Selection
  • You can choose from over 16 million colors!
  • A simple color wheel allows you to hand select the precise color desired
  • Tunable white is also included (2700K-5000K)
• Dimming
  • Dim your LED smart bulb down to 10% to adjust the mood
  • Brighten your room by leaving the bulb at 100% to use the full lumens available to you when needed
  • Or you can choose your own Goldilocks setting in between
• Music Sync
  • Not everyone has this option, but Sunco does
  • Your smart bulb can create music synchronization where the light changes color to the beat of music

Increase Home Energy Efficiency

If you examine Sunco’s PAR38 Smart Bulb you will find that it only consumes 13W. On the other hand, traditional PAR38 lights can consume from 90W to 150W of power. That is a savings of 77W to 137W of power per bulb.

When you use less energy your power bill reduces. That savings can add up over time. Now imagine if you switched out more than just one PAR38 bulb. The savings improve even more when you make the change to LEDs.

Not only will you reduce your monthly power bill, you will also not have to replace your bulbs as frequently when you choose LED bulbs instead of traditional incandescent bulbs. This is because LEDs provide you with a longer lifetime, from 25,000 up to 50,000 lifetime hours for one bulb. Some high wattage (150W) incandescent bulbs only offer an average life of 750 hours. This means less waste and more efficiency.

You can explore more about each bulb when you examine the Lighting Facts label for each Sunco Smart Bulb. Unsure what those are? Scroll down to our footer under the Quick Links to learn how the Lighting Facts label benefits you.

Improve Home Security with LED Lighting

One major benefit of using LED smart bulbs in your house is that you can establish the time of day each light will turn on/off. Controlling when lights illuminate allows you to set a schedule to establish when your house lights will turn on without having to be there to flip the switch or create a complex system with timers. Sunco LED Smart Bulbs do not use a separate timer.

This is especially helpful when you are on vacation or working late to provide remote monitoring and help deter crime. Just be sure your curtains are not wide open when you program the lights to turn on as if someone is walking through the house when you are away or those burglars you are trying to fool will have the last laugh and not you.

Peace of mind is also a form of security. LED smart bulbs can also be set to turn on at a dim setting or at brighter light levels when you turn on the light. You can choose to lightly illuminate the bathroom at night for quick visits or use the full lumens of your bulb in a basement or garage for added safety in accident prone regions.

Remember that you can use smart bulbs as exterior lighting, too. That makes climbing front steps at night a whole lot easier for your house guests, in case you forget to turn on the porch lights before your first guest arrives. Just program the lights at your door to turn on when the sun sets or at a specific time of day before you expect guests for a warm welcome.

Exploring a light’s damp or wet rating will help with placement in recessed cans or covered patio decks or out on your lawn when considering your exterior lighting needs. And, if you are adding holiday lights or special event lighting, don’t forget to use your PAR38 wet rated smart bulb as an accent color on your inflatable decoration outside or a temporary exterior dining area. A wash of color goes a long way to establish a look.

Create Atmosphere with LED Smart Bulbs

With smart bulbs, you can set the tone or mood for each room of your house. Want a candlelit dinner with a B11 LED Smart Bulb, or a workspace for your kids to do homework that doubles when they sleep as a night light, or a single dim light on while you watch a movie? The Smart Life App from Tuya includes pre-programmed scenes for your use. You can also custom program LED smart bulbs to create atmosphere with scenes, dimmable light, different light color choices, and set warm or cool tones.

During the winter months, when we cannot use the sun’s light to illuminate portions of our house, LEDs are a great alternative to natural lighting. They can optimize light in a work environment like the kitchen or home office. Unsure what color temperatures to choose? We’ve got you covered. Our blog Color Temperature Applications and Kelvin Levels Explained provides a helpful chart so you can program your lights to the right settings, depending on how you use the space.

Environment is also important to help regulate your body’s natural Circadian Rhythm. Yes, you can adjust your internal body clock with lighting. Start the day with a dim sunrise color and tone in your bedroom. Add a light that is brighter – with a daylight setting - when your body naturally has woken up by scheduling a separate light to turn on at a certain time. You can also set lights late at night to a warmer color temperature to mimic the sunset and get your body ready for sleep. Adjusting lighting, as if under the influence of the sun yet with LED lighting, is a great way to enhance your wake/sleep cycle during the winter months.

Adjusting our homes to the way we like them does not have to be inside a house. With LED smart bulbs, renters are able to customize their space with creative lighting, even when you live in a space where you cannot paint the walls. 

You can also establish an atmosphere outside with your landscape lighting or on a balcony or patio. Custom lighting can enrich party or holiday decorations. Smart bulbs also allow you to set the mood around your pool, patio, or garden with the Sunco wet rated PAR38 LED Smart Bulb. Just program each bulb individually with all the settings you want to be applied, then save each scene for the different events you host.

Our handy install manuals include more details if you need some extra assistance. You can also contact our Customer Service team with questions.

Enhance your Entertaining with LED Lights

Not only can you establish specific light colors and dim light settings during a party, with the app and your smart phone or tablet over WiFi you can also sync your lighting to music! Our smart bulbs can animate in rhythm with the music you play or with a video game audio broadcast in the same room as your smart phone or tablet. Just switch to music sync on the app. The music setting is ideal for game night, celebrations which involve impromptu dancing, and just hanging out with friends.

Add rich lighting tones to express a mood and style in your dining room, living room, or even in the front hallway. If you aren’t sure what to program – it’s okay, not everyone is a home decorator – use the programmed scenes available in the app to design what suits an evening of entertaining in your everyday lifestyle.

Smart Bulb Types Offered by Sunco Lighting

We offer seven types of LED smart bulbs for indoor and outdoor applications. Explore each type of smart bulb technology available, including technical specs and Lighting Facts labels, along with other details on our product pages:

• A19 LED Smart Bulb, WiFi
• B11 LED Smart Bulb, WiFi
• BR30 LED Smart Bulb, WiFi
• G25 LED Smart Bulb, WiFi
• PAR20 LED Smart Bulb, WiFi
• PAR30 LED Smart Bulb, WiFi
• PAR38 LED Smart Bulb, WiFi (wet rated for outdoor use)

Our Customer Service team is available to help you with connectivity and how to use the settings in your smart bulb if you need it.

We want to see your customized lighting designs. Be sure to share the results with us on Social via the links in our footer below. When you do please tag #suncolighting.