We all like to have our homes just that little bit different, that bit more unique than our friends and neighbours, and just that little bit quirky. One way to change things up is with different lighting and maybe different colour bulbs. But with smart home tech, you can now fit a colour changing light bulb and have a different light for various situations and control it right from your couch, bed, dining table etc. just using your phone or tablet or using voice commands with Alexa or Hey Google! Add some quirkiness to a room with a LED Colour Changing Smart Bulb from 4Lite.
If Picasso, Einstein and Edison were to work on a project together they would have come up with a product that is at the centre of any smart home ecosystem – the colour changing smart light bulb! A bulb with a colour for every mood, without having to leave the comfort of your chair!
Whilst Edison may have been credited with the invention of the light bulb, technology has moved on a bit since then and we have much smarter bulbs. And for that added quirkiness, we don’t just have to stick to warm white or bright white bulbs. I have been trying out 4Lite’s WiZ Connected LED Colour Changing Smart Bulb (4L1/8002).
The 4Lite WiZ Connected LED Colour Changing Smart Bulb is a tech-packed smart bulb. It is an 806 lumens 8w bulb (60w in old money) and comes in bayonet (B22) or screw (E27) fittings. With a rated lifetime span of 25,000, you will get years of use out of it. But this is no ordinary LED light bulb, it is 2.4Ghz WiFi connected, is Bluetooth enabled, is dimmable, colour temperature selectable, features RGB lighting effects and can be controlled via an app or voice control through Alexa or Hey Google!
Features:
- 16m Colours and Tuneable White Dimmable A60 Smart Bulb
- LED 8W – equivalent to 60W
- Can Be Controlled via the WiZ App and Voice Controlled Smart Devices – Google, Alexa, Siri, Samsung Smart Things
- CCT 2200K to 6500K – 806 lumens
- LED lifetime 25,000 hours
But why bother to install a smart bulb, never mind a colour changing smart bulb, when we can just have a regular bulb and flick the switch when we enter a room? There are plenty of reasons; you can turn the lights on before your get home so you are not walking into a dark house, you can turn the lights off from work or on the train if you forget to turn them off when you left, you can set schedules to turn on/off at times of your choosing (perfect for home security), when your hands are full of shopping bags you can tell Alexa to turn on the lights, and you can change the colour of the bulb for different moods and situations such as watching television, waking up, reading, or having a party. You can transform the mundane lighting in your home to a funky a vibrant dance floor, or a serene blue ocean, or even a fiery red volcano or just dim a warm white light.
All that tech, it has got to be hard to set up, hasn’t it? No, you install the bulb as you would a standard light bulb and flick the switch, and you will have light. Nothing special there. But download and install the WiZ Connected app to your phone and you become the lighting king, ruler of the bulb.
Setting up the bulb is simple and only takes a few minutes and you don’t really need any tech know-how, all you need to do is follow the simple instructions in the app. Sign up with your Google email or Facebook account to get started. Create or join a new home and add the room where you are installing the bulb. Pair to your internet (you will need your WiFi password). Within a few minutes it will find the smart bulb and add it to the app, giving you all the control at your fingertips.
Once the bulb is paired to your WiFi, app and Alexa or Hey Google you can now leave the light switch in the on position and turn on/off the lights, change colours and themes, moods and schedules directly from the app. You can even order Alexa to turn on/off the lights, set brightness levels, change colour etc.
The WiZ Connected app has lots of functionality and presets as well as being customisable by you (and any other users that you might add). You can use static light with different levels of white light (warm light, daylight or cool white), you can set night lights, lights to watch tv by, cosy lights, relaxing lights, even lighting to help with plant growth. And that is just the beginning. The fun begins when you look at the dynamic lights and scenes. The app comes with preset dynamic light settings that you can change with one touch – you can have candlelight, a pulsing alarm, and then then colourful club, fireplace, romantic, Christmas, Halloween, Diwali or party settings and many more. You can even create you own custom scenes with different colours and colour temperatures to suit your own moods and situation. And you can even have progressive lighting for when you are waking up or going to sleep (gently becoming brighter or dimmer).
You also have the option to set schedules to automate your lighting, room by room and day by day. And if you have 2 or more of the bulbs in the same room or hallway you can use SpaceSense to determine movement and turn on lights when walking near.
Overall, the 4Lite WiZ Connected LED Colour Changing Smart Bulb is excellent and has so much functionality.
Once it’s connected to your home WiFi, it’s smooth and fast to use and very responsive whether using the app of voice commands (as long as your internet is connected). You can tap away easily within the app to control all the functions or connect to your voice assistant to control settings without having to lift a finger – handy for when you have jumped into bed and forget to turn the light out!
But wait, there’s more! It’s not just a cool and funky light bulb with a smart brain. It’s reliable and has more features than a Swiss Army Knife. Romantic dinner? No problem, there is a setting for that that gives you warm, ambient lighting. Need to focus on work? One tap and you’ve got bright, white light. Planning a party? Welcome to the disco with randomly switching coloured lights! And so many more fun settings.
The 4Lite WiZ Connected LED Colour Changing Smart Bulb is perfect for adding a bit of colourful quirkiness to your house as well as having standard functional white and warm light. Easy to change settings for your different moods and perfect lighting settings for an ever-changing home.
And as it is an LED light bulb, it is cheaper to run than an incandescent light bulb with it A*/A+ rating (8 kWh/1000h).
Cheer up your home with different colour changing lighting effects that you can change as often as you like and add a 4Lite WiZ Connected LED Colour Changing Smart Bulb. And you can control it from anywhere, you don’t even need to be at home!
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £14.95
For more information or to find your nearest stockist, visit 4liteuk.com. Available to buy from Amazon here.