Holiday decorating can be fun but it can also be stressful, especially when you don’t give yourself enough time. While decorating the interior of my home is one of my favorite parts of the holidays, I can’t say the same about the outside.
Last year I waited so long and couldn’t get the right hooks to hang the Christmas lights on the side of my house. But this year, I figured I could check a couple things off my list using some The best smart lights Instead of regular string lights.
The best thing about using smart lights instead of regular lights or even Christmas lights is the fact that you can change their color with a single tap on your smartphone or even with your voice. The best smart speakers. This also means that you don’t have to take them down at the end of every holiday season and you can leave them all year long.
Starting from scratch
When I moved into my house last year, I was pleasantly surprised when the porch lights came on at dusk. Although they didn’t hang properly and both chains lost some lights, I liked how the previous owner set them up with an extra timer.
While I eventually added these lights to my smart home using just a few The best smart plugs, I knew that sooner or later I wanted to remove it and start over from scratch. Unfortunately, the previous owner used it with a basic pistol that is not only unsafe, but also impractical because it makes it difficult to take down the lights.
despite Philips Hue lights They are my favorite smart lights thanks to their ease of use and Hue sync Capabilities, Signify does not manufacture string lights. Fortunately, Govee does that and they are also more affordable.
To this end, I decided to use Govee’s outdoor smart string lights ($99 (Opens in a new tab)And the Amazon (Opens in a new tab)) to decorate my balcony. While I initially ordered one 96-foot box of lights, I ended up ordering another set to cover my entire balcony.
permanent solution
Besides re-lighting the entire balcony, I also wanted to make sure it could be removed and replaced easily. This means using hooks for a more permanent solution instead of using pins. Sure, it took two full nights to install all the hooks, but this way, changing the lights after their 20,000 hour life is over is a breeze.
This was actually my first time working with string lights and the only thing I wanted to avoid was making them deteriorate. Wire would have done the trick, but it would have made things even more complicated. Instead I used a ruler to mark one foot between each hook and made sure the hooks were in the middle of the ceiling studs so they wouldn’t fall off.
In the end, my fingers were sore from pulling at a total of 150 hooks (in fact I still had a blister on my right index finger) but it was worth it once I got the lights on. Since I had to use two bundles of Govee Smart Outdoor String Lights, I started hanging them from the middle of my porch and worked my way out. This also allows me to use a single extension cord that runs on the back wall to connect them.
However, I was really pleased with how I was able to hide the transducers and their control boxes on top of the canopy and out of sight. This served a practical purpose as well as the lights themselves are waterproof (and shatterproof), but the control boxes and power adapters are not.
Now I’m ready for every holiday
Since these are smart lights, I had to download and install the Govee smartphone app to really test them. The app itself may not be as intuitive as the Philips Hue app but it has clearer scenes. While Philips’ scenes have abstract names like “Painted sky” and “Memento,” Govee has scenes for “Fall,” “Summer,” and “Christmas.”
As I plan to use the new smart lights extensively during the holidays, I lit up the Christmas scene and were greeted with a wall of moving light where the majority of the 60 lights glowed green then yellow while a few were lit up red. The image below doesn’t really do it justice but needless to say, I was impressed.
With Halloween approaching, I experienced both fall scenes and a cornfield. The lights alternated between orange and light pink but I preferred the cornfield (pictured below) where the lights alternate between yellow and orange. Regardless, either will complement your Halloween decorations well.
I haven’t finished testing the Govee app although it still has one more trick up its sleeve; The ability to synchronize the lights with the music. Unlike how Philips Hue relies on Spotify on mobile or its Hue Sync software on your PC, the Govee app actually uses your device’s microphone to sync the lights with the music. As a result, you can sync your lights with playing music on your phone or even with music from one Best bluetooth speakers. It worked really well during my tests and I think this year I might make a holiday light show for the first time with this feature.
Now that I have new smart lights installed on my porch that can change its color with the flick of my finger or by talking to a The best Google Home speakers Scattered throughout my house, I’m ready for every holiday, not just for Christmas. Even if there is no preset scene like 4th of July or St. Patrick’s Day, I can always change the color of each individual lamp myself.
If you’re tired of decorating for the holidays every year or just want to add a little fun to your backyard, smart lights do the trick without standing up which means you’ll have more time to decorate elsewhere.
More Tom’s guide: You can also check How I turned an old monitor into a digital dashboard And the How I synced my smart lights to my TV and it blew me away.
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