SMART LIGHTING

Nothing makes a home feel smart like lighting. Automated and customizable illumination makes a massive difference to the comfort of your entire living space and can, to coin a TV cliché, really bring a room together. Lest you think this is just idle bluster to begin an article about smart lighting… Well… No, hang on, there’s actual science involved. A 2014 article published in the Journal of Building Engineering suggests that automating lighting — and specifically tying lighting, shade, and air conditioning systems together with shared data — “outperforms all other strategies in energy and visual comfort performance”. If you can do it, you should.

Looking up is an obvious first step. There are smart options available for all kinds of ceiling fixtures — whether you’re running a bayonet fitting, a screw fitting, or the GU10 configuration more common in flush–fit settings. Some of these are tremendously cheap, though don’t let