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Smart Bulbs vs Smart Switches In 2023: Which one is Right for You?

Smart Bulbs vs Smart Switches In 2023: Which one is Right for You?

By December 6, 2022 Smart Home, Monitoring Systems 0 Comments

Today it is a dream of almost every person, who loves technology, home automation, and home decoration. Selection of the correct device to make your little home smart enough, which gives you the ability to control your home appliance, especially light. If you want to start to make your home a smart home then you can initially start with switches or lighting. So which should be selected smart switches or smart bulbs?

In this article, we will make a clean and clear difference between smart bulbs vs smart switches. At the start, I just want to tell you that please go with smart switches instead of smart bulbs. I will provide the reason why I personally prefer smart switches rather than smart bulbs in this era of modern technology.

Before concluding our statement it is important to understand the basics of smart bulbs and smart switches. We will keep our topic to the most recent technologies related to smart switches and smart bulbs.

Table of Contents

What are smart bulbs?

It is just like a common LED bulb but it has the ability to be controlled via a voice command i.e Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or even with a smartphone. The modern light bulb comes with the ability to schedule and control from anywhere. Additionally, there are certain systems that have the capability to control the number of bulbs at the same time to increase the beauty of smart homes.

Today smart bulbs also come up with the ability to integrate via Bluetooth, ZigBee, and Wifi which is the most common feature in smart bulbs. There are also certain type of bulbs in the market that allows a person to control brightness and color.

Smart bulbs are used to control unnecessary light and thus eventually play a role in energy conservation and can save some money through it as well. Some smart bulbs also come with inbuilt mode as well for example sleep mode, day mode, or night mode.

Pros and Cons of Smart Bulbs

Pros
  • Setting up a smart bulb is quite simple and much similar to that of a common bulb, so nothing much changes in the installation of the smart bulb as compared to smart switch that require screwing the outlets
  • The cost of scaling up and adding new light to your home is quite low
  • You can also find a variety of smart bulbs in the market that change light as well as brightness levels.
  • Advanced light bulbs also come with motion detectors, which means if a motion is detected then it automatically turns on the light of the room.
Cons
  • It give you less flexibility, selecting a light bulb means you are automating the lighting of your home only.

What are Smart Switches?

Smart switches are also similar to that common switches but more attractive than common ones because of their shapes and appearance. These are programmable wireless switches that have the ability to be controlled via Wifi, and Bluetooth using mobile applications. These smart switches can be connected to that Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant and can be controlled via voice command or you can automate or schedule them as well. The interesting thing I like most about the smart switch is that it can monitor the flow of current as well and provide you with real-time data about your current consumption.

Most smart switches can bear a maximum current of 15 Ampere, so that means you can turn on your AC 1 hour before coming back home, after tiring work from home. A variety of devices can be connected to a smart switch for example it can turn on and off ceiling fans or even AC units.

Pros and Cons of Smart Switch

Pros
  • The smart switch has more flexibility, which means you have more choices, to choose which home appliance you like to make smart with this switch for example if you want to automate your AC then you just need to connect your AC with that of the smart switch. After that, you have the ability to control it from any place.
  • With a smart switch, you can schedule the lighting or any device timing. 
  • You can monitor the current consumption of a device.
  • Can be connected with Amazon Alexa or Google Assitant
Cons
  • The installation of a smart switch is not as simple as that of a smart light bulb, so it does require a proper technician that can deal with smart home automation.
  • Scaling of smart switches is more costly than smart bulbs, so it is not as cost-effective.

Smart Bulbs vs Smart Switches

After a brief overview of both devices now let’s come back to our topic, although with an overview you might get your answer regarding the difference between both smart bulbs and smart switches. But here I will try my best to give you the best-detailed overview of both devices so that you can make up your mind and decide quite easily. 

The installation of smart bulbs is quite easy than that of smart switches that requires screwing the outlets for the smart switches and making connections ( 1+ Point to Smart Bulbs)

There is research that indicates that colors highly affect your mood and health. This color variation in light gives a plus point to smart bulbs while smart switches don’t allow variation in lighting( 1+ Point to Smart Bulbs).

On the other hand, smart switches are more flexible. In smart bulbs, you only automate your lightning but with a smart switch, you can easily automate your whole home appliance, and later on, you can scale than with more advanced devices i.e monitoring system, security cameras, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant ( 1+ Point to Smart Switches).

There are certain advancements in the technology of light bulbs but I believe that the smart switch technology is getting more and more advanced day by day ( 1+ Point to Smart Switches).

Conclusion

Ohh ! it looks like there is a tie between Smart Bulbs vs Smart Switches, well it looks like, It is a tie but here opinion matters as well and also choice depends upon the usage of both devices. There might be a possibility that I want a smart home or want to make my home automated then I will definitely go with a smart switch or even with the smart plugin. 

While the other possibility can be that I need to make my house more appealing than automation, then I look to add smart bulbs so that I can set up smart bulbs colors according to my modes.

But If you ask me to recommend between Smart Bulbs or Smart Switches then I will look to go with smart switches.

Here are a few reasons why I selected smart switches rather than smart bulbs.

  • The smart switch gives me more flexibility, to make my home device rather than just bulbs.
  • If I want something to make my house a smart house then I want smart switches, not smart bulbs.
  • Although smart bulbs are cheaper than smart switches these switches will pay me and help me to reduce my electricity bill, through wisely monitoring of power consumption of my house.I also believe that there is more feature and advantage of a smart switch than smart bulbs and more feature are added to smart switches than that smart bulbs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a smart light switch for smart bulbs?

No there is no such requirement for the smart switch to control smart bulbs these can be controlled with a traditional switch. But if your switch is turnoff then you will not able to control it via a mobile application.

What is the cost of a smart switch?

The smart switch can cost you 20$ to 50$ dollars depending upon the feature of the smart switch.

What are smart plugins? What is the difference between smart plugins and smart switches?

The smart plugin is used to automate the device that had wired plugs, while smart switches are used to operate non-pluged devices for example lights, fans, etc. 

Will smart bulbs work if Wi-Fi goes out?

Yes because of Bluetooth as a back the smart blubs can still operate when there is no WiFi connection in your home.

What is the cost of smart Bulbs?

Normally smart bulbs costs around 5$ to 20$ dollars which means a smart bulb with more advanced feature usually has more cost.

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