Smart Lighting | WiZ Light Bulb Review

I wrote a post a while back about how to make your home smarter which included all the stuff we have within our home, as well as some stuff we don’t have. Smart lighting was on there, something we didn’t have and something I’ve never been *too* sure about. As much as I love the idea of it; it’s pretty expensive to buy and is it really worth the money or is it just *another* gimmick? Well having now finally tried it out, I’m sharing my thoughts…

I’m fairly sure everyone knows what Smart Lighting is by now – but in case you don’t (where have you been?!) – it’s basically a special kind of light bulb that not only allows you to control it remotely but it also gives you more control over the type of light it emits. So there’s no need for dimming switches or deciding between “cool” or “warm” light bulbs – you can have both and oh so much more, and you can also get bulbs that emit colours too. And of course, if you have one of these fancy Home Hubs (Alexa or Google Home etc) you can usually control them through voice command too.

Every Smart Light Bulb on the market is a little bit different – but the one I’ve been sent to review for the blog is a pair of bulbs from Wiz.World (you can find them on Amazon here) which I’ve been trying out over the last month. The thing that makes THESE bulbs unique is that you don’t need an additional hub in order to connect them to your wireless network. It’s all done in the light bulb itself.

I have to say these are THE most luxurious packaged lightbulbs I have ever seen. It felt like I was opening up a new iPad or something; it felt like a cool technological gadget. The kind of thing you put on a Christmas wish list (speaking of which – I reckon with a box like that, they’d be pretty gift-able too?!).

So the bulbs I’m trying out are B22 bulbs (the kind for bayonet fittings) but they do also sell screw-fitting bulbs and even spotlight bulbs as well amongst a few others. These are also the coloured versions of the bulbs and I have the two-pack set which very handily also comes with a little remote. This set retails for £69.95 at the time of writing this blog post.

You can see how they visibly look different to standard bulbs. They’re a little chunkier and of course, they have no filament, being LEDs.

Simple really; they just connect to your wireless network. So as long as you have a router or the like (doesn’t everyone?!), you can have these smart light bulbs. Unlike other brands, you don’t need an additional ‘hub’ in order for the lights to work which makes these a whole lot simpler to set up; it’s all built-in right inside the bulbs. Genius! In fact, it even claims to have a 30-second installation set-up, which to be honest, I thought was going to be a tad exaggerated – but actually other than taking 15 seconds to type the Wi-Fi password into the app, there was literally nothing else to do other than turn the lights on and off five times. It’s technophobe-fool-proof. Literally. 

I’ve been trialling these lights in both the dining room and the home office because I wanted to get an idea of how they’re meant to be used around different rooms in the house. When you download the app, you can add each light bulb to its own room and you can also identify each bulb within the room with a different icon that correlates to that light fitting. From hanging bulbs to pendants to table lamps, there are enough icons to clearly identify each light fitting. You can even identify one table lamp for another. For the sake of this blog post, I’m photographing the office light fitting only – purely because it’s much prettier and shows off the effect of the bulb much better. And I’m sure you’ll agree!

Yep, it’s a giant ball of fluff on my ceiling and I love it. For anyone interested, it’s an Amazon bargain find of just £33 which you can find right here. Being white, it also means it’s the perfect shade for showing off the light bulbs infinite range of colours. And speaking of which – there’s 16 million of them to choose from! Maybe you want a light pink hue to fill the room.

Or even a darker hot pink.

OR a cool blue.

Or even a green?

OK, I’m sure you get the gist by now. Literally, I kid you not when I say the options are endless though. With 16 million colours available, it’s doubtful you’ll ever use them all. But, you could, in theory. Coloured lights may not necessarily be for everyone – but if you have young kids, it’s a great way to add a bit of sensory stimulation to their rooms. And it’s also a fun way for older kids to change the entire feel of their room at the drop of a hat. They can hit up FLAME RED as they pretend to be Fireman Sam (Or is he so 90s now?) or even COOL BLUE as they pretend to be at swimming in an ocean. You get my drift. I think it’d also be wicked for parties, adult ones as well as kid ones. Or it’d even be fab in a cool man-cave or cinema room. I also know lots of people who love the odd spot of colourful LED strip lighting throughout the home too – so I’m certain they’d love this in a table lamp!

Aside from having a bit of fun with the colours, it’s also said that the colour of light can affect our moods. If you’re feeling anxious, a calming mint green light is meant to be best. If you need cheering up, for yellow. For each colour you pick, you can also alter how dim/bright you want it to be too. It can be as gentle or as vibrant as you want.

But if a colour isn’t your thing, then perhaps 64,000 shades of white will make up for it instead? I know what you’re thinking “HOW?!” I thought that too. Turns out there’s orange white, yellow-white,  blue light, bright white, dim white, barely there white, bright as the freaking sun white. More whites than I ever deemed possible!

