How Much Does It Cost to Install Smart Lighting?
Traditional light bulbs function by turning a switch and off. They can be wired to the dimmer switch, which allows you to dim or enhance the lighting. However, this is not the only traditional home lighting function.
Smart lighting On the other hand offers you more control over the lights. The electricity in your home is still powering the lights, but every smart bulb, and fixtures with LEDs is controlled wirelessly using your smartphone or tablet.
We will look at the cost to set up smart lighting, so should you be unsure of the best place to begin when it comes to setting up smart lighting we’ll go over everything you should know about here!
Intelligent lighting is set up as an independent feature or as a part of the larger home that is integrated. The most important thing is that it’s installed in the place you require it.
These systems are crucial in open-plan living spaces like living rooms and kitchens, principal bedrooms, as well as areas outside, such as the garden or driveway.
The installation of smart lighting in these spaces is a great idea as you can carry out many different activities that require different lighting schemes, including cooking and relaxing or entertaining and all require different levels of brightness or ambient.
If you opt for a fully wired system, you’ll need to collaborate with an electrician to put in the wiring and fixtures in order to realise your ideas for lighting zones.
This is more prevalent for new construction homes that are constructed from the ground up and can be adapted to the wiring more easily.
If your budget doesn’t permit a complete house illumination, it might be worthwhile to add the cables if you plan to add it in the future.
How much, then, does the cost of smart lighting cost?
There are a variety of options available that it’s hard to determine an amount on the cost of a professional installation. A basic wired home network layout and installation could be priced at upwards of £3000.
A basic AV system as well as a multi-room audio solution is approximately the same. Practically speaking it’s not worth thinking about a smart lighting system for under £10,000.
Since smart lighting systems can be customised, putting a price on them isn’t easy. DIY solutions, like Philips Hue bulbs, can be as cheap as £100.
A complete house wiring solution On the other hand could cost anything from the range of £5,000 and £10,000 for installation. Before you get started it is important to know what your budget will permit you to spend.
The incorporation of smart lighting will allow you to prepare your house for the next. So if you’re contemplating spending an additional few thousand dollars on furniture or the cabling infrastructure, you could think it’s better to ditch those decorative pieces for a while or to build a more efficient home.
The amount of lighting you have within your home will determine the number of lights you can convert. Thus, switching 10 lights in your home may take £200 and more based on the kind of smart light employed and whether you require an automation hub for your home.
If you invest in LED lights that are smart and LED lights, you can earn cash back in savings. The majority of LED lights last 25 years and could reduce your energy bills by hundreds dollars over the lifetime of the light as compared to conventional lights.
The type of lighting you select can have a huge impact on the price associated with smart lighting. If you’re worried about the cost however you desire to reap the savings LEDs offer it may be beneficial to utilise a mix of smart LEDs in addition to regular LEDs.
Intelligent lighting can be something to look at as an investment and benefit from the features that can help make your investment easier for you. Enhancing your lighting is the first step in making your home smarter.
The greatest benefit of smart devices is that you could connect them with hubs when you own a device such as Alexa. This means that the lighting can be adjusted by a single click.
Smart Lighting Prices
The table below breaks down the cost of installing intelligent lighting:
| Lighting | Cost of Installing Smart Lighting |
| Basic home wired network design | £3,000 |
| Basic AV installation | £3,000 |
| Home-wide smart lighting | £10,000 |
| Smart bulb | £100 |
| A full house wired solution | £5,000 – £10,000 |
What are the Supply Costs for Smart Lighting?
Nothing gives us a more futuristic feeling than intelligent lighting. It’s amazing to be able to switch off your lights at the end of the day, without needing to leave the bed.
As you may have spotted, smart lights can be expensive, with prices that are much more than traditional bulbs for light bulbs.
This article will focus on the costs for supply of the smart lights in this article, but leave out the labor cost. Therefore, if you’re planning to set up smart lighting on your own You’ll learn what you’ll need to invest here.
The cost of smart lighting can be determined by range of variables that include:
- Company
- Smart indoor lighting/smart outdoor lighting application
- Wired vs wireless
- A hub is needed.
