What Are The Best Smart Outdoor Lights?

Recently I needed to replace the outdoor wall lantern on our house in doing so I found out about some really great smart outdoor lights.

Here is a short list of the best outdoor smart lighting options that are fairly easy to implement.

• Smart Flood Lights
• Smart Wall Lanterns and Fixtures
• Smart Path Lighting
• Smart Spot Lights

In doing this little project I found out that there were other options for outdoor smart lighting as well. So if you are looking for the best smart outdoor lights, then you are in the right place.

Surprisingly there were a lot more options that I had originally thought about. Indeed, I needed to replace my lantern. But there were some really neat ideas that I found along the way and I thought I would share them with my readers.

There really are a plethora of new smart outdoor lighting options that are showing up this year and they are impressive.

So let’s take a minute and go through some different options that you have for outdoor smart lights.

Smart Light Switches

Smart Light Switches are more of a staple for the smart homeowner nowadays. You will find that instead of replacing all of your existing LED bulbs with smart light bulbs, you can save time and money by just replacing the light switches with smart switches. Which in turn will make your existing light bulbs smart.

I have a maddening fetish for helping people do this with their own existing system. I think the primary reason is that it is so simple to do that anyone can do it.

Personally, I prefer to replace old light switches with the new TP-Link smart wi-wif light switches. They are easy to install, very reliable and work with Alexa and don’t require a hub to use. If you are wondering if you need a smart home hub, then you should check out that article while you are here.

I don’t think I’ll install anything else anymore because these have proven themselves tried and true. Typically you can find them over on Amazon for a pretty good price. Here’s the link if you want to check them out and their other user reviews.

However, if you require a dimmer switch, then you are probably better off going with the Kasa Smart Light Switch by TP-Link.

Smart Flood Lights

A smart outdoor flood light casts a narrow beam of light, usually no wider than 45 degrees. These are perfect if you are interested in keeping light directed on a wider area.

For example, if you have a large backyard or front yard. Or if you are trying to be able to cover the front driveway. Ring makes probably the best option right now in this arena.

The Ring smart floodlight cam comes in both white and black and isn’t just a floodlight. It’s a smart floodlight with a doorbell camera built right in.

It features a 1080HD wide-angle security camera with a built-in microphone and speakers. Two three thousand kelvin floodlights (yes, that’s more than sufficient). You can set up customizable motion zones and it has automatically activated alerts that you can get right on your smartphone.

The camera works great at night and is sensitive enough to pick up things going on from around 40 ft away, sometimes more depending on the conditions that the camera is set up in.

You will also want to make sure that you have wifi in your house as these will not work without it. You’ll probably want to make sure you lock down your smart home network as well. Because the last thing you want is the lights coming on when you didn’t want them to.

These devices give the owner peace of mind if you are a person who travels a lot or if you have to leave your wife and kids at home. I get notices whenever a dog walks by, even when I’m not at home, so keep that in mind if you are a pet owner.

All in all, this is highly recommended for outdoor lighting security. You can check out the price and reviews over on Amazon if you like and make your decision as to whether this is the right solution for you.

Smart Porch Lights

Now we get to the item I set out to buy in the first place. A smart wall lantern. Well in the process of purchasing this item I happened to find out about another neat item that Philips Hue released earlier this year.

The Philips Hue Inara

Now if you are a Philips Hue fan like I am, then this is a perfect fit for you. Mostly due to the fact that it requires you to have a Philips Hue Hub in order for this to work.

Its compatibility is great, as it is compatible with Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home Kit. Also, yes, it does work with both your existing Samsung SmartThings and Nest systems.

It comes with the Philips Hue White bulb, which will gladly welcome you home as you pull in the driveway. If you set it up with its geofencing capabilities.

One thing that I really liked is that you can add on other Philips Hue Outdoor lights as long as they are within 60 feet of this little lantern. Very handy indeed for those of us that are addicted to Philips Hue.

I like the Philips Hue Inara a lot and it was a great fit for my house. You can typically find it on Amazon for a pretty good price. If you’d like to check it out, here is a link.

I had also been thinking about getting something like this for my mom’s house as well as she is getting older. The trick is, she doesn’t have, nor need an entire Philips Hue lighting system for her house.

So I found another option that is highly rated and very well liked across the smart home community.

Kuna Smart Home Security Outdoor Light

Just to give you a little bit of an idea why this gets such good reviews and why I wanted it for my mother so badly let me explain.

This isn’t just a pretty looking wall lantern, it also includes a 720P HD Video Camera and Smart Technology to live stream video from your home to your phone. That’s pretty handy for me, as my mom lives two hours from me and lives alone.

It will give real-time notifications when a visitor is detected at your door or when it detects motion. Not only can you see who is at your door (from your phone), but you can also communicate with these people via a live 2-way intercom that is built right in. That was a huge selling point for me, again, because of my mom.

It has an alarm push button feature that is built to scare off potential intruders. It supports both iOS and Android devices. Absolutely perfect for someone who has an elderly or disabled parent.

If you are interested in checking it out. You can find it over here on Amazon.

Smart Path Lighting

For your outdoor path, you generally want something that is unique, but not gaudy, with just a little touch of class.

That is exactly what you get with these new Phillips Hue Calla Lights.

These are also an excellent choice for the do-it-yourselfer! You can change the color of the lights. Imagine the possibilities of what you could make this thing do!

As with anything else by Philips Hue, they do require that you have the bridge already in place in order for them to work out of the box.

They also need to be within 30 feet of your closest hue device, whether that’s the hub or the Philips Hue Inara that I mentioned earlier.

Just an absolutely great option for any smart home enthusiast who wants to take their outdoor lighting to the next level. You can check them out on Amazon over here.

Smart Spot Lights

If you want to make the outside of your home have that nice professional looking feel, then there is nothing like smart spotlights. Smart landscape lighting can help you by illuminating bushes or trees on the outside of your house and just add a bit of class to the yard in general.

I like these Philips Hue Lily spotlights for a great personal touch. Again, these simply plug in and connect to your existing hue hub.

The personal touch is that you get to enjoy the 16 million colors available to enhance the beauty of your yard or create any ambiance you like. 

I’m just a huge Philips fanatic in general and they’ve done an incredible job with the entire line of Hue products.

If you would like to find out more about the Philips Hue Lily, you can check out more about the product over here.

Conclusion

I’ve been researching smart home lighting products for outdoor use for some time now, and up until recently, I didn’t see a lot of options out there.

Things are changing in the smart home lighting world for the better. I strongly suggest you take a look at some of the awesome things that are happening in this space. You can start by reading my article about how to choose smart home lights.

Also, if these sort of topics interest you, look around my site, there are plenty of great articles that cover a wide array of topics for smart home automation. For example if you’re also thinking about looking at smart locks, check out our article that compares the leading smart locks on the market today.