Why I won't buy smart bulbs or smart switches ever...

lockhrt999

lockhrt999

Not a Fan.
Skilled
I made up my mind a few years ago but this video confirms my feelings.
TLDR: It adds more problems than it solves.


I have been following Linus's home automation from the start. Being a tech guy, he's stuffing every tech he could get his hands on in his new home. I think it's too much. That much of digital equipments and automation would require a dedicated person to maintain. More tech can also mean more ways to hack into your house and exploit your private life.

I too was attracted to smart bulbs and switches initially. I have been closely following their evolution since they first appeared on the aliexpress. I wanted to import those and check them myself, sell them in India and build a startup out of it :p. But after experiencing those first hand, I started to see all the drawbacks. Fortunately, I didn't do any of that.
  • In my experience, the digital assistant 'ok google' has gotten stupid over the years. I was an ardent user of it since its arrival. But I have stopped using it now because it has become more unpredictable, useless and time consuming. Same goes for the integration between digital assistant and the smart bulbs.
  • I kinda felt insulted that I need the help of some automation to turn on and off the lights. Am I that incapable that I couldn't just get up from the chair and raise my hand to press a button?
  • Then, these switches are unpredictable in case of power or internet discontinuation.
  • I have used smart switches at relatives. Their experience was bad. If you come home at night at dark, you needed to turn on the flashlight from your mobile just to see what you are pressing on smart switches. Why? The smart switches lack the tactile feedback and it's really just a flat plate. Additionally, smart switches don't look elegant.
  • What happens when company maintaining the smart bulb servers bankrupts?
  • These smart things are always connected to the internet. One could easily install a microscopic mic in these smart bulbs to hear your conversation or make the firmware to snoop on your home network and upload the juicy details to its servers. Who's gonna know?
  • Same thinking applicable for wifi enabled washing machine, AC, toaster.
  • With my 3 decades plus experience at life, I now understand that we humans are equipped with very tiny amount of usable memory in our brains. It would be nightmare to remember all the config, hacks, integrations, passwords etc for years to come.
Still, I suggest others to buy smart bulbs whenever there's a sale going on. Because I want them to experience these feelings too.
 
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I have a smart tubelight and smart bulb at my home. Smart tubelight is now being used as dumb tubelight with regular switch, it was more hassle that help.

Smart bulb is still in proper use for 2-3 reasons:
  • I can dim the light when playing a game to improve screen visibility
  • I can turn it into a night bulb (crimson color) when I go to sleep
  • I can turn it on without leaving my bed if I wake up at night (never needed this though)
I used to have a Google home. It was fun in the beginning, but after 2-3 years, it had gotten worse to the point that it wouldn't understand simple commands like "set a timer" without saying it three times. Alexa is far better, but I practically use it for only three things:
  • Turn my bulb into night bulb with pre-configured command
  • Switch my fire TV on/off (occasionally, like if I'm eating and can't touch the remote) and play something from Netflix
  • Setting a timer
Smart homes are a novelty, so people like me want to try. But they're far more effort than they're worth. Eventually, they give a poorer experience than simple switches.
 
I only have 2 smart bulbs which are by Smitch. The main flaw I see with them is that when there's no internet or when their servers are down for maintenance I cannot control my lights no matter what. There is no manual override at all. If my bulb was dim or off before their downtime then I have to live with it until it's fixed on their end.

These bulbs should be operable within the local intranet and should not require internet access all the time and that's why I won't opt for smart lights everywhere.

On another note I bought a smart bulb from Syska also before this company but connectivity on that went kaput within 1 year and I was too lazy/busy to get it replaced. I can't even use it without wifi as it keeps blinking.
 
enthusiast29 said:
These bulbs should be operable within the local intranet and should not require internet access all the time and that's why I won't opt for smart lights everywhere.
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Companies will tell you to buy a hub for ₹10,000 so that you can operate your ₹1,000 smart bulb without internet connection.

