13 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR HOME SMARTER

A Beginners Guide

It’s no secret that smart technology has become increasingly popular in the UK, now over 57% of homes in the UK contain at least one smart device. There are currently hundreds of brands and suppliers of smart technology, making shopping for the right product challenging. A lot of smart technology can be poorly designed, challenging to install and frustrating to use. Although, not all smart tech is the same and one of the pioneers of smart lighting is OCTO WiZ.

OCTO products offer built in features that compete with premium products like Phillips Hue for a fraction of the price. Despite the low cost, there’s no compromise on quality which we’ve found through rigorous testing conducted ourselves and with the help of our electricians on a range of projects.

While we can recommend OCTO highly, the problem most users face is not realising what can be achieved with smart products in their homes. That’s why we’ve created this guide; 13 Genius ways to use Smart Technology in your home.

Before we Start

As always we like to explain the key features of the products to give you a better understanding of how it all works. If you’re familiar with smart technology feel free to skip ahead.

Smart Pairing

All OCTO products come with smart pairing built in. This allows you to pair multiple bulbs at once and there’s no need for turning switches on and off to enter pairing mode. The beauty of this is you can upgrade all the bulbs in one room at once then pair them together. This makes pairing downlight in bathrooms and kitchens a lot easier.

WiZ

The WiZ technology OCTO bulbs employ is one of the best platforms to control your smart home. While most other brands require a bridge or secondary device to connect your bulbs WiZ works directly with your internet router. This means all WiZ products work together with Amazon Alexa and Google Home straight out the box.

Colour Changing Technology (CCT) / Tuneable White

This simply means the white light output of the bulb can be changed along the Kelvin scale anywhere from 2000k Warm White to 6000k Daylight. This allows for unique lighting in every room which can be changed depending on the desired mood or season.

RGB

Red, Green and Blue are the colours combined to create the different colour presets of the bulb. Using your smartphone or virtual assistant you can create colours an RGB wheel with over a million combinations.

20 of the Best Ways to use Smart Devices in your home...

1. Wake up Naturally

One of the great features of OCTO bulbs are the routines you can create. Using the app you can set your lights to power on or off at certain times, which can be combined with your smart speaker morning alarms. While this feature is useful on its own, OCTO takes it one step further with the light presets you can set in your routines. One of the most popular is the Circadian rhythm routine. This setting mimics the instinctual rhythms our body follows based on the environment around us. Meaning you can set your lights to follow the natural light cycle, allowing you to wake up feeling fresher, as your body is eased into the day naturally. If you’ve ever been woken by a sunrise you’ll understandably want to replicate the idilic feeling in your own home through these routines.

2. Sleep Easier

Similar to the routines you can set for waking up, there’s a range of presets for people who struggle to sleep. Using the Circadian Rhythm we just discussed in your home also help your body wind down and ready yourself for sleep. This combined with the deep ocean and other dynamic light settings, create a calm relaxing environment to help you sleep. This can also be used with your smart speaker playing calming sounds to create a truly immersive sleep environment.

3. Mood Lighting

Smart bulbs can be used to create brilliant dynamic mood lighting in every room of your home. The bulbs can be used in table, wall, ceiling and floor lamps with a choice of any light temperature between 2000-6000k or upto 1 million RGB colour combinations. As the lamps can be controlled as a group or individually your lighting choices are vast.

4. Measure Your energy consumption

All OCTO bulbs are low wattage and energy saving. But they also measure just how much energy your lighting is consuming. This can be used to decide which devices are best to establish routines for, to save money on your energy bills. It also gives you a better understanding of how much energy you’re actually using.

5. Plant Growth

One of the more interesting presets OCTO lamps offer is ‘Plant growth’. This setting creates a dynamic light proven to help with plant growth, which can be used overnight or while you are out of the house, using the routines previously mentioned. This will allow your house plants to thrive effortlessly without running up your energy bill.

6. Vacation Mode

Vacation routines can be established for when you are on Holiday. These routines simulate your usual daily lighting activities to create the illusion that you are still at home and deter intruders. Its also great for pets that may be at home, while you are at work or away, preventing them from being left in darkness. As the bulbs are such a low wattage you can also live with the peace of mind that leaving the lights on won’t consume too much energy.

7. Colour Changing gardens

As OCTO products have a 30m range they can be used in your garden or outside living spaces. Simply change your existing bulbs to change the colour and feel of the outside of your home or garden. This feature is great for highlighting your favourite aspects of your garden with dynamic lighting.

9. Control your garden and outside lights

By plugging your festoon lighting, fairy lights or even soffit lighting into a smart socket you can control when the lights are on or off through your phone or smart speaker. You can even set routines and timers so the lights only come on when they’re needed. This works great with other garden devices like fountains.

10. Work Schedules

One of the added benefits of having the ability to schedule and program smart lighting is having your lights work around you. You can program your lighting to turn on as you begin to get ready for the day ahead and turn off after you leave to save energy. Similiary they can be programmed to greet you when you return from work.

11. Smart Assistants

The only thing easier than controlling your home through your phone is through your voice using a smart speaker. To pair the OCTO lamps to Google Home or Amazon Alexa all you have to do is sign into your account on the WiZ connected app and link your account. Then you can ask Alexa or Google Home to change the colour of any room, turn lights on and off and set routines.

12 Smart heating

Smart plugs are also great for controlling your heating. You can use them with modern electric heaters or even with your boiler to set timers and schedules. Meaning you can set your heating to come on as your return from work or any outing, without having to rely on fairly rigid traditional timer programming. You can even control the devices while you are out giving you complete control.

13 Scenes

Once you’ve finally set the mood in your house, with different lighting brightness and colours carefully considered, you can save a copy of the room through your phone. Using the wiz app you can scan your room and it will recognise each device and their settings. This can then be used as a template for other rooms.

We hope this article has given you some ideas or inspiration about how to make your home smarter. If you're interested in the OCTO range check out the products below.

Greens Group

Greens Group

Greens Group