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Smart Homes for a Smarter Season

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

The days are getting darker and our lights are staying on longer. So if you have been considering making the move to energy saving LED Smart lights, now is the season to start saving electricity and saving money. This post is sponsored by Best Buy.

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Are you getting smarter? We are. Well, okay our IQ’s haven’t been rising. But we have been making our houses smarter.

For the past year, one of the ways we have been trying to become more energy efficient is to change out all of our lightbulbs in our homes for more energy efficient LED lights.

So when Best Buy asked us to write a post about Smart Homes and choose a couple items from their variety of Smart Home Products, we jumped at the chance.

Best Buy has all kinds of options for smarter homes — from smart thermostats, like the Nest Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat 3rd Generation to smart, self-adjusting lights, like the Philips Hue A19 Smart LED Light Bulb Starter Kit, to smart smoke alarms, like the Nest Protect Wi-Fi Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm.

It was hard to narrow down our wish list. But in the end, we chose to review some LED lights that aren’t just smart, they are super fun too! Because really, why not have FUN while making a more energy efficient home?!?

Philips Hue A19 Smart LED Light Bulb Starter Kit

There are light bulbs — and then there are smart light bulbs!

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Yes, these Philips Hue smart light bulbs are seriously exciting. Not only do you get the cost savings of an LED lightbulb, but you can control and program your lights from your smart phone.

Through the Hue app, you can change the color of the lights to encourage specific moods, such as energize, concentrate, or relax.

You can also program your Hue lights to works as alarms and timers, set up times when you are home and away, and even set up your own personalized routines.

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The Philips Hue A19 Smart LED Light Bulb Starter Kit works with HomeKit and Nest and retails for $179.99 at Best Buy.ca.

Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED Light Panel – 9 Pack

The future of lighting is here — and it is so fabulous.

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The Nanoleaf Aurora smart LED light panels are incredible. With these innovative triangular light panels, you can design a wall that is truly your own.

With the Nanoleaf app, you can literally choose from millions of colours to create custom colour patterns and scenes. You can choose how to animate the lights, change the speed of the transitions, and adjust the brightness.

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Nanoleaf Aurora takes lighting to a completely new place. It is interactive wall art that is as fun as it is functional.

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Aurora works with HomeKit and the app is available on Google Play and in the App Store. The Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED Light Panel – 9 Pack retails for $249.99 is available at Best Buy.ca.

We are so excited about the Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED Light Panels that we decided to make a video review to show you more about it…

As the weather gets colder and your heating and electricity bills get higher, head over to Best Buy to check out their huge variety of Smart Home products. You will be thrilled to discover how even small changes in your house can make big differences in your bills.

Giveaway

Best Buy is providing a $100 gift card for one of our Canadian readers. If you live in Canada and you’d like to win, please leave us a comment letting us know if you’ve ever tried any type of smart LED lights and/or which type you’d like to try. Then complete your entry using the form below.

 

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Written and photographed by Janice Croze, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom.

Talk with us: @5minutesformom and Facebook.com/5minutesformom
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218 Comments

  2. Yes I have LED lighting under our kitchen cabinets and LOVE them !!! The lighting is perfect for prepping. Thank you and Happy Holidays 🙂

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  3. The only type of LED lights I’ve tried are the ones from a flash light, we’ve never had any LED light bulbs before, but I would love them for sure!

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  4. I love the Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED lights. Im just learning how to use neon tubes in wall art installations…the shape and ability to be creative with these Nanoleaf Aurora panels … really cool! 🙂

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  6. We have not yet tried smart LED lights but something definitely worth considering as we renovate our new to us home. I love the Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED Light Panel – 9 Pack it looks like a neat way to customize the lighting in your home.

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  9. I have never tried or seen any smart lighting systems, but I really like the flat panel Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED Light Panel set. They remind me of the lighting panels the I used to see in sci-fi shows and movies when I was a kid in the 60’s and 70’s. They would be really cool to have, especially to setup around my computer or anywhere in the house actually.

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  15. I’ve gotten the ones at Ikea that are better than regular bulbs – but nothing as amazing as these. The Phillips kit looks *amazing* would be great for parties, an movie nights. Turn the lights up slooowly instead of a jarring light flip. So cool!

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  24. i haven’t personally tried any smart lights but i know someone who swears by them. i’m open to trying anything. i like how bright leds are, and that they conserve energy.

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  30. i haven’t ever tried smart led lights before. i would love to give them a try though. i really want to stop destroying the planet.

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  32. We have the hue lights in our home and I really love how you can control the colours. I my cark family room, we can put the hue light to look like daylight. I’d love to try the Aurora lights. Great for a teenagers room or bar area.