As much as I love the coloured aspect of the bulbs, I think the different white lights excite me even more. You can even simulate ‘daylight’; which, being a blogger and needing to take a lot of photographs – is blooming’ amazing! No need to plan my photos around daylight hours, I can now get a good shot whatever the weather. I also work night-shifts as my *day job* so it’s also a great way to simulate daylight hours during the nighttime, so not to mess with your internal body clock so to speak.

Even for normal day-workers and non-bloggers, it’s fab though. Brighter light in the morning gives you punch of waking up you need, a more relaxed calmer light in the evening is perfect to chill out under before bed. You can select the perfect working light for cooking in the kitchen, or the perfect ‘calming’ light for doing a spot of yoga. In a nutshell, you can literally always create the *perfect* lighting for a room depending on how you’re using it that day. I think it’d be awesome for mood lighting during a dinner party!

Along with the bulbs and remote, there’s also a free downloadable app which has a few additional features which I thought was also worth a mention too.

Fade In, Fade Out – Need I say more? Love it!

Wake-Up/Bedtime Lights – This one is actually amazing! You can set the lights to slowly come on/off within a 30 minute period, depending on whether you’re dozing off to sleep or waking up. It in effect acts like a Lumie Bodyclock (or similar) without the extra cost. I love it!

Schedule Your Lights – Doesn’t need me to say much more, does it? Perfect for holidays or arriving home in the dark and having to stumble your way across a shite-tip of a hall to find the light switch (if you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know what I mean!).

Plant Growth – Once I saw this setting, I was pretty sure I’d seen it all. Yep, there’s a light to help your plants grow! It’s insane. And it’s brilliant. And perhaps I should have bought this much earlier and I could have saved a few plants!

Night Light – This one is basically like those plug-in night lights you can buy. It has a very gentle glow that means you don’t have to stumble across a dark room to find the toilet, or subject your eyes to a hard blinding wake up call by turning the lights on. We’ve used this feature every single night in the dining room. So handy!

Themes – There’s a whole range of different pre-set ‘themes’ depending on how/when you’re using your lights. From the perfect light to watch TV with, to a ‘Party’ theme, a ‘Romance’ theme and even seasonal themes.

Adding ‘Moments’ – If you want to save a certain light setting and remember it as a particular event (say Valentines Day Meal) can save that ‘moment’ with a photo and re-create that exact light at a later date at the touch of a button. I think that’s a really thoughtful addition which is great for special occasions.

Everything in the app is really easy to use and it’s really well organised. I didn’t have any problems with connectivity or any problems in general. It’s simple and it works.

With the two-bulb set, you get the handy remote too, which allows you to pre-set your four favourite themes, instantly turn the bulb into a night light, as well as alter the brightness at the touch of a button. One remote can control every bulb separately – you just need to point it at the right one. Brilliant!

How Long Do They Last?
That depends on how often you use them. But these bulbs claim to have a lifespan of 25,000 hours which is equivalent to around 10 years if the bulbs are used for 6 hours every day. Which is better than any energy-saving light bulb I’ve ever used! And at £69.95 for the pair, I think that makes these a pretty decent investment!

So I think I’ve covered the main features and the only thing I haven’t tried out myself is connecting it to a home hub, as we haven’t got one of those. In the last month of testing these bulbs out, I haven’t honestly used the colours that much. I think they’re fab and whilst I’m quite partial to the hot-pink look in the office; most of the time we’ve used the bulbs in different white settings. I can totally imagine myself using colours for a party or special event, but for day-to-day use, the colours aren’t seeing much action from us. That being said, we did have a disco theme going whilst drinking prosecco a few weeks back. It’s something that’s nice to have from time to time, but not necessarily for everyday use. Unless you’re totally into that!

For us, it’s all about the white coloured settings. Going from daylight to a working light to a dim evening light has really been amazing. I’ve found it easier to get to sleep after being underneath a dimmer relaxing light in the evening and I’ve also felt so much more awake in the mornings after using the daylight settings. I wish I had used this during the winter months as getting out of my bed in dark hours is something I quite often struggle with! We’re currently renovating the lounge at the moment and planning our lighting for the room – and I will be definitely be purchasing a couple more white ones for table lamps in here.

So, would I recommend? Absolutely, yes! As long as having changeable lights is something you would use, then I think it’s a seriously worthwhile investment. It’s certainly not necessary for every single light fitting (I’m certainly still a huge fan of the Edison bulbs!) but where it’s useful – it’s absolute brill. It’s a bit of fun and at the same time, it’s surprisingly useful in ways which you wouldn’t expect, until you use one.

Do you have smart light bulbs? What do you think to them?

*The Smart Lighting featured in this blog was sent to me to review. All views and content are my own. This post may also include Affiliate Links. Thanks for supporting this blog 🙂