My family is constantly rolling their eyes at me.  Yeah, I like technical toys.   Phillips Hue Lighting System is a wonderful technical toy.   Basically you replace any light bulbs in your house that you wish with these energy efficient LED bulbs.   The lights can then be controlled by your smart phone or by very simple programming through IFTTT (google that if you don’t know what it is).

So, what’s the advantage?  I have my lights programmed at the house for the following:

Whenever my car pulls up into the driveway, the outside backdoor patio lights automatically turn on to light my way.   Also the indoor dining room light turns on as well.  As I walk into the house, all the lights will quickly go through a complete rainbow pattern to simply celebrate the fact that I am home. (This produces the biggest eye-rolling from my family).

At 2:00 am. each morning, all lights in the house automatically go off (in case we left any turned on).

At whatever time each morning I need to get up, my bedroom lamp will softly begin illuminating brighter and brighter.  Calm.   It’s like waking up with the sunrise.   And the color of the light is a soft orange (sunrise) color as well.

As I step out of my bedroom into the hall, I notice my hall light.  If it is BLUE then I can expect rain that day.  If it is orange, I can expect it to be hotter than normal.

Whenever my Ga. Tech Yellow Jackets win an event, all the lights in the house will flash and then go through a rainbow pattern in celebration.

When it’s movie time, the lights are lowered for a more theatre like effect.

Whenever I leave the house, after I exit the property, the back door patio lights will turn off.

If we are away on a trip, I can program the lights via a schedule or a random pattern to turn on and off to give the illusion that someone is home.  Or I can just control individual lights from my Iphone at any time from anywhere.

If I am REALLY in the party mood, I can even have the lights sync with the music I am playing on my Amazon Echo and the lights will dance with the music.

Since each individual light is fully programmable with millions of color combinations, I can set the mood that I want.  From a soft blue or soft red for romantic climates to a soft white in order to read a book.   Maybe a little brighter if I am writing in a journal.

I love my toys.   Phillips Hue is one of the best!