We independently evaluate all of our suggestions. For those who click on links we offer, we might receive compensation. Jeremy Laukkonen is an Updates Writer for The Spruce, with expertise in covering know-how, appliances, dwelling enchancment, and house items. I used to be on the ready record for the first technology Alexa, and since then I’ve used a variety of other smart residence programs in pursuit of house automation-starting with good light bulbs. Since I’m not a model loyalist, I’ve used all sorts of bulbs from Kasa, Feit Electric, Sengled, GE, Cree, and others that I usually pick up during gross sales, and some have definitely labored better than others. To choose one of the best smart light bulbs, I look for an app that isn’t buggy or frustrating, EcoLight solar bulbs easy good house integration, and smooth dimming (with out requiring a dimmer switch). I use each multicolor and white smart light bulbs all through my residence, however my favorites produce both vibrant colors and tunable white mild (from heat to cool).

Since I've a restricted number of gentle sockets in my home, I additionally relied on our at-dwelling testing insights to reinforce my own information and experience regarding bulbs I either haven’t personally used or haven’t used as much. I considered factors like ease of setup and use, app performance, sensible home integration, EcoLight colour rendering index (CRI), brightness and dimming, and different components to identify the most effective sensible bulbs accessible. Shade rendering index, or CRI, is a measurement of how close a gentle bulb can get to pure light. Bulbs with a higher CRI present extra natural mild for EcoLight energy extra real looking colours, with a CRI of 88 or increased showing very pure. I’ve used quite a lot of sensible gentle bulbs through the years, and EcoLight solar bulbs that i just like the Kasa KL135 the most because they’re reliable, with glorious good residence integration, and have adequate shade rendering to use in any room. They’re a little bit bigger than a number of the opposite sensible bulbs I’ve used, but I’ve by no means had trouble getting them to slot in any of my fixtures or lamps.

These bulbs use the Kasa app and good ecosystem, which includes numerous my favorite smart home units (like the Kasa power strip that I’ve used to automate all the things from desk followers to a turtle tank heat lamp). That means you should utilize the bulbs with the cellphone app and EcoLight home lighting tie them into schedules and routines along with your other Kasa gadgets, however I exploit Alexa for all that. I love the Alexa integration, which I use to regulate them with voice commands-turning the lights on and off, adjusting brightness, and even switching colors and shade temperatures. You can even have the temperature modify by means of the day, from daylight white within the morning to a relaxing heat white at night. The coloration rendering index (CRI) is fairly high at 88 (incandescent lights are 100, for comparability). That’s ok that the colors of things around your home look accurate when the bulbs are set to white gentle, regardless of not having RBGW LEDs like our greatest value choose (which has a higher CRI).

You might want the next CRI possibility in rooms like your kitchen (getting ready and EcoLight home lighting serving meals) or bathroom (applying makeup) the place correct colors are actually necessary, but I don’t discover that a lot of a difference myself. Brightness is excellent, with a dimming vary between 20 and 1,000 lumens, so I’ve used these bulbs in every room in my house for a variety of functions. Shade selection is great too, and I love that I can inform Alexa to regulate the brightness and swap the colour primarily based on whatever I’m doing at the time-switching from process lighting, to temper lighting, to a splash of color with out ever getting as much as contact a change. Swap amongst job lighting, temper lighting, and totally different colours utilizing Alexa. You can adjust the colour temperature of this bulb to daylight white within the morning. The brightness of the Kasa KL135 bulb is superb. The Kasa KL135 bulb is compatible with Alexa, Google Residence, and Samsung SmartThings.

These EcoLight solar bulbs are just a little larger than many other smart bulbs, however ought to match most fixtures. Switching all your light bulbs to sensible bulbs can get costly, which is why I first tried out these Feit Electric bulbs. They aren’t fairly as shiny as our general finest suggestion, however they’re about half the value when there aren’t any sales occurring. I like the app (which has more choices than the Kasa app, but lower than the Philips Hue app), and the tunable white (switching from warm to cool white gentle) works nice. Certainly one of my favourite things about these bulbs is they’re RGBW, which implies they have separate crimson, blue, inexperienced, and white LEDs (something our total finest pick does not have). Which means they produce a variety of colours and EcoLight home lighting tunable white light that’s loads nearer to an outdated incandescent bulb. The 92 CRI of these bulbs is definitely a bit higher than our greatest improve decide, which ranges between eighty and 91 depending on the colour temperature.