I recently had the opportunity to chat with Erik Charlton, CEO, Noon Home, about trends in the residential smart lighting market for an article I wrote for the January 2019 issue of tED Magazine, the official publication of the NAED.
DiLouie: How would you characterize the residential smart lighting market?
Charlton: The residential lighting market is at the beginning of a new wave of innovation that will drastically improve how consumers experience their homes However, the market is complicated. The number of lighting solutions on the marketplace is overwhelming for consumers and the vast amount of bulbs and fixture choices makes compatibility and installation a significant pain point. There is a huge opportunity to use technology and product design to make the lighting experience better for consumers starting with installation, compatibility, setup, and everyday use.
Demand for smart lighting is increasing significantly thanks to voice assistants in the home. The market opportunity for electricians for smart lighting is significant and will continue to grow over then next several years.
DiLouie: What are the top 3-5 trends shaping the residential smart lighting market, and how this is affecting demand for specific types of solutions and product development?
Charlton:
Trend 1 – Smart Light bulbs promised a revolutionize how consumers interacted with the lights in their home but consumers are quickly realizing that this is a broken experience. Great for an individual use case but not so great for a lighting solution throughout the home. Consumer need lights to “just work” and 60% of consumer surveyed say they don’t always want to use an app to control their lights. The light switch is a fundamental interface in the home but consumers want it to do more.
Trend 2 – More customers are becoming aware of the importance of light and how it influences their moods, health, and well-being. It impacts how we feel, our sleep patterns, and our productivity. Additionally homeowners understand that light can make their home look beautiful if its designed and controlled correctly. Color temperature, brightness, and circadian rhythms are now becoming a part of the consideration set for homeowners.
Smart lighting can help consumers move past individual bulb or line control and start to think about controlling entire rooms. Combining ambient, task, and accent lighting at the right dim levels can transform how a room looks and feels.
Trend 3 – “Smart Home” promised to make our lives simpler and more convenient but in many cases it’s adding a lot of clutter to our lives. Things to plug in and manage, apps to download, and confusion around how things are supposed to work together.
Consumers are starting to move beyond simple smart features like remote control from an app and demand products that truly solve a problem. For smart lighting specifically that means solving compatibility issues, accounting for multiple users in the home, and a thoughtful approach to room and whole-home control vs. a single point control solution
DiLouie: Smart lighting can be introduced to the home via smart lamps, switches, plugs, or a unified home automation system. How would you characterize these technologies and the pros and cons of each?
Charlton:
Smart Lamps/Bulbs (good solution for specific use case models)
Pros
- Simple to install (add to compatible existing fixture or plugin)
- Color options
- Inexpensive solution if adding just a few bulbs
Cons
- Requires control via an app
- Broken experience if someone turns off the light at the switch (loss of app control, schedules, etc)
- Doesn’t fit or look great in all fixtures (decorative fixtures)
- Get’s expensive if you want a whole home solution
- Not guest or family friendly (person with the app has all the control)
Light Switches (best solution for advanced smart lighting features)
Pros
- The most familiar control device in the home
- Makes all your regular bulbs “smart”
- Ability to coordinate all the lights in a room (some solutions)
- Always powered enabling additional features (e.g. sensing)
- No app required (some solutions)
Cons
- High voltage install
- Not compatible with all homes (most smart switches require neutral wires)
- Fixture compatibility can be an issues for some (Not for Noon)
- Time investment require
Plugs (specific to lamp control only)
Pros
- great for adding smart controls for lamps
Cons
- Specific use case that only addresses a small portion of home
- most are standalone devices (not part of a larger system)
- Only controls one light (vs. switches that control many)
Unified Home Automation Systems
Pros
- Enables one touch control from a single switch or keypad
- Enables scene based lighting
- Additional smart-home integrations (e.g. Blinds)
- Typically paired with professional lighting plans aimed at beautifying the home
Cons
- Cost, Cost, Cost
- Complex architectures
- requires ongoing maintenance plans and professionals to adjust the system
- can be confusing for guests or family members not used to the interface
- Most require follow up visits to update software
DiLouie: What are the top 3-5 technology and design trends impacting the development of residential smart lighting?
Charlton:
Trend 1 – Health and wellness is driving home builders to consider better lighting options for their homes. This includes tunable light, coordinated dimming, and smart controls.
Trend 2 – Predictive recommendations and routines are emerging thanks to voice assistants (google and alexa). Smart lighting continues to be the #1 use case for voice assistants but combining commands or activities and natural language control will become more prevalent.
