I've been using various smart lights for ages.
If you haven't given them a go yet, I really recommend it.
They've come down in price quite dramatically in the last few years and depending on your room, a set of smart lights could work out much cheaper than installing a dimmer switch.
But those aren't the kind of lights I'm talking about today. Not when the holiday season is upon us...
WiZ has a wide range of smart lighting for most situations but it seems like a good time of year to focus on the Smart Outdoor String Light and Smart Fairy Light.
In many ways, these will seem familiar. I'm sure most of us have dealt with fairy lights before and in this case you get 20 metres of them. Meanwhile, the String Light is a 14.8 metre length of twelve "festoon-like" bulbs, a style that seems to be all the rage right now.
The String Light is specifically designed for outdoor use, with the lights carrying an IP65 rating for weather resistance and the power adapter rated at IP44.
On the other hand, while the box for the WiZ Fairy Light set has a big pink "Indoor and Outdoor" sticker on it, they seem to only be rated IP20. Both power adapters have warning labels attached declaring they should be plugged into an indoor socket, even if you're using the lights outside. That'd be fine, except there's only a few metres of cable between the power plug and the first light on either set - not really enough to run inside through a window and still get them positioned anywhere near where you need them.
I think I'll risk it and use my outdoor power socket on the back deck instead.
Both sets of lights are rated for about 15 years use. The String Light seems particularly robust, with a solid moulding above each light complete with convenient hole for hanging on a hook or nail.
As for the Fairy Light set - 20 metres is fairly generous and I was able to trim pretty much my whole deck with those.
But these aren't just any decorative lights, of course. Being smart lights, they need to be set up with the very well set-out WiZ V2 app. Pairing is a doddle, you just turn the lights on, the app recognises them and guides you through the rest of the setup process, which simply involves inputting your Wi-Fi password, naming your lights and designating the room or area in which you've installed them.
At this point you can now use the app to control the lights and that means so much more than just turning them on and off. Obviously you have all the colours in the world to choose from, at any level of brightness. But there's a host of preset static and dynamic themes too - everything from Candlelight and Sunset to Christmas and Diwali.
The controller (down by the power adapter) has a single button which can be programmed to activate two different themes of your choice, based on a single or double click.
Alternatively, you can schedule the lights to turn on and off automatically at specified times, displaying whatever theme, colour, brightness or pattern you like.
Just to prove how smart these lights are, you can also set them to respond to your circadian rhythms (based on when you get up and go to sleep). Admittedly, this probably isn't that relevant to these particular lights, unless you have them set up in your bedroom - which I guess is more likely with the Fairy Light set.
Smarter still - and this kind of blows my mind - both these WiZ lights are SpaceSense enabled. This means they literally use Wi-Fi waves to act as motion sensors. You do need two separate WiZ lights installed in the same space to use this feature but then it can turn on the lights and send you a notification if you wish. You can even adjust the sensitivity so only people set it off - not pets.
And then, even smarter again, both the Fairy Light and String Light are compatible with just about every smart home system known to humankind; Google Home, Amazon Alexa, SmartThings, IFTTT, Apple HomeKit - in fact, because they are Matter enabled, there aren't many IoT hubs that won't control them. This means I can use voice commands with any smart speaker, phone or even my watch and my new party lights on the back deck will respond accordingly... even if I'm not home.
Best of all, you can set both strings of lights to the exact same, matching theme. I love the way they can transform from bright, gaudy party lights one minute, to a cosy, flickering flame-like effect the next.
If you're considering updating or adding to your Christmas light collection this year, I'd definitely consider smartening up your nightscape with either or both of these options. At around NZ$180 each, they may be a little more expensive than your standard set of lights but they're very durable, super easy to set up and they're pretty much guaranteed to be compatible with any existing smart home.
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