Snap Lutron's smart dimmer dial over the light switch to lock it into the on position, preventing anyone from turning the switch off and cutting power to your smart bulbs.
LutronUpgrade your light bulbs to smart bulbs, and you'll be able to automate them, control them from your phone or turn them on and off and dim them up and down using voice commands. That's great! The problem? Literally none of that will work if the power is off at the light switch, and learning to leave the switch in the on position is completely unintuitive, especially for kids and houseguests.
It's one of the smart home's most enduring pain points -- but now, the light switch maestros at Lutron have an elegant, affordable solution that looks like a strong, early contender for smart home gadget of the year.
Read more: The complete guide to Philips Hue
Read also: The best cheap smart bulbs
Now available for preorder and set to ship out in June, the solution I speak of is called the Lutron Aurora, and it's a $40 smart dimmer dial that pairs with Philips Hue smart bulbs. What's particularly clever about it is that you don't wire it into your wall where the light switch once was -- instead, you just snap it in place on top of the switch itself, which locks it into the on position.
From there, just give it a tap to turn the bulbs on or off, or twist it to dim them up and down. Lutron claims you can install it in two minutes. That claim might actually be somewhat conservative -- Lutron gave me a top secret demonstration of the product back at CES in January, and during that demo, snapping the thing into place took about thirty seconds.
"Lutron is pleased to join the Philips Hue 'Friends of Hue' program and offer this unique, wall-mounted smart lighting control that enriches the Hue experience," said Matt Swatsky, Vice President, Residential Mid-Market Business at Lutron. "The Aurora dimmer simplifies the use of Philips Hue smart bulbs and fixtures for everyone in the home."
Go ahead and hit that switch, junior. Your Hue bulb's automations and voice controls will still work just fine.
LutronTranslation: Even your children and in-laws will know how to use this thing.
I like almost everything about Lutron's approach here. For starters, the Aurora doubles down on one of smart lighting's top points of appeal -- the smooth, flicker-free dimming -- by giving you a physical point of control over the Philips Hue dimming curve. In addition, the Aurora uses Zigbee to send its signals. That means you'll need the Hue Bridge plugged into your router in order for it to work -- but it also means that the Aurora will still work if your Wi-Fi ever goes down.
As for the batteries, the Aurora runs off of a single coin battery that Lutron says will last at least three years before needing to be replaced.
The Aurora isn't the first Friends of Hue accessory that simplifies smart bulb controls at the switch. Late last year, I tested out the Click smart switch from RunLessWire, previously known as the Illumra. That switch uses EnOcean energy harvesting technology to power itself with each button press, so you don't have to wire it in -- though you do need to remove the old switch, first.
That makes the Aurora the simpler of the two, because you won't have to shut things off at the breaker box to install it, though I'd note that the Click's four buttons can be used to trigger specific Hue scenes, as can the Philips Hue Tap, another energy-harvesting Hue remote that needs no batteries. Right now, the Aurora can't trigger scenes at all.
I'd also like the Aurora better if it cost a little less ($30 seems like the magic number to me), but $40 still feels like a fair ask for folks who want to rid themselves of a common smart lighting sticking point. We'll know more once we test it out for ourselves (stay tuned), but for now, it looks like Lutron dialed up a winner here.
CNET Smart Home
https://www.cnet.com/news/smart-lightings-biggest-headache-lutron-and-philips-hue-just-solved-it/
2019-05-20 13:00:04Z
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