The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
BRIGHT SPARKS
Choices for lighting your home are endless – with many high-tech options to switch on to. Here, Derek Uchman takes a look at five smart options
Smart lighting is revolutionising home décor. The colour and ambience of a room can now be changed with the prod of an app or the bark of a voice. But manufacturers are also finding many other uses for these bulbs. Here we takes a look at five very different – but still very clever – lights.
NANOLEAF SHAPES STARTER KIT: £179.99
This is a sure-fire way to make a statement in your home. Consisting of nine hexagonal panels, the modular kit can be arranged into thousands of different shapes to create a stunning piece of wall art.
Using the app, it will display moving colour schemes to fit in with your décor, or can be set to pulse to music.
It’s also touch-sensitive. A talking point for any room, extension packs can easily be added.
Simple to install and with 16 million colours, the possibilities seem virtually
limitless.
INNR SMART FILAMENT LED BULB GLOBE E27 VINTAGE: £42.99 (FOR TWO)
From Nanoleaf ’s ultramodern panels, to bulbs
with an antique look. LED lights that mimic filaments are quite common, but Innr reckon
they were the first to make a smart version.
There are no colours to play around with, and it’s not dimmable, but nonetheless these large globe bulbs will still impress with their mock filament look.
Innr use the Zigbee system, meaning you don’t need one of their hubs, as it is compatible with other systems out there,
including those supplied by IKEA and Lidl.
LIFX LIGHTSTRIP 1M: £64.99
As its name suggests, this is a metre-long strip of LED lights, and has a multitude of uses.
Flexible, and with an adhesive back, it can be stuck behind the TV, under shelves, in a child’s bedroom, in the kitchen – in fact anywhere where you want added ambience.
Like the Nanoleaf Shapes, the colour and brightness options feel infinite. And it, too, can be controlled via an app or by voice control.
A favourite use of mine is to give the living room a muted red glow for movie nights. Oh, and you can keep adding strips up to a length of 33 feet.
LIFX CLEAN: £69.99
The Clean behaves like any other smart bulb – it has a multitude of colour options, and can be controlled via the app or by voice.
But, it has another trick up its sleeve – it produces an anti-bacterial HEV light which can kill a variety of nasties including E. coli.
Simply install it in a table lamp, and pop your phone underneath.
Sounds good, but there are a couple of points to take into account: its effectiveness is dictated by the distance the bulb is from the object you want cleaned, and also by the length of time you keep the bulb on.
Tricky things to get right. Perhaps best used in addition to more traditional sterilising methods.
PHILIPS HUE GO 2.0: £79.99
Like LIFX’s Lightstrip, this is designed to provide ambient lighting, but is shaped more like a conventional lamp.
However, it also contains a rechargeable battery so can be lugged around the house, or placed in the garden as a balmy summer day draws to a close (although it is not waterproof ).
The bulb is intentionally muted, and works well to provide atmosphere. We particularly liked the flicker mode, which mimics candle light.