When lighting up your home, we recommend you start with the main lights - overhead lights in high-traffic areas, patio lights, and places where hands-free could be a benefit like hard to reach lamps or where your hands might be busy (kitchen). While it might be really cool to have a light strip light up your bookcase or entertainment center, the real magic comes from combining your lights into an ecosystem where, along with other sensors and scenes, the house can transform in a bigger way.

One of the major considerations is between switches and bulbs, as both can be smartified. If you're replacing in-wall switches, make sure that the wiring is compatible with the switches you select. We generally recommend that switches that can control entire sections of recessed bulbs, fixtures, etc. are the best way to get started. This upgrade doesn't require any change of behavior by the other residents or guests of your home. If you install bulbs, power must always be on for them to respond, and if someone switches off the power, suddenly the automation, and the magic disappears.

Switches don't provide the cooler features like changing temperature based on the time of the day, faking a sunrise, or creating a disco of multi-colored party lights. We generally recommend using bulbs in lamps or any area not controlled by a switch. We do not recommend using smart switches for lamps, as the bulbs can be just as expensive and generally have a better responsiveness.

Make sure to take a look at other products in the ecosystem you choose, such as blinds, fans, or accent lighting. The fewer apps and integrations in an ecosystem, generally the more stable the system.