Everything You Need to Know About Smart Outdoor Lights

The global smart home market is predicted to be worth more than £430 billion by 2030. With both designers and homeowners alike turning to smart systems, the takeover is inevitable. 

If you want to revamp your exterior spaces, now is the perfect time to embrace a smarter future, and this outdoor lighting can transform the outside of any dream home.

Jump To

• What Are Smart Outdoor Lights?
• How Does Smart Outdoor Lighting Work?
• What Are the Features of Outdoor Lighting Control Systems?
• What Smart Outdoor Lights Should I Choose?
• Smart Outdoor Lighting Integrations
• Considerations 
• Final Thoughts

Outdoor smart lights are often overlooked, but if you’ve decked out your whole house with automated features and completely forgot about the garden, you’re missing a great chance to improve your home's design.

In this blog we explore everything you need to know about smart outdoor lighting and how it can transform your garden or outside space.

What Are Smart Outdoor Lights?

Smart outdoor lights are systems that let you control your garden or building external lighting in a range of intelligent ways. They can use motion sensors, wall panels, devices such as phones, or even voice commands. Choose from a spread of bulbs, light panels, LED strips and more to achieve the perfect lighting for your outdoor spaces.

These lights can match any spec you wish. Decide which kinds you would like, then where you want to place them. A specialist installer can design a lighting solution which both exceeds your expectations while perfectly complementing your garden’s style.

How Does Smart Outdoor Lighting Work? 

Smart lighting systems use either WiFi or a radio frequency to "talk" to their central processing hub. This means they can work without any human input. When set up by an expert, you can turn these lights on and off with motion detection, schedules, darkness sensors or wall-mounted touch panels. There's no need for any bulky outdoor switches with thick, ugly wiring to control your lights.

Once installed, your system can be linked to a smart home control system, like Control4 or Lutron. With these systems, you can change and adjust your outdoor and indoor lighting in a number of ways. Think shifting the hue (colour) or brightness of your bulbs with a remote control or mobile phone.

When setting up an outdoor smart lighting system, we would recommend installing the fixtures you want first. This will give you a more robust system with a greater range of styles, colours and fittings. After this, everything can be linked to a control system to automate your lights. If you already have external lights, like outdoor wall lights and wall lanterns, we can retrofit a wireless solution to give you extra control over your current system. No need to add new fittings or bulbs!

Smart lighting solutions also help to reduce wasted energy. How many times have you left your porch light on after going out, or up to bed? Automatic switch-off and emergency all-off buttons help ensure no bulbs are left on. 

• Endless Style & Design Prospects - Using a lighting control system rather than buying smart light fittings gives you a nearly limitless choice of devices to suit, and even elevate, your home's design. 
  
  
• Convenience - Installing smart lights on the outside of your home can make everyday tasks easier. Exterior lighting can be set to a schedule, illuminating your entrance when you return home, and turning off automatically when you leave for work.
  
  
• Unlimited Colour Options - With smart ourdoor lighting you can change the colour, brightness and hue of your bulbs from a central control panel, or even your phone. This is a simple but effective way to transform your home when hosting garden parties or barbecues.

What Lights Should I Choose?

There are bulbs and fixtures on the market which are branded as 'smart', such as Philips Hue Outdoor Lights. However, these can limit your options. A smart lighting control solution has the ability to elevate any spec of lighting, including LEDs, allowing you to control them through the internet. This is because the intelligent control is not in the fitting itself but in the central control panel that everything is wired back to. 

A lighting control system can automate your existing setups, either in a retrofit application using wireless dimmer modules, or ideally while the electrical cabling is being installed. We would recommend DALI compatible fittings, so you have more options with tuning the colour of the light fittings to suit the time of day, the ambience you want to create and the scene.

The beauty of smart tech is the potential to customise your solution to fit your home and needs. An expert installer will ensure to use the leading tech to allow you to build a solution which doesn’t limit your options. 

Smart Outdoor Lighting Integrations

• Outdoor Sound - Smart garden lighting can be integrated with your outdoor home cinema to elevate the cinematic experience. Link your cinema sound system with your lighting to be reactive to the sounds of the film (find out how to build the perfect outdoor home cinema here). Outside lighting can also be linked to your sound system to pulse in time with the music which can really add to the atmosphere during a garden party.
  
  
• Home Control Systems - When your lighting is linked to your home control system, you can use one app for everything - audio, visual, heating, lighting and security. Once integrated into this ecosystem, you can use your home controls to turn on the outside lights to illuminate the area. If you set the alarm or push the “goodnight” button, all your outside bulbs can be turned off automatically. Or, with geofencing, when your phone detects that you are returning home, your outdoor lights can turn on to welcome you back.
  
  
• Automated Gates - Link your outdoor lighting to your home security gate to naturally illuminate your paths and driveway when you approach the property. This will save you from fumbling around in the dark when coming home in dark hours.
  
  
• Intruder Alarms - Integrate your new outdoor lighting with your home intruder alarm to illuminate all outdoor areas in the event that your alarm is activated. This will provide a clear picture for any CCTV cameras (if they are not night-vision or infrared) and potentially stop the crime going any further.

Considerations

Relying on off-the-shelf outdoor lighting products will only lead you to disappointment. Technical weaknesses in these solutions will naturally bring problems which cause you frustration and burden you with the task of fixing these. Not to mention the fact that you are limited with the selection and unless you bought them all from the same producer they might not be compatible with each other.

A professional solution allows you to enjoy your new, improved outdoor space, without the added hassle of unexpected servicing.

Intelligent outside lighting can also reduce the carbon footprint of your home, with a range of energy saving options available this is a small step you can take to have a positive impact. This technology is designed to last a long time, so it’s important to take these things into consideration when installing new systems. 

Smart outside lights are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to tech for your exterior spaces. Whilst lighting is an effective asset to complement your garden space, combining this with other outdoor solutions will provide the ultimate experience. Check out 5 ways smart garden technology can improve your home to discover more about your options.

Final Thoughts

No smart home is complete without outside lighting (and we don't mean fairy lights) to compliment the overall look of your property and unite the experience across all areas of your property. If you're after the fully formed smart home experience, check out our Design Guide.

Whatever your lighting requirements, we can help design and install a solution which meets your needs and creates the perfect atmosphere for the outside of your property. Whether you’re building your dream home to include everything from the get-go, or upgrading your existing property, we offer the solution to future proof any home.

At Chris Lewis Group we're a Certified Lutron Installer. Our experts are highly experienced in the design and installation of Lutron tech including Lutron lighting solutions. We’ll ensure you’re always getting the most out of your lighting system.

Contact us today to discuss your requirements: 

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