Why Smart Lighting won’t catch on like a Keurig did.

I recently bought a Phillips Hue starter kit for my step-father, as his birthday was not too long ago, and I wanted to give him something to help make his life easier. I showed him how the bulbs worked, installed them in his favorite spots, and saw the smile on his face as they turned on from just a simple tap on the phone. I even went as far as setting up schedules for on and off cycles so it was a definite that all the lights were off before the house was left and that all the lights were off after bed time.

There’s just one problem: My step-father doesn’t have a smart phone, and the lights are still controlled by the switch for that reason.

I sigh at this revelation, wondering if my investment was made in proper taste when I turn to see the Keurig coffee maker in my kitchen. It’s timer was set to heat up every morning before my step-dad came down, and then turn off when my mother left the house. Why has this caught on, I thought to myself. This system took time and effort to understand, and it even requires you buy more expensive products to keep it running, much like my Hue. It has a schedule for activation as well as it’s ability to automate one part of daily life, again like my Hue lights. So why did my Hue bulbs end up only being utilized as simple lights?

That was a question I struggled with for awhile after the initial installation. I had even, on a guilty pleasure, picked up an LED strip for my room that went on a pre-determined schedule so I had light in the morning and didn’t have to worry about turning it off in the evening. The smart light in my room just integrated with my life; however, for my step-dad turning the light off and on by the switch was still easier.

The theory goes that in this modern day and age smartphones rule our experience with technology, and their ability to do and interface with so much should lead to smart home automation. At least, in theory.

In practice this phenomenon isn’t necessarily being wide spread adopted; or at the very least, the phenomenon is not being well adopted in my conservative Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The smartphone is, by many accounts, still seen as a tool for communication by the people who still own the most land and have the best paying jobs: our parents, baby boomers.

We are technically still living in their world, and the vast majority of said world would prefer to continue switching their lights on and off via the light switch. The phone was never intended to do more than just voice calls, and texting alone was a tough enough hurdle for many.

Yet despite the complexity that smart phones provide, there are companies like Apple who are trying to diffuse that complexity by making the systems approachable by anyone and everyone, even if it appears to be sacrificing features in the long run.

It’s up to the software to make complex systems approachable to end users. The Hue app, the application for smart phones that controls the Hue lighting system, is crippled out of the gate in terms of approach-ability because the Hue system can do so much. It can’t stay unobtrusive and simple because that would cut features of the lighting system that more advanced users are looking for in their own setups, let alone the price of the system itself which I will get to later. HomeKit in iOS 10 takes this a step further by allowing an iPad to turn into something you can dock to a wall and use to control the lighting system, making it almost like a control panel in newer houses. A major issue with having it phone-controlled is that many people don’t have their smartphones readily integrated into their routine.

A part of that reason is that some people just prefer their routines to be simple and unobtrusive. For some, being able to flick the switch on and off is added security that the system will work, for they are interacting with it. If a routine is working, as well as simple, why change it to be more complex with the possibility of being less reliable?

The Keurig’s strongest point is its simple user interface. Open lid, coffee in, push down. Sure you may have to get help in setting the schedule, but that’s not it’s main goal. It’s primary focus is to keep your morning routine simple by taking something all walks of life found mundane and streamlining it.

In particular, I know that my step-dad and I differ vastly in the morning when it comes to routine. He’s the kind of guy that is used to getting up in the morning and is able to function, having a drilled routine of activities to get ready for the day. Meanwhile, my function in the morning only allows getting out of bed, getting dressed, and getting out the door. It costs too much energy for me to do anything beyond the bare minimum, even if I was a morning person as a child. In a way, I like the additional scheduling of smart lighting because I don’t have the energy in the morning to do such things. My step-dad doesn’t need the scheduling because he has that energy in the morning. However, we do agree that the Keurig turning on and warming up automatically is amazing.

The Keurig is able to fit into the morning schedule because it’s inherently unobtrusive.

And yet, Smart Lighting (and to a greater extent, home automation) boasts so many cost-effective and ease of use opportunities fiscally, similar to the Keurig, that in the long run Gen X-ers are confused and frustrated that one of the simplest things on the home automation list just isn’t sticking for many.

This, again, is an issue of routine and cost. Why pay for something so utterly expensive up-front that will do the same things as a cheaper system and will cost more energy to learn and fit into my routine that has been working for years without it. This is, in it’s most basic form, the lights we are talking about.

Another issue stems from the finite nature of smart lighting. If only two bulbs in the house are connected, why bother learning the system? It’s only two bulbs. Now, if the whole house was controlled by switches and bulbs that fed into the smart lighting system, then we’d all have reason to learn the interface and set schedules. There isn’t a single commercial for smart lighting that has only one bulb on the system, as that would be a horrible marketing practice.

And again, cost is an issue. This may become less of a contention point as technology grows at it’s usual exponential scale; but for now the technology of smart lighting is priced well out of justification for many who don’t feel the particular drive to actually learn the system and adapt it.

And that compounds under the issue of scarcity. Smart systems in an older home utilizing an $80 two-bulb starter kit will not be making any miracles or revelations just because it was purchased by some twenty-something with bright eyed ambitions to make his family more efficient, not that I’m projecting myself onto this hypothetical situation in any way.

The Keurig got around this problem because, at least in many homes, there was only one coffee maker. In the same way I only had 1% of bulbs that were smart, the Keurig changed 100% of our coffee makers into smart machines.

And yet, we look at inventions like the Keurig and think “Wow, home automation surely is on it’s way now!” While that is true, I think the Keurig really gives us a good look at the future. The mass adoption of overly complex, expensive solutions is one of the big reasons home automation appears to begin and then abruptly stop with the Coffee Maker, as it’s original function was complex to begin with then gradually became easier as technology and design of the products improved.

Let’s face it, Keurig wasn’t the first automated coffee maker. But it was the first automated coffee maker to offer a streamlined product at a generally affordable price, and that kicked off the crazy success of it’s adoption into home life. If the complex can become simple and intuitive then the evolution will come that much more easily to a broader market.

Smart lighting is a natural evolution in many ways, but to some that evolution comes unneeded because of it’s complexity and overall non-contribution to ones routine. That is probably the reason my step-dad’s iPad will stay wound in its charging cable on the bureau and why the lights will continue to be controlled by the switch rather than the phone.

Phillips has a good idea in it’s Hue line of products by offering in-wall switches that are smart connected, as it can turn any light into a schedule controlled smart light; however, that immediately decreases its market appeal to users who know how to install those in-circuit switches and turns off the users who don’t.

So as I sit here writing this, illuminated by the glow of my smart lighting that will soon fade to a dim night light based on scheduling, I ponder my options going forward. Should I be getting more smart lightbulbs, or should I wait until the costs go down? In the end, it’s a matter of preference.

And seeing as it’s my parent’s house, I’m fairly certain my step-dad will prefer the ageless tradition of flicking the lights off from the switch. But if he forgets, I’ll be there to turn it off from my office.