- Lamp vs light bulb
Smart bulbs are priced as low as PS7 or as high as £50 depending on the manufacturer. One bulb can cost you about £27.
The smart bulb can be operated with an app that you can download on your phone or even a smart home assistant in addition to the WIFI connections or Bluetooth.
But, if you’re trying to manage the lighting system at home with a group of people then you might require a hub. It is a device that is connected to the router, and can connect to the majority of the smart bulbs in your home.
One can cost you Between £20 as well as £90. Dimmers can be used in conjunction with your lighting system that is smart.
You can control the light of your lighting with the smart switch. Smart switches are priced at an additional £20 to £60. Standard switches, on other hand, perform just perfectly if you’re not worried about having your phone control your lighting.
Smart lights are typically priced approximately £42 per. There is however the possibility of a huge variation within the average that ranges from £2 to £3 to an LED bulb of the Cree 60W Bulb to £90 to £100 for the coveted Philips Hue Decorative Candle.
If you’re looking for a sophisticated home lighting system that is at a consumer level, the choices are a bit restricted. There are a few options. Philips Hue system is one of the more well-known options. It is similar to the standard suspects like Amazon Alexa, Google Home and the Apple Home kit.
Philips Hue is a lighting system that costs around £50. Philips Hue System costs £50 and the Hue lamps cost between £25 and up £50. Like all consumer devices, a hub that is exclusive to Philips Hue is needed to connect to wirelessly control individual lighting to your tablet or smartphone.
With its TRDFRI wireless lighting system, IKEA has neatly sidestepped the entire ‘smart’ lighting problem.
It does not require a smartphone or any other device to work, it’s just an elegant wireless remote which costs £15 and motion sensors that cost £15 for control.
The table below breaks down the costs for supply of intelligent lights:
| Supply | Cost |
| Smart bulb | £7 – £50 |
| Single, smart bulb | £27 |
| Smart hub | £20 – £90 |
| Smart switch | £20 – £60 |
| Smart lights | £42 |
| Cree 60W bulb | £2 – £3 |
| Philips Hue Decorative Candle | £90 – £100 |
| Philips Hue System | £50 |
| Hue lamps | £25 – £50 |
| Wireless remote | £15 |
| Motion sensor | £15 |
What are the Additional Costs of Installing Smart Lighting?
When you install smart lighting in your property, you could opt to have other tasks completed to your home or you may find additional costs appear.
In this article, we will discuss the additional costs associated with installing smart lighting and the expenses.
Hive Installation
Installing a smart thermostat like Hive is a fantastic option to cut down on energy bills as well as manage the way your home is heated. It could save you up to £120 annually in heating your home that is empty.
Hive is one of the products that falls under the category of smart heating. If you’re interested in using Hive the only thing you have been able to install is the new thermostat and use a smartphone to manage the system.
A smart heating system is a system of heating that is operated remotely, usually through the smartphone app. If you own an internet-connected smart thermostat you can manage your gas boiler at home using your phone.
The installation of a smart thermostat could be priced approximately £150 and £280 according to the manufacturer. It is also worth considering the daily wage of a builder which could be in between £150 or £250 each day contingent on the worker.
The typical hive thermostat will be about £250 to £300 however since companies offer an income margin when they purchase the Hive you should expect to pay £30 or £75 over the amount you’d pay when you bought the thermostat yourself.
Rewiring a House
The price of rewiring a home varies according to the type of house and the state of repair. To increase electrical security and efficiency, older houses may need to be completely replaced. But, if the house was built in the last few years the rewiring is not a necessity.
You’ll need to employ an electrician who is certified to carry out this job. They’ll take out the old wiring prior to rewiring the entire house.
This process could result in damage to floors or walls. This is needed to ensure that they have full access to your home in order to restore the wiring in a safe and secure manner.
A one-bedroom house could cost just £2000 up to £2500 to replace the wiring, whereas the cost for a house with two bedrooms can be more than £3,500 . Bigger houses are typically priced more.
Rewiring a semi-detached three-bedroom home is priced between £3000 or £4500 and rewiring a detached house with four bedrooms could cost as much as £5500.
