Smart Light Bulbs seem like the obvious choice. They are easy to install in just minutes. The are inexpensive, and options are plentiful. In addition to that, they come with eye-catching features like the ability to change colors and smartphone app connectivity.

So what’s not to love? Why bother looking any further? Well, once you start looking at smart light bulbs, their utility begins to fall apart. First of all, they rely on constant power from the light-switch. This means that if you instinctively turn off the light at the switch, your smart-light is useless until you turn that switch on again. That means any pre-programmed schedule or features that you have set on the bulb are useless. In addition to that, often when they lose power, they forget your network settings and need to be set up again.

Smart Bulbs also represent a load on your home network and router. They each need an individual connection to your router, clogging your home network with unnecessary load. They also have very weak security, meaning that they can easily be used to gain access to your home network.

Smart bulbs are also relatively expensive. To give functionality to an entire house would be expensive and cumbersome to manage.