One of the most crucial features of a modern smart home is intelligent lighting. While most homeowners still largely rely on natural lighting from the sun, it’s not always available for every room, especially in older houses. 

This is why smart or intelligent lighting has become very popular. With the help of AI and IoT technologies, smart lighting prioritizes lighting control and connectivity, making it easier for homeowners to control the lighting of every room in their house.

Here are six reasons why you should consider it for your home. 

1. Energy efficiency 

It's the dream of every homeowner to save on their electric bills. Well, intelligent lighting is one of the best ways to do this. Since most smart lighting systems use LED bulbs, you stand to use up to 75% less energy by switching from the traditional halogen bulbs. 

The smart bulbs can last up to 50,000 hours, which is 20 times longer than a halogen bulb, and around 50 times longer than an incandescent lamp.  

Furthermore, you can also install occupancy sensors which will automatically turn off lights if no one is in the room. This means that zero energy is wasted if you or your kids forget to switch off that bathroom light! 

You’ll, therefore, reduce your lighting costs significantly while enjoying more energy efficiency. Intelligent lights also use very small amounts of ultraviolet light, making them safer for you and the environment.

2. Provides ‘natural’ lighting

As earlier mentioned, intelligent lighting systems can work as the perfect substitute for natural lighting in rooms that aren’t well lit. They can be programmed to mimic the sun’s natural patterns from sunrise to sunset, making them perfect for the gloomy winter weather! 

In a time when everyone is working from home, intelligent lighting means you also don't have to disrupt your biological clock to get things done. 

Whether it’s sleeping, waking up, or working, you can just dim or brighten the light and even change the natural color temperature to what your body is used to. 

Artificial lighting also enhances the beauty of your home with minimal effort. The technology allows you to play with different color LED bulbs to complement the decorations. 

Moreover, if the lighting gets too much, the light sensors can detect any natural lighting and dim your smart lights. All this ensures your rooms appear bigger and highlights all their decorative elements.  

3. Better control of your lighting

Arguably the best reason to consider intelligent lighting is the flexibility and control it gives you. Thanks to advancements in smart technology the lights can adapt your home to anything you want. 

If you need a home office, you can simply dim or brighten your lights to match it. You can even change the color temperature to match your office mood and install smart shelves to make it more professional.  

And instead of the hassle of manually changing the lighting settings of every room in the house, the controls are much easier with intelligent lighting. 

Most systems now come with voice control capabilities, making use of ecosystems like Amazon Alexa and Google Home, which allow you to control your lights from anywhere in the house! 

You can also connect the lighting to your devices, including your smartphone, laptop, or iPad, and access all the lighting scenes you want. 

4. Good for your sleep 

While most people ignore it, lighting plays an integral part in your sleep patterns and quality. Under the right light setting, you'll be able to sleep faster and better, ensuring you are productive once you wake up. 

For most intelligent lighting models, the bulbs can produce warm lights to match your regular sleep-wake patterns. Some products also play you soothing sleeping music or white noise to induce sleep faster. 

This can be really useful if you need to get your kids to bed or if you’re having sleeping problems. 

Additionally, the fact that you can control the lights using your voice or through your phone also means no more walking blind checking that all the lights are off – you can do it from your bed!

5. Visual comfort

Just as lighting affects your sleep, it also affects your vision and your health. When using too bright or too dim lighting, your eyes tend to strain too much, and this can lead to complications. 

Some of the most common problems caused by lighting include momentary loss of vision, visual fatigue, and cataracts. 

To prevent this, intelligent lighting grants you more control of the light illumination and focus levels in the house. The system can detect when there’s too much or too little light and adjust it to a comfortable level. 

You can also pre-program the light levels based on the activity you're doing to avoid eye fatigue and other illnesses. For instance, if you read a book past ten, you can program the lights to dim a little at that time, then adjust it back when you’re watching tv. 

6. Security 

Another big plus to having intelligent lighting is it improves your security. Owing to its flexibility in control, you will be able to turn on your lights from anywhere in the world!

This way, you can give the impression that somebody’s home when you’re not there. You can also program the lights in different rooms e.g., kitchen lights and bedroom lights to turn on at different intervals to detract burglars from entering. 

On the flip side, smart home technologies like motion sensors and intelligent lighting can also alert you when there’s an intruder in your house. The motion sensor will detect movement and your smart lights will turn on. 

So, if you didn’t leave your lights on, you’ll be much safer calling for help first if you find them on.

Final thoughts

There are millions of reasons why you should use intelligent lighting in your home. However, it all boils down to flexibility, security, energy efficiency, visual comfort, and cost. 

With the smart world taking over every aspect of the home, you can be sure you won’t go wrong with intelligent lighting.