Ikea boasts a surprisingly various collection of sensible lighting gadgets.
It is all too simple to gloss over Ikea’s sensible lights when exploring choices for a wise house system. Since they’re obtainable solely from Ikea, like most merchandise Ikea sells, you will not stumble throughout them on Amazon or at a neighborhood Greatest Purchase.
Regardless of the restricted shopping for selections, Ikea delivers a stable sensible lighting quartet: affordability, native management, wonderful remotes and tons of lighting choices. Even in case you do not go together with Ikea sensible lights, they need to be in your radar.
Ikea holds its personal in opposition to different funds sensible house manufacturers
The Ikea House Good app’s easy design makes it simple to make use of.
My sensible house philosophy has at all times been to purchase low-cost and dependable. There’s nearly no level in shopping for a $200 sensible gentle swap when you will get the identical fundamental options for lower than $30. The flamboyant software program tips of the pricier mannequin quantity to nothing when few folks use them.
Ikea’s sensible house choices meet these necessities at costs that might make Philips Hue blush, notably for remotes and sensors:
Ikea Good Lights vs. Philips Hue
| Distant management | Movement sensor | Contact sensor |
|---|---|---|
| Ikea Styrbar ($14) | Ikea Vallhorn ($9) | Ikea Parasoll ($12) |
| Philips Hue Faucet Change Mini ($50) | Philips Hue Movement Sensor ($45) | Philips Hue Safe ($40) |
I will not dig into the various sensible lighting merchandise from both model. However I’ll be aware that Ikea has an edge on pricing whereas Hue’s choice is bigger. The sensible hubs for Ikea ($70) and Philips Hue ($60) provide related options, however the worth distinction is not almost as pronounced. Ikea’s sensor costs even beat most funds manufacturers like Aqara, Sonoff and Thirdreality.
Ikea excels at native sensible house controls
The Ikea Dirigera sensible hub is a helpful — however non-obligatory — a part of an Ikea sensible lighting system.
Ikea’s secret ingredient is that almost all of its sensible lighting gadgets use the Zigbee sensible house protocol, which suggests they’ll run with no Wi-Fi connection. Zigbee additionally permits linking as much as 10 sensible lights to a single Ikea distant (or sensor) with no hub. It is good for freshmen since you possibly can at all times add a hub later for sensible house controls like scheduling, distant entry and automation.
Native management additionally extends to Ikea’s sensible hub, Dirigera. It plugs into your router and lets anybody registered with the Ikea House Good app in your Wi-Fi community entry the controls — even with out an web connection. It is also doable to arrange distant entry through the web, however that is par for the course on a wise hub.
Ikea’s wall distant is clear and easy, consistent with the model’s minimalist Scandi aesthetic.
Ikea’s Zigbee connections additionally assist lengthen battery life on remotes and sensors. In contrast to a relentless connection to Wi-Fi, Zigbee solely communicates with a hub when sending and receiving instructions. In different phrases, Zigbee gadgets basically sit on standby till wanted. They will not slowly drain a battery like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
Zigbee’s different benefit is wise house compatibility. This implies Ikea’s Zigbee gadgets work with most different sensible hubs that assist Zigbee: Amazon Echo, SmartThings, Philips Hue and so forth.
My favourite sensible house remotes
I’ve used Ikea remotes in my sensible house for years.
I exploit Ikea Tradfri remotes with my Samsung SmartThings sensible hub, which controls varied Zigbee and Wi-Fi gadgets. As a renter, I do not need to run afoul of my property supervisor by swapping out my hardwired gentle switches, so Ikea’s remotes are a perfect setup for my sensible house.
Ikea remotes management my Sengled sensible bulbs and Kasa sensible plugs with frequent scenes and instructions, so I haven’t got to seek out my cellphone or ask a voice assistant. Plus, remotes are an ideal choice to preserve company from inadvertently flipping off my gentle switches — schedules and scenes do not work when a wise bulb is off. I really like magnetic mounting plates, which I’ve strategically positioned over my gentle switches. (It is not essentially the most elegant answer, however no less than it is sensible.)
That stated, Ikea’s remotes aren’t good. The older Tradfri fashions in my sensible house have abysmal battery life as a consequence of utilizing a small coin-cell battery. Ikea appears to have discovered from this by switching to bigger AAA batteries in newer fashions just like the Rodret and Styrbar. AAAs are a superb improve since you will discover rechargeable variations and scale back e-waste.
The AAA batteries in Ikea’s newer remotes are a giant enchancment over coin-cell batteries.
Observe that my SmartThings hub would not assist the dimming characteristic on Ikea remotes, and the newer remotes required a little bit of behind-the-scenes work on the SmartThings discussion board to get working. If you would like a distant possibility with much less programming, I like to recommend utilizing the Dirigera hub.
Fortunately, the Dirigera hub helps Amazon Alexa, Apple House and Google House — you possibly can simply join to those sensible house setups. There’s additionally beta assist for Matter. I efficiently linked Dirigera to SmartThings through Matter — all of my related Ikea lights had been prepared to suit into the remainder of my system.
You’ll be able to hyperlink the Dirigera sensible hub to different Matter-compatible methods like SmartThings.
Tons of sensible lighting variants
As of this writing, Ikea sells over 150 sensible lighting choices on-line — most of those are sensible lighting kits with varied LED gentle bulbs, fixtures, remotes and equipment. Nonetheless, there is a stunning variety of sensible bulb choices for traditional (E26), candelabra (E12) and monitor lighting (GU10) fixtures. Equally, lots of Ikea’s bespoke lights, gentle panels and lighting strips can hook up with the Dirigera hub.
That stated, there aren’t as many choices for multicolor lights as Philips Hue and different rival manufacturers. Ikea sells loads of fashions with adjustable shade temperature, which is one characteristic I exploit repeatedly at house: smooth white tones for enjoyable and daylight tones whereas I am working.
Ikea’s sensible lighting choices embrace varied gentle strips just like the Silverglans.
Ikea sells just a few different forms of sensible house gadgets past sensible lighting, however the one factor that stands out is the collection of motorized blinds. The largest limitation with Ikea sensible shades is discovering the best dimension to your window, so it is tougher for me to suggest them.
All in all, it is value contemplating Ikea sensible lighting merchandise, particularly in case you’re on a funds. It is not an ideal answer, however it’s sensible sufficient for most individuals.