Electricians usually cost between £125 to £150 per day, which means the total cost of labour will depend on the size of your house.
It means that wiring the wiring of a one-bedroom apartment will cost about £500 to £600 for an apartment with two bedrooms will cost from £625 or £750.
PAT Testing and Electrical Inspection Cost
The cost of electrical safety certificates is typically between £100 to £350.
A typical-sized home, be it an apartment or a house is expected to cost between £100 to 200. The majority of the PAT testing charges vary between £1 and £2 for each device being tested.
Certain service providers might cost less than £1 per piece. The majority of testers will require a minimum amount to ensure the trip is worth it.
If you just need just a few appliances to be examined, you’ll likely be charged a typical cost, in addition to the price of the appliances that are tested. EICRs are generated as a result of regular inspections that check the security of a house’s wires.
An EICR’s main goal is to safeguard residents from electrical shocks as well as fires. The cost of an EICR for homes of a typical size will vary between £100 up to £200.
The bigger the property the larger it is, the more expensive the inspection and report will cost. A school with a large size for instance, would require a budget of between £3,000 and a £5,000 electrical installation report.
Smart Home
Smart thermostats are often utilised in conjunction with the other home smart appliances. For instance, you could connect to a Hive intelligent thermostat with an Amazon Alexa device to manage the heating using your voice. These devices can also be used to manage TVs, lighting speakers, doorbells, and lights.
Smart appliances and thermostats are designed not just to make the lives of consumers more comfortable, but also to improve the efficiency of your home’s energy usage. If you don’t remember to turn off the lights as well as the television before you leave for work.
In this scenario, you could make use of your smartphone to switch off the lights as soon as you see them, keeping the use of electricity in the course of the day, since there is no one home.
Smart home appliances are priced starting at £10 for a voice plug up to £500 up to £600 for CCTV systems. At less than PS100 it is possible to outfit your house with a wide range of helpful features that regulate lights and other electronic gadgets.
Location
The cost for repairing chimney flashings is determined by your location within the United Kingdom. Because of the increased costs associated with business including business premises and insurance This service is more costly in London and the southeast.
While the northern part of England as well as the Midlands and a few rural regions in Wales and Scotland are less costly however, the cost to repair chimney flashings in major cities might be higher.
Get as many as four estimates from nearby chimney repair businesses to estimate the typical cost.
Minimum Charge
In certain instances, companies or labourers may require a minimum charge. It could become part of the total bill or added to the total amount. Should you be charged every day, it won’t be a big deal whether it was an entire day and four hours or a day with seven hours, as you’d be paid for two days’ worth of labour.
Duration
The higher the cost of labour and the longer it takes to fix chimney flashing. The longer your hiring period the higher you’ll have to pay and some homeowners need to hire repair technicians for several days, while others have to hire them for months or weeks.
Tradesmen Costs for a Smart Lighting Installation
For smart lighting to be installed within your home will require an electrician to visit your home and install it for you. We will review the various labour costs required for installing smart lighting, so you are aware of what you can expect when an electrician arrives at your home.
Electricians are able to charge either an upfront fee for a particular job as well as an hourly fee which covers the work they have to do in a given period of time. Many electricians prefer charging for specific tasks and an hourly fee for electricians is an accurate cost reference.
We found that the average hourly rate in the UK is about £40 per hour. However, it can differ based on the area you live in and which is the case with London as well as the south region being the most expensive.
Other elements, such as the tradesperson’s experience and whether they are working with apprentices or not are also an important role.
If the project is likely to take a whole day or more, an electrician might prefer charging a day cost of £200 and £250. The first hour can be more expensive than hours after that due to the fact that travel time and tax are taken into consideration.
Most of us have no notion of how much an electrician will charge for a particular job or what their rates are. Although every business and electrician has their own pricing list for different jobs It is an excellent idea to have an idea of what they charge and the method they use to make a price estimate for you.
This will aid you in determining what they’re charging for material, labour and other costs and if you’re overcharged. Be aware that you shouldn’t just base your decision on the price.
Electricians are highly skilled experts. The effects of a poor installation of electrical equipment can be fatal.
