One of the key decisions you need to make when adding smart lighting to a home is whether to have the smarts in the switches or the bulbs. Switches tend to be the easier option if you have non-techies in the home, while bulbs offer more flexibility.
A new smart switch system called Noon Home aims to offer the best of both worlds …
You replace one switch in each room with what the company calls a Room Director. This has a swipeable OLED panel to flick through scenes, displaying icons and names. All other light switches in the room need to be replaced with Extension Switches. The Room Director then wirelessly communicates with the extension switches via Bluetooth LE to control all of the lighting in the room.
Noon claims that the Room Director can automatically detect all the different lighting types you have in use. It then knows what it can and can’t dim, and what moods are created by each. It performs this trick by measuring the amount of power going to each light.
As you’d expect, you can also use an app to set the lighting scenes, and the system is Alexa-compatible, though that’s it so far on the integration front.
One big drawback is cost. A starter kit comprising one director and two extension switches costs $400 – and most people will also need professional installation. Additional directors are $200, and extensions $100. This is a lot more expensive than other smart light switches.
But the approach is an interesting one, addressing one of the big problems with smart bulb systems: they can seem complex to non-techie members of the household, and control is lost if someone physically switches off the lights.
Check out the video below for a run-through, with more details available at Noon Home.
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