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mySmart Lighting Cost
At a Glance
- The average cost to have smart lighting installed is £85.
- It typically takes between 30 minutes to 1 hour to install a smart lighting system.
- A breakdown of smart home installation costs, including smart light fittings and individual light costs, and how long it takes to install.
- What the installation process looks like, and what other smart home features you can include.
- How to find and hire a local electrician.
Want to know the cost of having smart lighting installed?
In this guide, we’ll discuss the pricing of various smart lighting installations, from smart bulbs to hubs, as well as the cost of having smart lighting installed throughout your entire home.
On average, smart lighting costs around £85 to install.
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Want to find out more before you start comparing prices? Keep reading!
£85
Table of Contents
- How Much Does Installing Smart Lighting Cost?
- Supply Only Costs
- Additional Costs
- Labour Costs and Timescales
- Cost Factors of Installing Smart Lighting
- What's Involved in Installing Smart Lighting?
- Can I Install Smart Lighting Myself?
- Building Regulations & Planning Permission for Installing Smart Lighting
- Types of Smart Lighting
- Hiring Contractors for Installing Smart Lighting Checklist
- FAQs
- Sources
How Much Does Installing Smart Lighting Cost?
What are smart lighting systems?
Smart lighting systems are lighting setups that let you control your home's lighting remotely using your smart device, through voice commands, or through automated routines.
It's relatively cheap to simply install conventional LED bulbs, but smart lighting offers many advantages, including more customisation and control over your lighting - and, arguably, better value for money.
The cost of fitting smart lighting depends on a whole host of factors, such as the type of smart home lighting, size of installation area (i.e., how many smart lights you want to install), ease of access, and even where you live. Your location is relevant since labour prices differ from region to region across the UK.
So, what is the cost of a smart lighting system?
Here are the average prices of different smart lighting installations:
- Smart bulb - £50 to £100
- Smart hub - £60 to £150
- Motion sensor lights - £65 to £110
- Dimmer switch - £60 to £100
- Smart Lighting throughout your entire home - £3,200 to £10,500
What is a smart hub, and why might I want to have one installed?
"It is a control centre for all or any smart devices you may install in your property."
Smart Lighting Prices
The overall cost of smart lighting installation is primarily made up of labour and supply costs. Take a look at some smart light fitting costs:
| Job Description | Labour Cost | Supply Cost | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smart Bulb | £40 – £50 | £10 – £50 | £50 – £100 |
| Smart Hub | £40 – £50 | £20 – £100 | £60 – £150 |
| Motion Sensor Lights | £40 – £50 | £15 – £60 | £65 – £110 |
| Dimmer Switch | £40 – £50 | £20 – £50 | £60 – £100 |
| Smart Lighting for Entire Home | £200 – £500 | £3,000 – £10,000 | £3,200 – £10,500 |
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Supply Only Costs
As for the cost of smart lighting supplies only, these are the prices as if you were to purchase directly from the retailer. These costs would be especially relevant if you were to undertake the work DIY.
Smart Lighting Costs (Supply Only)
| Job Description | Supply Cost |
|---|---|
| Smart Bulb | £10 – £50 |
| Smart Hub | £20 – £100 |
| Motion Sensor Lights | £15 – £60 |
| Dimmer Switch | £20 – £50 |
| Smart Lighting for Entire Home | £3,000 – £10,000 |
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Additional Costs
When having smart lighting installed, you may decide to have other work undertaken on the same day (or days if you were installing smart lighting throughout your entire property). Let’s have a look at some popular examples:
Smart Meter Cost
Smart meters track real-time energy usage. A smart meter can be provided for free from your energy supplier, with the only expense for the installation relating to the cost of labour, which would be around £20 to £40.
While the cost of having a smart meter would be added to your bill (just as is the case with a conventional energy meter), it is generally a lower overall cost when you factor in the real-time energy readings, instead of estimates from traditional meters.
By accurately monitoring your energy use with a smart meter, you can save the following on your energy bills:
- 250 kWh energy use monthly - £35 per month.
- 500 kWh energy use monthly - £70 per month.
- 750 kWh energy use monthly - £100 per month.