For this very reason, both my rooms have two lights, one for normal times and another for internet outage situation. It's the most frustrating part. Thankfully it's not very frequent.
 
Pardon my ignorance but I still don't understand usage of smart bulbs in Indian homes. I mean we use tubelights more than bulbs right? In US and all, I understand everyone has bulbs in their homes and tubelights are non existent. I personally don't see any use of smart bulbs and those color changing ones and all.

I have alexa but now lying in a drawer unused as it never got much use.

The only piece of "smart" thing I have and which actually is helpful for me is a wifi switch which I have set a timer for to turn on and off power to my work laptop ever 2 hours. This is due to my laptop having some weird issue where it would not hibernate or go on standby and I have to keep on all the time.
 
raksrules said:
Pardon my ignorance but I still don't understand usage of smart bulbs in Indian homes. I mean we use tubelights more than bulbs right? In US and all, I understand everyone has bulbs in their homes and tubelights are non existent. I personally don't see any use of smart bulbs and those color changing ones and all.

I have alexa but now lying in a drawer unused as it never got much use.

The only piece of "smart" thing I have and which actually is helpful for me is a wifi switch which I have set a timer for to turn on and off power to my work laptop ever 2 hours. This is due to my laptop having some weird issue where it would not hibernate or go on standby and I have to keep on all the time.
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i dont use tubelights lol.
 
I never bothered with smart lights because I couldn't see the point.

Smart switch to control the pump on set intervals as well as over the internet was very good.

I had a spell in the hospital for a few days and got daily updates about the pump coming on and off and when it did not I could start it from the hospital.

That's about all the smart i have.

Voice assistants and alexa and the like are more for keeping kids busy and out of your hair than anything else AFAICT.
 
raksrules said:
Pardon my ignorance but I still don't understand usage of smart bulbs in Indian homes. I mean we use tubelights more than bulbs right?
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Tubelights are too bright for my use. I like to work in a low-medium lit environment and sometimes when my eyes are tired I dim the bulb to lowest brightness and change color to orange-yellowish to ease up on the eyes and make environment more suitable for watching dark scenes in movies/games etc.
 
raksrules said:
I mean we use tubelights more than bulbs right?
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Only in the kitchen ie. places where you do some sort of work. Otherwise everything else is 3000k colour temperature via LED phillips bulbs.

I can't stand the 6000K look of tubelights and don't get why more people don't get it.

4,000K would be a good middle ground but i never see lights of that temperature sold in this country. They do sell them in other countries though.

It's either warm white or cold white daylight. No affordable neutral colour options available.
enthusiast29 said:
The main flaw I see with them is that when there's no internet or when their servers are down for maintenance I cannot control my lights no matter what. There is no manual override at all.
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Just bad design. The 16A Smarteefi switches i use for the water pumps do have a manual switch that i can use when internet is not there.
 
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babhishek said:
i dont use tubelights lol.
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Ok May be other parts of the country are different but I am in Mumbai and I hardly see anyone using Bulbs. Most people I know or see around only have tubelights. Even my colleague in US bought a over the pool horizontal housing with tubelight online to use in his US apartment as he didn't like the yellow bulbs that people tend to use there.
 
I am using a Wipro 10A switch mainly to track the electricity consumption at the outlet and also to turn off charging of battery powered devices as per schedule since I know how much time it takes to charge each device a certain percentage. Used to set alarms in the past which was a bit of a hassle when doing other stuff and the smart switch takes care of that. I would say this approach works because my iPhone battery health is still at 100% after 8 months.

Also have smart bulb (in Mumbai), which is mainly useful for changing the brightness and the colour.

I have blocked both devices from web access and do not use any voice assistants with them. I think they still serve a purpose but probably not what most people buy it for.
 
raksrules said:
Pardon my ignorance but I still don't understand usage of smart bulbs in Indian homes. I mean we use tubelights more than bulbs right?
Click to expand...
I discussed this point before but forgot to add here. For me at least, bulbs make rooms shady like desi daru shop. I like my rooms lit in diffuse lights and there weren't much options in smart category for diffuse lighting.
 