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  33. We love LED lights and are trying to replace all of the bulbs in our house. I am not sure what brand the ones we have are but they are long lasting and use less energy.

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  37. I’ve never tried any Smart Led lights before but I’d love to. I’d the kind that can turn on when I’m driving into the driveaway or getting to the front door.

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  39. I am SOOOOO sorry! I just realized this is a Canada only contest. I am in the US. Please disregard my entries. I’m sorry again!

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  40. I actually have not tried any, but I would like to try that Nanoleaf Smart panel! That looks pretty cool. God bless and Happy Holidays everyone!

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  47. I have gradually over the last 3 months have been replacing all th bulbs in my new home with LED lighting. Have a wonderful Holiday!!

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  50. We slowly started replacing LED lights around the home but would love to try the Philips Hue A19 Smart LED Light Bulb Starter Kit

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  55. I do not currently have but would love to try the Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED Light Panel which has 9 panels and this would be perfect for down the hall lighting.

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  60. I have never tried any smart led lights before but would like to try them – not sure which one to start with

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  74. I’ve never heard of them before but how cool! I would love to try the Philips Hue A19 Smart LED Light Bulb Starter Kit. Thanks!

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  76. I’ve never used smart lighting but I would love to try the Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED Light Panel – 9 Pack

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  101. I haven’t tried any yet, but the The Nanoleaf Aurora smart LED light panels look beautiful. I would love to have them on my living room wall!

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  113. I haven’t used any smart lights yet but the Philips Hue smart light bulbs look great and the Nanoleaf Aurora would be awesome for my daughters room!

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  118. Thanks for the video! The Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED Light Panels look so fun! I’d totally love to try those first. I haven’t tried smart lighting yet – so this would be a great chance. 🙂

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  127. i have not tried a smart bulb yet… i do want to try the Philips Hue smart light bulbs .. u can control it off your phone and even change the color of the light

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  135. We recently replaced all of our light bulbs with LED. Not the smart ones though. Now I wish we had those- so convenient! So that’s what I’d like to try. control my lights with my phone! Genius!!

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  140. I’ve only had LED flashlights. I’d like to try just normal LED bulbs for lamps. I don’t have a smartphone so wouldn’t need any of the fancy stuff.

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  143. We have been working our way to LEDs as they go at our house. Makes a difference and they last longer, but I have not tried the new smart ones- those panel lights look amazing!

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  152. I have not tried them but would love to try the Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED Light Panel. Thanks for the chance.

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  153. I have not tried LED yet, but the smart LED would be great for when I always forget to leave a light on when I go out!

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  154. I have not had any of these types of prodtc but I am very interested in the Philips Hue smart light bulbs.

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  156. We’ve talked about upgrading our bulbs to smart bulbs but just haven’t had the extra money to do so. Winning this sure would help us with the initial cost. Thanks for the chance to win!

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  166. I have never tried smart LED lights but the Nanoleaf Aurora Smart LED lights are pretty cool! They’re like an art installation.

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  175. We changed over most of our bulbs to LED lights last year and have noticed a savings on our electricity bill! We’ve never tried any Smart LED lights though – would love to though, especially to set lights to be on when it gets dark before we get home in the short winter days! The Philips Hue smart light bulbs would be a great fit for our family!

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  178. We have one smart LED light in our house and it is awesome! We would like more that we can control from our phones for energy efficiency, also would like to know some brands to try!

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  180. I would love to try these lights. We just converted to LED lights in the house.. I would love to take it up a notch and see what all the fuss is about.

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  182. We are slowly transitioning to more efficient lighting products. We don’t have any smart products but the Nanoleaf Aurora sounds likes so much fun and a $$ saver so I’m in!

    Besos Sarah
    Journeys of The Zoo

    Reply

  195. No I have not tried LED lights but the Philips Hue A19 Smart LED Light Bulb Starter Kit looks like a good place to start

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  198. I didn’t realize there were Smart lightbulbs but I would love to explore the Philips Hue A19 Smart LED Light Bulb Starter Kit

    Reply

  203. I have never tried them but would love to, and since I don’t know much about them I’m not sure which would be best!

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  212. My husband is obsessed with these, we are transitioning all the lights to the smart bulbs and other techy thing that I don’t quiet understand. It’s pretty cool though.

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  213. I have heard so much about the Philips Hue A19 Smart LED Light Bulb Starter Kit, and I’m very excited for it! How cool it would be to have the option to change the bulb to any color depending on the mood you’re in! This would also be perfect for those with autism/sensory issues.

    Reply