IKEA launching Smart Home lighting in 2018

Global flat pack homewares and furniture giant IKEA is bringing the smart home to the masses with the launch of Smart Lighting planned for 2018 as part of  a new IKEA Home Smart initiative.

The reason this is important news is the move of smart home concepts into a mass market, away from even the enthusiast home electronics stores, IKEA can’t just throw something in the catalogue if it’s not ready for average everyday consumers to install, get working and use every day.  That’s what makes this a big deal.

The Smart Lighting collection – mainly under the TRÅDFR model name – will allow you to remotely control, automate and design your lighting in the home.

IKEA will stock smart globes and light panels that can dim and switch between warm and cool light either using a controller or a smartphone app.

The solution seems to me (without having seen or used it) to be similar to the Philips Hue range, allowing you to switch out bulbs and get started with just one light – but be careful, it’s a downward spiral into a full home lighting replacement once you get started!

IKEA Home Furnishing expert Helen Longford  said “IKEA Smart Lighting was designed to enable people to have better lighting at home, in an easy and affordable way. There are endless possibilities with the collection, for example it can be set up so create a different type of light for early mornings, another setting for late nights and one for working or cooking.

“We also know that being able to dim and adjust lighting is one of the things that people look for and appreciate at home, and being able to do this remotely or via the app with Smart Lighting makes the collection really exciting.

“The IKEA vision is to bring affordable home furnishing solutions to the many people. We know from research that existing smart lighting technology is perceived to be too expensive and difficult to understand, so we have worked to remove those barriers to make smart lighting more accessible,”

The IKEA Smart Lighting collection, which will be available in Australian stores in early 2018 includes:

• TRÅDFRI LED bulbs and remote control
• TRÅDFRI gateway kit and app
• TRÅDFRI motion sensor kit
• TRÅDFRI dimming kits
• FLOALT LED light panels
• SURTE and JORMLIEN LED light doors for BESTÅ cabinets and METOD kitchen cabinets