Regarding the bulb Vs. tubelight discussion, there are multiple points to note:
  • Tubelights are very popular in India and hence we see them in all places. However, they are not good for eye health and hinder sleep. So it's better to use warmer lights. I personally use warm white lights after 9:30 PM
  • LED bulbs, though not as diffused as tubelights, are not as harsh as tungsten bulbs. All smart bulbs are LED. You can also get a housing with diffuser for them, though I personally don't feel the need for it. So if you've not used an LED bulb and are thinking if tungsten bulbs, then they are very different. I use LED bulbs in bathrooms which are small enough to be brightly lit be 7w bulbs.
  • LED bulbs of 9w are not suitable for rooms bigger than 100 sqft, especially if you prefer brightly lit rooms
  • Wipro and philips have had Smart Tubelights (referred to as batten) on Amazon for quite a while. I bought mine more than 2 and half years ago. Now halonix, Havells, and even Polycab have come out with the same. So there are quite a few options. Needs to be kept in mind though that they are still not as bright as regular LED tubelights, at least in my experience.
And finally, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with yellow light. It's all about personal preference and experience. Someone who has only ever lived in tubelight lit rooms will not like warm/yellow light. I didn't either. But I made myself get used to it and now I prefer slightly yellowish light. It slightly offsets the harms of staring at phone/monitor all day long.
 
I echo the sentiments in the thread title and first few posts.

I'm by no means a luddite but the gremlins I have observed even with simple smart bulbs and smart speakers usage make me super sceptical of becoming too reliant on them.
 
raksrules said:
Ok May be other parts of the country are different but I am in Mumbai and I hardly see anyone using Bulbs. Most people I know or see around only have tubelights.
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This is more a question of conditioning and legacy reasons. If those are the fittings you have then you stick with it. Also people used to daylight find warm white less bright. It is because its designed that way. Why would you want daylight colour in a living room or bedroom ? its too bright and harsh. You want that kind of lighting in an office or kitchen not elsewhere in a home. Why use commerical style lighting in a home ? If you need more light then use a tablelamp or one that lights up a small area for the purpose.

Tubelights at 40W cost less to run than two incandescents. More efficient. So people went with tubelights. Those who count the pennies. But they have only one per room. That is insufficient lighting compared to two bulbs. So the light is uneven and falls off away from the cylinder projection. Also tubelights are usually installed on side facing walls instead of facing down which would give more light than side lighting. More glare with side lighting than top down.

Tubelights suit rectangular rooms. My kitchen is like that so it covers the whole area.

I had a marwari tenant once who replaced all the light fixtures with tubelights using the same reasoning you gave. When leaving he wanted me to compensate him for those fixtures. Told him nothing doing. Either he left them or took them. He removed them all.

Looking at light colour options on amazon you find the bulk is daylight and minority is warm white. So this is the prevailing mindset in this country. Its just going with what you know and in reality is ignorance due to lack of exposure of other options. A lack of taste.

Colour rendering with tubelights is lousy. CRI in the low seventies. LED's bring that up to low eighties. Higher cost LED's get it to the 90s which incadescents did already.

LED's get dim over time. Two years later i doubt they give more than 70% they did when new. This does not happen with tubelights or incandescents. I would not use anything less than 14W LED' bulbs which is the brightest i can get in warm white. Cool daylight has brighter options.

raksrules said:
Even my colleague in US bought a over the pool horizontal housing with tubelight online to use in his US apartment as he didn't like the yellow bulbs that people tend to use there.
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Surprised he didn't try halogen lights. They are usually stands that bounce light off the ceiling. Result is much more even lighting, easy on the eyes and looks great. They are dimmable so you can have it as bright or not as you want. Halogens are expensive to run but not in the US. Best option you can get if energy bills aren't an issue.

