A smart, sustainable way to beautify your home

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Gone are the days of freezing to the bone while putting up the lights and taking them down each year

For some, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. With Thanksgiving in our rear view mirror, it’s time to venture outside and decorate our homes for the holiday season.

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For others like me, while I like the idea of illuminating our house for the holiday season, I have many unpleasant memories of putting the lights up and taking them down, while braving the bitter cold.

However recently, I discovered what turned out to be a smart, sustainable way to get the job done that promises to beautify our home for years, while  saving energy not only in terms of electricity, but also time and effort.

But before getting into that, let’s take a step back into how lighting has evolved since that fateful year of 1879 when Thomas Edison introduced the lightbulb for commercial use.

Those ‘first generation’ light bulbs needed 40 watts to produce 400 lumens of light. So enough light to illuminate a small area such as a desk.

Today, after almost 150 years of innovation, consumers are blessed with LED lights which on average only need 10 watts to generate 800 lumens of light.

So compared to incandescent lights, LEDs use one-quarter of the power for twice as much light. Adding to the appeal of LEDs is they last at least 10 times longer (e.g. 15-50,000 hours versus 1,200), which translates into 10-15 years of service for the average user.

Recognizing all of the attributes of LED lights, from saving energy to longevity, I set about researching options to light the outside of our home and ultimately chose eufy Smart Lights, which are smart in more ways than one.

I first discovered eufy while researching a story on CCTV cameras for MoneySense earlier this year, and always keeping sustainability in mind, one of the things that swayed me in favour of eufy’s product line was that many of their cameras are solar powered.

So it came as a pleasant surprise to learn that the company has introduced a new line of LED lights which not unlike their CCTV products, can be controlled with a phone app.

And the lights can be paired with the cameras so that for instance, you can have them go on when the cameras detect motion.

Yet another motion consideration is these smart lights can be tied to various themes by virtue of the fact each light is comprised of three LEDs which eufy says “lets you experience millions of colours.”

Options which come with the phone app include holiday or celebration specific colour combinations (e.g. Christmas, Hanukkah, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day), lighting that replicates each season and interestingly enough, colour combinations that reflect emotions (e.g. romantic, quiet, happy) and healing (e.g. ocean serenity, dreamy stars).

Other unique options which underscore the prevailing commitment of lighting manufacturers such as eufy to get smarter, include a DIY lighting effect for those of you with an artistic flair, which enables you to map out your own unique mix of colours and animations or flows.

And coolest of all in my mind, an AI LightChat feature where you can type in a few key words such as “flashing Xmas scene” and the lights automatically change to reflect that theme.

Which brings us back to yet another observation about motion. With smart lights like eufy’s you can keep them up all year round and change the lighting to reflect any particular season or holiday or for that matter mood you’re in on any given day.

So no more having to venture out into a storm after the holiday season to take your lights down, and gone are the days of freezing to the bone while putting up the lights and taking them down each year.

There are of course other intangibles to adding smart lighting to your home, starting with saving energy of course, because with smart, controllable LEDs you can set timers specific to when you’re home and away; but also to control the brightness of the lights which can also help save energy.             

A final consideration is that smart lighting adds value to your home, and if used the right way, yields yet another positive which is arguably priceless – beautifying where you live – while making if feel cheerier, warmer and more welcoming, which in turn helps contribute to a greater sense of comfort and well being on the home front.

Mark Wessel lives in Ridgeway, Ont. and is a passionate advocate for living more sustainably at home and in the greater community. Visit www.markdouglaswessel.com.