Link Up To Your LED Lighting WIth New Smart Systems

While we haven’t yet reached home automation in the proportions that the Jetsons enjoyed, new products come out regularly the offer more remote access and control over the different parts of your [city] business. “Smart” bulbs are not entirely new, and options for them have come from different parts of the technology sector for five or more years. These products emerged on the backs of developments in LED lighting options that have significantly reduced the cost of purchase and made them more accessible for business and consumer use.

The Known LED Difference

There’s no question that LEDs can reduce [city] energy bills while providing a more environmentally friendly alternative to incandescents and hard-to-recycle CFLs. They use about 25% of the wattage to get the same brightness as incandescents, and most of the newer options can last through up to 100,000 hours of use.

Value Added

For many lighting companies, however, cost and energy efficiency weren’t enough. Now, automation is the key to a successful lighting option. A collaboration between GE and relative newcomer Quirky, whose business is to focus on invention and innovation, has created a reasonably priced Smart LED option with literally endless possibilities. GE Link is a combination of hardware and software that brings together the necessity of lower cost lighting with the accessibility to control all of it remotely.

Improvements On Existing Options

Previous options for automated bulbs were interesting, but it would be hard to call them life changing. Systems that did things similar to GE Link, like Phillips Hue bulbs, have offered the ability to control your [city] lighting from anywhere in the world with Smart LED bulbs. The bulbs are less expensive to run, and the systems offer the ability to change the color of the bulbs as well as set them on schedules for use, brightness and more.

The problem with the now-older alternatives, however, was cost. A set of three Hue bulbs and the “base station” runs nearly $200 at [city] stores. Now, a similar option through GE link costs $80 for the hub and less than $15 for each bulb– and the prices are coming down regularly.

Flexibility In Lighting

Another inflexible element of older Smart systems is that they required use of the proprietary bulbs that were created by the manufacturer who also made the base station. GE Link, alternatively, offers open source software that other companies can use to program their own devices. They can then work seamlessly with the GE Link base station so that all of the lights in your [city] office or home can work together.

Mobile Control

GE Link is controlled through a smart phone or tablet app, and it allows plenty of customization to your life and lifestyle. The hub connects to your WiFi, and each of the bulbs talks to the hub through the network that it creates. Through the program, the lights can be set to automatically turn on and off at certain times. Unlike previous systems, GE Link allows you to control an entire office or home with one setting, or bunch bulbs by room or cluster to control areas with different rules and automations.

Safety In Networking

Better yet, the system is encrypted, so it can’t be hacked in to to allow someone else to control your lighting. GE Link is available in three different bulb sizes to replace most smaller lighting options that are typical for [city] fixtures.

Link To The Future

By using incredibly energy efficient bulbs that are still able to replicate the brightness of incandescents, GE Link makes some major improvements on previous smart systems that reduce long term costs as well as the expenditure at the time of purchase. The bulbs are about a quarter of the price of similar alternatives that are on the market now, and new options will be coming out regularly from other companies that can interface with the hub. The options are basically endless with GE Link, and LED enthusiasts from throughout [city] have plenty of innovation coming their way.