Smart light of my life
IKEA has revolutionised easy home design, furniture names and meatballs - and they’ve now turned their eyes to tech-friendly lighting. Earlier in April, they launched TRÅDFRI smart lighting as part of their Home Smart range and the Swedish home retailer has just announced an exciting new feature. You’ll now be able to control your mood lighting with your voice.
With the IKEA smart lights, you can already swap from warm to cool lighting, dim, set timers and even isolate and control separate bulbs for customisable lighting patterns. They were already pretty high tech as users could use motion sensors, remote controls and apps to control the energy-saving bulbs. However, IKEA has stepped things up with an early summer update which allows users with voice assistants Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple HomeKit to manipulate TRÅDFRI products with just their voice.
TRÅDFRI is one of the more reasonably priced smart lighting options on the market with a kit putting buyers back at £29, compared to the Philips Hue’s white lighting starter kit at £59 and the Hive Hub at £136.98. However unlike these competitive ranges, IKEA has yet to offer coloured lighting (though we’re sure they’re not far behind).
Helen Akinsete, the Lighting Sales Leader across IKEA UK and Ireland, said, ‘With IKEA Home Smart we aim to improve everyday life at home by making it more convenient and comfortable. IKEA Home Smart is not about making gadgets. It’s about adding functionality to our entire product range by integrating technology into our home furnishing offer.’
‘Through targeting everyday frustrations, we combine our life at home knowledge with technology to make life more convenient and comfortable, saving time, space and frustration.’