Trend 3 – Utilizing the location of today’s switches to integrate more smart home features and controls is a focus of many smart home companies primarily because it’s always powered, located in every room and a familiar interface.
DiLouie: How influential was voice control in residential smart lighting in 2018?
Charlton: Lighting is the number 1 use case for smart home voice control in the home. As ease of use continues to improve and more interactive devices get deployed voice will have a significant impact on the adoption of smart lighting.
DiLouie: How influential is the development of the Internet of Things for residential smart lighting?
Charlton: IOT and specifically the ability for consumers to have better control and insights into their homes, cars, etc is driving adoption of “smart” products however we believe that “smart” should be more than just about the internet or connectivity. The best smart home products (e.g. Nest Thermostat) use connectivity to deliver features that make devices more functional and intuitive (community energy savings, weather forecast, demand response, etc)
DiLouie: Distributors should sell residential smart lighting on its benefits of comfort and convenience. What are ways in which a smart lighting solution can enhance user comfort?
Charlton: Lighting has a massive impact on our environments, moods, productivity, and sleep patterns and should be ba major consideration for any home buyer.
Smart lighting can improve comfort in the following ways:
Setting the right scenes for any activity via coordinated lighting scenes can improve how we enjoy our favorite activities. Cooking, dining, movie time, entertaining etc.
Smart lighting gives us complete control of our lights from anywhere allowing us turn lights on/off from the couch or from bed at night.
Setting the right dim level during different times of the day can either increase our productivity or help us unwind before bed. Improving our sleep quality.
Vacation Mode and scheduling can help with our peace of mind while we’re on vacation by automatically turning lights on and off for us.
One-touch control from a keypad or master switch allows us to adjust all the lights in the room from one location instead of constantly dimming lights to get the right light.
“All off” feature can ensure we don’t leave any lights on while we’re away accidentally.
Smart lighting provides peace of mind, makes are homes more functional, and ultimately makes us more comfortable when you can easily set the right light for any activity.
DiLouie: What does the smart home lighting manufacturing community need to do better to increase sales? What do distributors need to do better, contractors?
Charlton: Selling the benefits of smart lighting can be hard make most consumers either haven’t experienced coordinated lighting systems and don’t understand the level of functionality and convenience it provides. Most consumers associate smart lighting with smart bulbs which is a broken and frustrating experience.
Communicating the overall benefits of 1. The impact of lighting and 2. how well designed lighting controls can have a significant impact on how we experience our homes are two areas where manufactures can do a better job. Smart lighting is more than just about smart features like voice and app control. It’s also removing the complexities of today’s solutions, learning, and predictive features.
Distributors need to invest more time educating the trade on the benefits of selling smart lighting. Consumer demand is increasing and most times adding smart lighting to a project or home increases the revenue opportunity for the trade.
DiLouie: How should electrical distributors evaluate products and match them appropriately to different type of user needs and applications?
Charlton:
Quality of build – does it match what the target segment is looking for today?
Value – does the product deliver good value for the price?
Target segment – There is a wide range of needs when it comes to smart lighting. The biggest opportunity for distributors is selling smart lighting systems that can deliver whole-home solutions at a great value. Consumers who really care about their homes beauty and function want a system that’s going to work with their existing bulbs and fixtures
Compatibility – Smart lighting systems need to be compatible with a broad range of bulbs and fixtures to be viable. For example, Noon’s patented Bulb Discovery automatically identifies bulb types and calibrates dim curves to minimize flickering and buzzing (a huge industry pain-point)
Flexibility – How flexible or easy to use is the smart lighting system. Does it require a computer programer to set up? Can users easily make adjustments to customize their lights?
DiLouie: What are the most effective sales strategies distributors can use to sell more smart home lighting?
Charlton: Traditional strategies like understanding customer needs, product demonstrations, sales literature are low hanging fruit. Experiencing smart lighting benefits is the best way to sell smart lighting.
Demonstrating value vs. cost is also important especially when selling to the building community. Smart home solutions add value to homes and increase sales or resell values by approximately 5%
DiLouie: If you could tell the entire electrical industry just one thing about smart home lighting, what would it be?
Charlton: It’s what the next generation of home buyers demand and it has a high perceived value.
DiLouie: Is there anything else you’d like to add about this topic?
Charlton: Smart Lighting should not only deliver smart features light voice control but it should also improve all aspects of lighting from installation, setup, and everyday customization and use
Noon specifically combines modern design, advanced technology, and precision dimming technology to deliver a complete solution. Every product design decision was made to drastically reduce the complexity of installing coordinated lighting systems while significantly improving the ease of use and flexibility for the homeowner.
