LED Downlights: Choose Your Color, Choose Your White

If you have recessed lighting cans in your home, you may still be using light bulbs inside them. This is the only option we had prior to LED lighting, and many LED upgrades have simply used LED replacement bulbs like LED BR30 or LED BR40 bulbs.

But we've talked before about another option, and that is an LED downlight (sometimes called a downlight kit) like the one pictured here. These are nearly as easy as a standard light bulb to install, and they create a more flush appearance on your ceiling by eliminating the spaces around a bulb.

Because these effectively combine a bulb and its trim, these are more expensive than standard LED bulbs, but the appearance can be worth it to some buyers. However, there's more to consider here than just the flush appearance. With the right LED downlight, you can control everything from color temperature to colors (we'll explain the difference) to dimming, programming, and more. Let's take a look:

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NORA LED Prism Series

The LED downlight shown above is part of the NORA Prism series, and it gives you incredible control over your lighting via remote control or smartphone app (and can still be turned on and off, of course, by your trusty light switch.)

Before we get into the details, let us point out something important: there is NO hub needed and these lights do NOT connect to your home network. Why is this important?

First, many smart lights require a central hub that they all connect through. This is one extra cost to consider. But more important, most connect through your home's WiFi signal, which means they're connected to your home network. This is one of the big security concerns regarding IoT (Internet of Things, or "Smart") products. If these items are not properly secured, they create a gateway into the rest of your network for hackers. This means your lights or other IoT objects could allow for a digital security breach in your home.

The NORA Prism series doesn't connect to your home network. Instead, the lights communicate with your smart phone and with each other through a Bluetooth mesh. This means you can't connect to the lights and control them from another city (like you can with most IoT objects), but neither can anyone else.

Beyond this security benefit, the lights come with loads of features:

• 90+ CRI -- this means they're designed to render colors very well, even better than most of today's LEDs.
• 2700K to 4000K color temperature options -- these are "white light" options, but let you select from warm (more red, like an incandescent bulb) to cool (more blue) appearances.
• Thousands of other color options available through the smart phone application.
• Dim the lights. (No need for a dimmer switch -- in fact, it's recommended that you use a standard switch.)
• Control the lights all at once or by zone or room.
• Create scenes that you can easily recreate at any time.
• Set timers to have your lights come on and off automatically.
• Let your lights change color to the beat of any music playing.

While all these benefits come at a premium, the extra cost can transform the way you using lighting in your home, and of course these lights are available here at Lighting Supply.
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