Another quirk about the US is at least in the NE is they don't like to have anything on the ceiling. Brings down property price apparently. So lighting is usually either table lamps or halogen stands.

Other parts like in the south where its warmer do not have this mindset. They have ceiling fans just like we do. Euros too don't have issues with lights dangling from the ceiling either.
gourav said:
And finally, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with yellow light. It's all about personal preference and experience. Someone who has only ever lived in tubelight lit rooms will not like warm/yellow light. I didn't either. But I made myself get used to it and now I prefer slightly yellowish light. It slightly offsets the harms of staring at phone/monitor all day long.
Click to expand...
That's what i find surprising. Last thing you want is harsh daylight tubelights if you spent the whole day looking at a screen which is just another light.

As for tungsten being harsh that is the case with clear bulbs. You need to put them in a lamp shade. This diffuses the light better but reduces the intensity.

For this reason alone i always bought the milky white incadescents as my lght fixtures are transparent. Good compromise but were harder to find.
 
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lockhrt999 said:
I made up my mind a few years ago but this video confirms my feelings.
TLDR: It adds more problems than it solves.


I have been following Linus's home automation from the start. Being a tech guy, he's stuffing every tech he could get his hands on in his new home. I think it's too much. That much of digital equipments and automation would require a dedicated person to maintain. More tech can also mean more ways to hack into your house and exploit your private life.

I too was attracted to smart bulbs and switches initially. I have been closely following their evolution since they first appeared on the aliexpress. I wanted to import those and check them myself, sell them in India and build a startup out of it :p. But after experiencing those first hand, I started to see all the drawbacks. Fortunately, I didn't do any of that.
  • In my experience, the digital assistant 'ok google' has gotten stupid over the years. I was an ardent user of it since its arrival. But I have stopped using it now because it has become more unpredictable, useless and time consuming. Same goes for the integration between digital assistant and the smart bulbs.
  • I kinda felt insulted that I need the help of some automation to turn on and off the lights. Am I that incapable that I couldn't just get up from the chair and raise my hand to press a button?
  • Then, these switches are unpredictable in case of power or internet discontinuation.
  • I have used smart switches at relatives. Their experience was bad. If you come home at night at dark, you needed to turn on the flashlight from your mobile just to see what you are pressing on smart switches. Why? The smart switches lack the tactile feedback and it's really just a flat plate. Additionally, smart switches don't look elegant.
  • What happens when company maintaining the smart bulb servers bankrupts?
  • These smart things are always connected to the internet. One could easily install a microscopic mic in these smart bulbs to hear your conversation or make the firmware to snoop on your home network and upload the juicy details to its servers. Who's gonna know?
  • Same thinking applicable for wifi enabled washing machine, AC, toaster.
  • With my 3 decades plus experience at life, I now understand that we humans are equipped with very tiny amount of usable memory in our brains. It would be nightmare to remember all the config, hacks, integrations, passwords etc for years to come.
Still, I suggest others to buy smart bulbs whenever there's a sale going on. Because I want them to experience these feelings too.
Click to expand...
The video is a little too long to sit through and the first 5 mins make it appear like any usual LTT video, a collection of exaggerated moments.

As with anything that's bespoke, the experience with HA can vary considerably.
A bad tailor will put together a suit that's worse than off the shelf readymades - but that doesn't make a readymade suit better than a bespoke one :p

With home automation, Bad planning and choices will yield a bad experience and vice versa .
At my place, I have close to 100 nodes now (added progressively from 2014/15 onwards) - and today, even the house help asks the homepod to switch off the fans before the morning jhadoo routine - lol

This when a lot of my nodes are old models from the early days of HA and retrofitted to an existing house - If i were putting together something new from scratch for a new house today, i could build something even better.
And I wont go back to a non HA enabled setup because it works as well as one could expect
 
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