In this weekly column, hosts Brandon Doyle, Doyle Real Estate Team with RE/MAX Results, and Colton Pratt, project manager, walk through smart-home products and showcase their capabilities while reviewing pros and cons.
Smart light bulbs are a great option to set the atmosphere in a room. Last week, we discussed the pros and cons of installing switches versus bulbs, and in this episode, we’ll look at some alternatives to Philips Hue bulbs.
To test the smart bulbs, we turned them all on at the same time and compared brightness, color, speed, cost and compatibility. Below are our results with links to each on Amazon.
- Philips Hue: $35 per bulb in kit or $47 individually; requires Hue Bridge, communicates via Zigbee
- LIFX: $35-$60 per bulb, uses Wi-Fi and is the brightest bulb we tested, but the slowest to respond
- Lumiman: Two for $25, an affordable Wi-Fi bulb that uses the Smart Life app
- Teckin: Two for $25, similar to Lumiman
- TP-Link: $29, Wi-Fi bulb uses the Kasa app and is very responsive
- Aeotec: $45, Z-Wave bulb for
- Sylvania: Two for $24, a Zigbee bulb
We felt these last two bulbs appeared dimmer than some of the alternatives, both require a compatible hub.
Brandon Doyle is a Realtor at Doyle Real Estate Team — Re/Max Results in Minneapolis and co-author of Mindset, Methods & Metrics – Winning as a Modern Real Estate Agent. You can follow him on Twitter.