Smart Thermostat Cost
The purpose of a smart thermostat is to provide intelligent control over a heating system. These WiFi-enabled systems are not only smart in how they manage your heating system, but they allow you to remotely control your heating system.
For instance, most smart thermostats let homeowners turn on their heating or heat up water for a bath while they're not at home.
Smart thermostat installation costs around £280, with the job generally taking 1 to 2 hours to complete.
Removing Gas and Electric Meter Cost
By adding a new smart meter to your home, you'll need to remove your old gas and electric meters. To remove your old energy meters costs £400 to £1,000 depending on the ease of access and the complexity of the job, and should only be completed by a professional electrician or Gas Safe engineer.
Labour Costs and Timescales
The average cost of labour per hour for smart lighting installation is £40 to £50, with electricians charging around £200 to £250 per day.
Smart lighting generally takes an hour or less to install, such as in the case of having a smart bulb unit or a single smart hub unit installed. However, if you were to have smart lighting fitted throughout your home, you can expect the work to take 1 to 2 days.
The cost of labour and timeframe can vary depending on the number of smart lighting units being installed and ease of access. Again, location can also affect the labour price, with prices in the capital and other large cities being higher than smaller areas in the north of the UK.
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Cost Factors of Installing Smart Lighting
There are many price factors involved in fitting smart lighting. Let’s have a look at what you should keep in mind:
Type of Smart Lighting
There are various options when it comes to the type of smart lighting.
The lowest-cost options are smart bulbs, costing £10 to £50 in supply costs. If you want to have smart light strips installed instead, these can cost anywhere from £20 to £100, depending on the brand and the size of the light strip.
Within smart bulbs are different styles, too, with simple pear-shaped white bulbs - most closely mimicking traditional bulbs - being the cheapest. At the other end of the scale are ombré or multi-coloured bulbs in different shapes or with filaments being more expensive.
Area of Installation
The larger the area, the higher the price - so, if you want your entire home kitted out with smart lighting, you'll pay anywhere from £3,200 to £10,500, while individual bulb installations cost closer to £50 to £100.
Location of Property
Where you live in the UK will shape the overall price of installing smart lighting. Electricians tend to charge more in the southeast, while labour prices are usually below the UK average in the north of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Here’s what electricians tend to charge for different parts of the UK:
- London - £45 to £50
- Liverpool - £30 to £35
- Glasgow - £30 to £35
- Manchester - £30 to £35
- Cardiff - £25 to £30
- Belfast - £20 to £25
- Newcastle - £25 to £30
Ease of Access
The more accessible the work area, the less time the work will likely take, and vice versa. This is because ease of access tends to correlate with a quicker job.
If you're having smart lights installed on a particularly high, period property ceiling, for example, this will cost more than a standard light bulb swap at a standard ceiling height.
What's Involved in Installing Smart Lighting?
Let's take a look at the steps taken to install smart lighting. It's good to note that this can vary depending on factors such as the type and design of the smart lighting in question:
1. Hire a Professional
Unless you are fitting smart lighting DIY, you’ll need to find the right contractor for the job.
2. Install Smart Lighting
Next, you must turn off the electricity at the mains. This is vital for your safety as electrocution can be lethal.
Once you are sure the power is switched off, you can remove the old light fitting and follow the manufacturer’s instructions to install the new one. More work may be required to replace the lighting unit correctly.
In this case, it is best to hire a professional. It’s critical to fix the new lighting in place correctly for both safety and operational reasons.
3. Clean Up
When the new lighting installation is fully in place, and the work (per the instructions) is complete, you can turn the power back on at the mains.
At this stage, you’ll want to remove any items that are left over. You can bring the old light bulb and electrics to a relevant recycling facility or hardware store that accepts all the components you are disposing of.
You may need to take certain items to different locations (i.e., light bulbs to one place and electrics to another), so just make sure you are taking them to the right facilities.
Alternatively, if hiring a professional to do this job, you could double-check with them as to whether they’re happy to deal with waste removal. This may or may not come with an additional fee if agreed upon.
Can I Install Smart Lighting Myself?
Generally, it is okay to undertake this work DIY, but you should only do so if you know what’s involved, have the right skills and understand the necessary safety steps.
The following hazards/dangers are involved:
- Risk of electrocution.