Electricians located in London expect to earn approximately £75 each hour. Electricians who work in South-West England are paid slightly higher than those working in the other regions in the UK.
There are a variety of reasons your electrician might charge more for the job, including distance. If the electrician has to travel beyond a certain distance and they are able to charge an additional fee to pay for the extra costs of travel.
If you’re not in an area that is remote or need to employ an electrician who is located far away and you don’t need to shell out for this.
Access issues within the building can prolong the duration on the jobsite and add to the cost of labour. For instance, electricians often require access to ceiling and floor gaps for specific jobs and, if they aren’t accessible, the cost increases.
In the event that the loft was boarded there is a possibility of rewiring issues upstairs. If the wall’s internal constructions are made of solid blocks they will require more time to lay new cables. A variety of issues can occur during different types of work.
The job’s size If the electrician is charging per hour, they could be able to provide the lowest price for bigger projects.
In the event of an emergency, if you require urgent work completed the electrician is likely to cost you an additional fee.
How Long Does It Take to Install Smart Lighting?
Many prefer to slowly build up your smart houses, and add additional items when their budget permits and their preferences evolve. Smart bulbs have an average life span that ranges from 15-25 years which is 15000-25000 hours, or whatever comes first.
In the end, they will be used for the entirety that you live. Since they’re made using LED technologies, they will last for long periods of time; however, they have a shorter life span over non-smart LED bulbs.
If that is the case Smart lights can be great options for your home. They let you observe the smart home technology at work and then decide if you want to buy other gadgets.
If you already have smart lighting fixtures, the lights are most likely to enhance the smart lighting. In this article we’ll discuss the time required to install smart lighting, and how many factors affect the duration of the installation.
The kind of smart lighting you choose to install has an effect on how it is installed. Smart bulbs that fit into light sockets just like normal bulbs, are available to buy and set up.
Smart switches however might be a better choice. They let you activate lights with the wall-mounted controls or via an app.
Smart bulbs are great for switching off or turning just one light without having to enter the space. They’re also among the most simple solutions to install because, in the majority of cases they require plugging them into the wall and then sync them to applications.
Shut off the power supply to the bulb and let it cool for a couple of minutes if it was working, particularly when it’s an incandescent bulb or halogen lamp that can get quite hot and can cause injuries in the event of contact.
The bulb should be rotated toward the left, until it is out of the fixture. Make sure to place it on an object that won’t let it roll off.
It’s time to insert the new ones into:
- Remove out the new intelligent bulb from its box.
- Insert the bulb’s base into the fixture and rotate counterclockwise till it snaps or starts to feel comfortable.
After you’ve set up the bulbs into their sockets The next steps to connecting smart bulbs are the same for all brands. Different brands employ different terminology and menus, however generally, the procedure will look like this:
- Install the app. Instructions for installing the correct application will be provided within the application package.
- Log into your account or establish an account after installing the application software.
- To add a new device in the app, simply click “add a new device.” The location for this will depend on the device you’re using.
- The light should be turned on. It will blink several times.
- To locate the smart bulbs, follow the app’s instructions or use your smart speaker to ask.
Installing a smart bulb can take about 10 minutes. Having smart lighting in your house will take about 1 hour since electricians must ensure that the lighting is secure and that everything is set up in a proper manner.
Types of Smart Lighting
There are a variety of bulbs for lighting on the market, and each smart lighting system could come with a different selection.
Due to the flexibility that smart lighting offers, it is able to manage lighting bulbs individually or groupings of lights or even the lighting in the entire structure.
It is possible to program lighting themes to ensure that while you’re watching a movie the lights in your room will dim, minus the backlighting of your TV.
The majority of intelligent light bulbs can be retrofitted to conventional light fixtures so you only must find the correct cap and then replace the existing light bulb with the appropriate one.
In this article, we will discuss the various types of smart lighting systems and the details involved, as well as the pros and cons to help you decide which smart lighting system is right for you!
Smart Light Bulb
On the most basic level the smart bulb can be connected to an existing socket and connected to your home’s Wi-Fi network. This feature lets homeowners control the bulbs individually using the smartphone app.
