When I did the home renovation at the time, I opted to use LED recessed ceiling lights instead of traditional lamps. A matter of taste, comfort and also of price, that everything has to be said. An advantage that, however, has prevented me from adapting the lighting with connected LED bulbs like the ones that can be used in lamps.
A limitation that may come to an end if in the end the LED light system that I am installing works at home and whose wireless connection with the telephone will allow me to achieve different atmospheres in the living room without having to get up from the sofa. This has been the installation process and this is the result obtained.
Installing what is gerund
To install the new LED luminaires the process has not been complicated. I have started by testing the performance with three units in an area of the living room with which you can create an ambient light when watching a series or a movie for example and If the result is optimal, I will consider making the leap to other areas of the house.
Hassle-free installationGiven the type of anchoring used by these lights, I only had to remove the clip-on ring on the ceiling, in my case pladul, to proceed with the change.
Once I have removed the ring, the next step has been to disconnect the LED light, for which and given its hooking system just make half a turn so that we leave the lamp holder free.
Because only the thickness of the LED light varies in height, there is no need to carry out any added process, rather than changing it in the clamping ring and re-anchoring it in the ceiling using the two hooks with springs on each side.
Once installed, I have downloaded the Laes Smart app from my mobile or tablet, an app available for both iOS and Android, and I have paired each of the three luminaires installed in a process that has not presented any problem, since the app immediately detects the connected lights.
I would have preferred that they make use of Wi-Fi to be able to integrate them with an app or skill in Google Home, Alexa or Apple’s HomeKit, but in this case I depend only on the Bluetooth connection and the extent of it was one of my fears.
Pairing
Once we have placed the light or lights that we are going to use, we just have to turn them on with the wall switch and have Bluetooth and the data connection on the mobile activated. We enter the LAES Smart application and we will see how they appear all bulbs or LED lights that are currently live.
Once inside the app we can regulate the intensity of the light, the warmth of the lighting offered by the bulb, opt for RGB colors or even, and this is what has surprised me, achieve a disco effect so that the lights change depending on the music recorded by the microphones of our device, whether mobile or tablet.
Testing the LED recessed lighting system … pic.twitter.com/IpOJB7JAHx
– jotaaceuve (@josetxu_granada) October 22, 2019
We can even play with the lights and that act both jointly, as a block, and independently as well as establishing schedules to turn on or off at a certain time.
The operation with blocks (we can establish lighting sets), it allows that with a single touch you can synchronize the lighting in all the lights without having to repeat step by step.
The control is total and my fear, the range of the Bluetooth connection with the mobile as a remote control was the only doubt that I harbored. In the end I did the test and loosely could control the lighting from an adjoining room.
Light intensity
Not only can we play with colors, but you can also achieve a greater or lesser degree of warmth in the light, something that with the model I had before, it was impossible.
In this way and in the same luminaire we find different options. With a warm light that is one that due to its color temperature makes it offer tones close to yellow or orange while the cold one is the one that has a tone close to blue. Light sources in the middle of both are considered neutral.
In my case I have opted for a light with a scale that is close to 3,000K (3856K to be exact), which seeks to achieve a more welcoming atmosphere, a light that also combines very well with light-colored furniture. These are the three scales that we can handle in terms of luminosity:
- Warm light: (Between 2800K and 3500K). It is equivalent to the light produced by incandescent bulbs and halogen bulbs. The most used for rooms such as the living room and bedrooms.
- Neutral light: (Between 3800K and 4500K). It is considered as the most natural light.
- Cold light: (More than 5000K). It is equivalent to the light of a very sunny or cloudy day. It is the most used in kitchens and bathrooms although they are losing ground in the latter in favor of warmer ones that offer a better color range.
The set of three bulbs that I have used is signed by LAES and I have replaced the previous ones, of the Osram brand. The price of the three LED luminaires has been 62 euros.
In short I have to admit that the purchase has been more than satisfactory considering the fears with which it came. The range of the Bluetooth connection was the main question, but also if it would achieve good luminosity in neutral or warm tones, something that in this case these bulbs fulfill perfectly. Of course, as I said before, I would have preferred a Wi-Fi connection or integration with a platform such as Alexa, Google or HomeKit to be able to interact with the lighting from a distance.