IKEA’s new smart LED system allows you to Control multiple light sources with a single
controller.
Dim the lights or Switch color temperatures.
Access the lights from your smart phone.
And the competitive pricing and portfolio of IKEA products is attractive.
But the current lack of true automation and API support for 3rd party apps as well as
no RGB colors options might keep some people away.
Hi I’m David and this is the IKEA Tradfri Smart LED Kit
So this is the Tradfri Gateway Kit that currently goes for $80 US or $99 Canadian.
Included in the box you get 2 standard E26 LED Light bulbs, a physical remote control,
and a gateway in order to use their Tradfri Application on your phone.
So while I’ll only be looking at this specific kit in the video.
IKEA also offers a variety of other light bulbs, panels, cabinet lights, and accessories,
but a lot of them haven’t rolled out to every region so be sure to check your local
IKEA store for availability.
Starting off simple you can get started with IKEA’s smart lighting system with just a
light bulb and their remote controller.
With the light bulb in place and powered on.
And the remote control powered by the included CR2032 button cell battery.
You can then sync a remote to a bulb by placing it nearby and holding the button on the back
for 10 seconds until the bulb finishes flashing.
You can then continue to sync other bulbs up to a maximum of 10 lights per remote through
this method.
And now with just one remote I have a large middle button to turn them all on and off.
Ability to dim or brighten all the lights.
And even change the color temperature from a warm to a cool white light.
Quick note since it’s can be a little confusing but there are two different light bulb kits
for the Tradfri.
The cheaper one only supports dimming, while the more expensive one that I have here support
both dimming and changing the white color temperature.
Changing the white temperature for me is really beneficial, because during the day I really
like having a cool white light that keeps me awake and alert, and during the evenings
switch to a warmer light to relax before I go to bed.
Another thing to note for the color temperature is that you can only switch between 2200,
2700, and 4000 Kelvins.
There’s no fine adjustments in between and while 4000 Kelvins is a pretty cool white
light.
It still warmer than a daylight lightbulb in 5000+ kelvin range.
Next, if you want to automate or manage your lights from your smartphone.
You’re going to need one of these Gateway devices.
The Gateway connects to your network through a wired network cable and is powered by usb.
After downloading the Tradfri app for your Android or iOS device, and following the easy
to follow instructions to sync all your devices you can now start controlling you lights from
your phone.
Brighten or dim all your lights.
Make adjustments to individual bulbs.
Rearrange the groupings of lights and remotes for different rooms.
Or even create moods to save specific presets and quickly switch between them throughout
the day.
You can also create some simple timers to automatically turn on or off your lights throughout
the day.
I like the Rise and Shine timer that gradually wakes me up by slowly brightening the light
in the morning, and the Away from Home timer is useful to automatically turn the lights
on for specific periods of time.
But the last timer called On or Off doesn’t currently operate the way I think it should.
For the most part it basically the same thing as the Away from Home timer.
Which is unfortunate because as is the app lacks anyway to permanently turn on or off
all the lights at a specific time.
Another lacking feature is that you can’t specific the brightness, color temperature,
or mood for these timers.
The lights will instead just revert back to whatever setting they were last using.
So that’s a quick look at the IKEA Tradfri Smart LED Kit.
A pretty simple Smart LED system that allows you to control multiple lights and modify
brightness, white color temperature, and even create moods over the smartphone app.
While the app currently isn’t super robust for automating your lights, and also lack
any APIs at the moment for 3rd party integration.
It does support the basic smart features that I need, the pricing is pretty competitive
and the integration into future IKEA products is definitely intriguing.
But hope you guys enjoyed this one.
You know what to do.
And I’ll see you in the next video.