How to Choose Smart Lighting

With smart lighting you have total control of how a room looks and feels at any time. You can turn your lights on and off, adjust the brightness, switch colour temperature from cool white to daylight, change the lighting mood with a spectrum of colours, and set schedules – all through an app on your smartphone or via voice commands. That’s not all, you can also control your garden lighting in the same way through our range of DIY smart outdoor lights.

Besides convenience, smart lighting provides numerous benefits like better sleep, energy savings, improved moods, enhanced home security and more decorating choices. Choose from our wide range of smart lighting bulbs or globes, smart strip lights, smart downlights, smart plugs, and smart lighting switches and start living smart today.

With one single globe, you can:

• Turn lights on and off with voice commands

• Command your lights to dim

• Switch colour temperature from cool white to warm white

• Change the lighting mood with a spectrum of colours

• Convenience of added security - allowing you to schedule when your lights switch on and off

• Avoid being startled by the alarm clock - wake up to your lights increasing in gradual brightness.

Colour Temperature

The colour temperature of a light source is how warm or cool a light appears to the human eye and is measured in Kelvin. It ranges from daylight to cool white to warm white and each colour temperature has its ideal purpose and application. A warm white light globe has a yellow tone, whereas a cool white light globe appears a bit bluer. Let’s explore these different colour temperatures in detail.

Daylight (5300K to 6500K): This colour temperature is used largely in commercial locations like warehouses, offices and hospitals as it appears brighter and clearer and gives a clean, sterile look. At home, it’s suited to spaces like bathrooms and laundries

Cool white (3300K to 5300K): This is a neutral light and is considered the standard lighting choice for many homes and event spaces. Not too bright white, not too yellow, and perfect for keeping you alert and focused. This colour temperature is ideal for task lighting in kitchens, studies, garages and workshops.

Warm white (2200K to 3300K): This colour temperature is similar to the light produced from a traditional incandescent light bulb or halogen and has more of a yellowish orange tinge in appearance. It’s reminiscent of early morning dawn or sunset and is ideal for creating a relaxed, cosy atmosphere in living rooms and bedrooms to help you unwind at the end of the day. Remember, the lower the number of Kelvins, the better the light is for your sleep. Warmer white light has lesser blue light, so it helps promote the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone that typically rises two hours before bedtime.

Because colour temperature is so crucial in lighting your space correctly, take some time to consider how you’re planning to use your space before you purchase your downlights. This is especially important if the downlights you’re buying offer one fixed colour temperature.

At Beacon, we also offer downlights that come with three colour temperature options and a convenient switch to toggle between options. Just make sure to select the colour temperature you want before you install them into your ceiling. For ultimate flexibility, we offer smart downlights that can be controlled with an app on your phone or voice commands via your smart speaker. With this option, you can change colour temperatures at any time to suit your mood and the time of day.