We independently consider all of our recommendations. In case you click on hyperlinks we offer, we might obtain compensation. Jeremy Laukkonen is an Updates Writer for The Spruce, with expertise in protecting know-how, appliances, residence enchancment, and residence items. I was on the ready list for EcoLight bulbs the primary era Alexa, and since then I’ve used quite a lot of other sensible home programs in pursuit of dwelling automation-beginning with smart mild bulbs. Since I’m not a brand loyalist, I’ve used all types of bulbs from Kasa, Feit Electric, Sengled, GE, Cree, EcoLight outdoor and others that I usually decide up throughout sales, and some have undoubtedly worked better than others. To decide on the perfect good gentle bulbs, I search for an app that isn’t buggy or frustrating, effortless good residence integration, and easy dimming (with out requiring a dimmer swap). I exploit both multicolor and white sensible gentle bulbs throughout my house, but my favorites produce each vibrant colors and tunable white gentle (from warm to cool).
Since I have a restricted variety of mild sockets in my house, I also relied on our at-residence testing insights to reinforce my own information and expertise regarding bulbs I both haven’t personally used or haven’t used as a lot. I thought of factors like ease of setup and use, app functionality, good residence integration, colour rendering index (CRI), brightness and dimming, and different elements to establish the very best good bulbs obtainable. Colour rendering index, or CRI, is a measurement of how shut a light bulb can get to natural mild. Bulbs with a better CRI present more pure mild for more lifelike colours, with a CRI of 88 or increased appearing very pure. I’ve used quite a lot of smart gentle bulbs over time, and that i like the Kasa KL135 probably the most as a result of they’re reliable, with excellent smart home integration, and have adequate coloration rendering to make use of in any room. They’re slightly greater than lots of the other sensible bulbs I’ve used, however I’ve by no means had bother getting them to slot in any of my fixtures or lamps.
These bulbs use the Kasa app and sensible ecosystem, which incorporates loads of my favourite smart house devices (like the Kasa reduce energy consumption strip that I’ve used to automate all the things from desk followers to a turtle tank heat lamp). Which means you need to use the bulbs with the cellphone app and tie them into schedules and routines with your different Kasa units, however I exploit Alexa for all that. I like the Alexa integration, which I take advantage of to control them with voice commands-turning the lights on and off, adjusting brightness, and even switching colors and shade temperatures. You may even have the temperature modify by way of the day, from daylight white in the morning to a stress-free heat white at night. The color rendering index (CRI) is fairly high at 88 (incandescent lights are 100, for comparison). That’s adequate that the colors of issues round your house look correct when the bulbs are set to white light, regardless of not having RBGW LEDs like our best value decide (which has a better CRI).
You may want a higher CRI possibility in rooms like your kitchen (preparing and serving food) or bathroom (applying makeup) the place correct colors are actually essential, however I don’t notice that a lot of a difference myself. Brightness is great, with a dimming vary between 20 and 1,000 lumens, so I’ve used these bulbs in every room in my house for a spread of purposes. Coloration choice is great too, and I like that I can tell Alexa to regulate the brightness and switch the coloration based mostly on whatever I’m doing at the time-switching from task lighting, to mood lighting, to a splash of coloration with out ever getting up to touch a change. Swap among job lighting, temper lighting, and completely different colors utilizing Alexa. You possibly can alter the color temperature of this bulb to daylight white within the morning. The brightness of the Kasa KL135 bulb is superb. The Kasa KL135 bulb is appropriate with Alexa, Google House, and Samsung SmartThings.
These bulbs are a bit larger than many other smart bulbs, however ought to fit most fixtures. Switching all your gentle bulbs to sensible bulbs can get costly, which is why I first tried out these Feit Electric bulbs. They aren’t fairly as brilliant as our general finest suggestion, however they’re about half the value when there aren’t any sales happening. I like the app (which has more choices than the Kasa app, but less than the Philips Hue app), and the tunable white (switching from warm to cool white light) works nice. One in every of my favourite things about these bulbs is they’re RGBW, which suggests they've separate crimson, blue, inexperienced, and white LEDs (one thing our general best pick would not have). That means they produce a variety of colours and tunable white light that’s a lot nearer to an outdated incandescent bulb. The 92 CRI of these bulbs is definitely a bit increased than our best upgrade choose, which ranges between 80 and 91 depending on the coloration temperature.