- Working at height.
- Risk of incorrect installation.
Building Regulations & Planning Permission for Installing Smart Lighting
There are no specific building regulations or planning permission rules for having smart lighting installed. However, if you are having additional electrical work undertaken on the same day, then rules and regulations may apply.
On average, building regulations approval costs around £100 whereas you’d look at spending about £200 for planning permission approval.
When planning permission is needed, it can take up to 8 weeks for an application to be approved, although it generally doesn't take quite this long.
Types of Smart Lighting
There are many types of smart lighting. Let’s take a closer look at the most popular options:
Smart Bulbs
A smart bulb is a WiFi-enabled LED bulb that can be controlled remotely. Users will have the ability to control the scheduling and customisation of these light bulbs remotely. One downside, however, is that they do not last as long as conventional LED light bulbs.
Smart bulbs have about 40% of LED light bulbs' life expectancy. You won’t need a large budget for most smart bulbs, with most costing between £10 and £50.
Why do smart lights have a lower life expectancy than conventional LED bulbs?
"Smart lights and LED both share the same basic design. They both convert the AC current that feeds them into DC current, with both lights this produces excess heat build up which is dissipated through heat sinks in the unit. Now, add in bluetooth and WiFi circuits into the same light and you have an excess of heat. This heat tends to shorten the life span of the units as with any bulb."
Smart Hub Lights
These lights are essentially smart bulbs that are specifically connected to a smart hub. The differentiation here is that this installation requires the purchasing of smart hub hardware and its set up. Some smart bulbs are not enabled for a smart hub specifically.
The obvious downside of smart hub lights is that the installation as a whole is a bit more expensive.
The cost of a smart lighting system would likely be between £20 and £100 in terms of the standalone costs (i.e., excluding the labour cost for installing the system). Don’t forget that smart lighting isn’t just for indoors, and there are smart outdoor lighting options, too.
Motion Sensing Lights
As the name suggests, these lights turn on in response to a motion. Some options, known as occupancy sensor lights, can also turn off if it detects that a room/space is unoccupied.
Broadly speaking, a motion sensor light will cost a bit more on average than a smart bulb or even a smart hub light. The supply cost of the average motion sensing light is approximately £15 to £60.
Is smart lighting secure, or can it be hacked into or otherwise pose a security risk?
"Generally, anything electronic is hackable if it’s connected to the internet. Generally, smart lighting has its own WiFi that's only visible through the app, which has some sort of encryption built in. It depends on the product on how hard or how easy it is, as a lot of the cheaper products use third party generic smart home software apps."
Hiring Contractors for Installing Smart Lighting Checklist
Before hiring an electrician to fit smart lighting, there are a variety of considerations worth taking into account. By doing so, you can maximize your chances of finding one of the best contractors in your area for the job.
Here's what we suggest to ask when hiring a local electrician:
- Are they a qualified electrician?
- What prior experience do they have?
- How have customers rated them online (if ratings and reviews are available)?
- Ask friends or family for their recommendations for local electricians.
- Obtain several quotes before coming to a decision, making sure you get a fair price.
- Check whether the contractor is part of an accreditation.
FAQs
What is smart lighting?
In short, it involves integrating your home's lighting with smart technology. For example, a smart light bulb would be WiFi-enabled and may be controllable via a smart home assistant or app.
How does smart lighting work?
Smart lighting involves an internet-connected hub that hooks up your smart light bulbs and gives a homeowner remote access to controlling these lights. Again, this could be achieved in a range of ways, such as through an app or a smart home assistant.
How long do smart bulbs tend to last?
On average, a smart bulb lasts for 20,000 to 25,000 hours. In contrast, conventional LED bulbs can last for 50,000 hours.
What are some other downsides to smart lights?
Aside from a shorter life expectancy, smart lights sometimes require charging, and there are some potential security risks, as is the case with anything that is internet-connected.
Is a smart light a fire hazard?
While any light bulb can pose a fire risk (particularly if it is faulty, installed incorrectly, or used with wires that are exposed), smart lights are seen as being less of a fire hazard than traditional LED bulbs.
Sources
https://www.planningportal.co.uk/permission
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/product-reviews/tech/g688254/best-smart-light-bulbs/