You can choose the number of LEDs with smart technology you wish to put in and what areas they’ll be the most beneficial in. Many smart light bulbs come with additional features like adjustable brightness, programmable scheduling and mood-based lighting patterns.
Pros
- Installation is easy and simple.
- Affordable
Cons
- Doesn’t appear as professional
Hub-Controlled Smart Lights
Hub-controller smart lights offer greater scope and serve as a complete smart lighting system. This kind of smart lighting system should be selected with care to make sure that it is compatible in conjunction with your smart hub you choose to use.
In homes that have a variety of smart devices, including smart lighting controlled by hubs can provide a range of possibilities. For instance, you could program your lighting system to alter colours based on the temperature of your home or even weather conditions outside.
Pros
- Control multiple applications
Cons
- Should be installed with care
- Larger
Smart Dimmer Light Switch
Smart dimmer lights that transmit wireless signals through your home Wi-Fi network or mesh network. It is an alternative to traditional dimmer fixtures built-in to your wall.
The switches control your lighting fixtures, fans for your ceiling or any other device connected to the switch. They can also alter the lighting’s brightness. A smart dimmer light switch works like a normal light switch, with the exception that it connects wirelessly through low-energy mesh networks like Zigbee or Z-Wave, or through your Wi-Fi network at home.
You can control the light switches by using an app that you can download on your phone, or with a voice command using Alexa and Google Assistant, or electronically directly on the switch itself.
Smart light switches require connecting each model to several fittings for lighting to ensure compatibility with various regular bulbs. Since there is no neutral wire in the UK the majority of smart switches operate as dimmers. To ensure that power is flowing to control smart devices Smart switches don’t switch off, they simply dim bulbs until the level that there is no illumination coming from them.
This is the idea, and testing different bulb types lets us test the theory Smart switches could encounter issues with certain LED GU10 bulbs, such as turning them off for hours or making them flicker.
The app control is tested once more to determine how fast the switch responds to instructions. We also test more advanced features, such as light scheduling.
Pros
- Works via WIFI
- Utilises energy efficient methods that use less
Cons
- Expensive
How Much Does It Cost to Remove Smart Lighting?
A variety of factors can affect the price of removing intelligent lighting.
- How many switches must be replaced? The majority of electricians charge at least half a full day’s work therefore replacing one light switch won’t be economical.
- The electrician you hire works in pairs: For security reasons, a lot of electricians are working in pairs. The typical daytime cost for an electrician ranges from £225 to £250. If you’re changing, adding or switching switches, or replacing an existing light switch with similar replacements will cost less than the installation of an entirely new switch.
The replacement of a light switch using an equivalent replacement is usually approximately £75. While the work can take just one hour, electricians typically charge at least half of a day’s work.
The replacement of five light switches similar to one another On the other hand it will cost about £100 and can take anywhere from two to three hours. As you can observe, switching out more light switches at a single time is more affordable.
FAQs
Q: How does smart lighting work?
A: Smart lighting replaces traditional light bulbs with smart light bulbs that screw into your home’s existing sockets. An internet-connected hub connects all of the bulbs, allowing you to control your home’s lighting from a single location.
Q: Are smart lights worth the money?
A: Smart bulbs not only save energy and money, but they also last longer. Incandescent or halogen bulbs have a lifespan of about a year, whereas LED lights have a lifespan of about ten years.
While they are more expensive up front, you will end up replacing them far less frequently than incandescent bulbs.
Q: Do smart lights work without WIFI?
A: Smart lights, such as Philips Hue, will still work without an internet connection, as long as you don’t try to control them while you’re away from home. Hue uses a hub as an intermediary, which improves things if your internet goes down.
Q: What can smart lighting do?
A: Smart lights allow you to control a bulb remotely using an app on your phone, a smart speaker, or even by speaking to it. You can programme when the lights turn on and off, change the colour of a bulb, and come up with your own creative uses.
Q: What is the difference between smart lights and LED lights?
A: The distinction between smart lights and regular lights is straightforward: smart lights can be controlled via a physical switch, an app on your phone (iOS and Android), or a smart speaker such as the Amazon Echo or Google Home.
