Originally posted by techfacts
There is one thing that bothers me the most and I have been trying to work this out, without success. ROI for a house full of smart bulbs, any smart bulb. Given the average house has about 30 light bulbs, this is close to $2k outlay for the bulbs plus running costs.
Lets say I buy 10 x $69 smart bulbs = $690 Vs 10 normal energy efficient light bulbs @ $10 each = $100.
I can buy about 60 energy efficient lighbulbs for the cost of 10 smart light bulbs.
Questions
1. How many hours do I get out of a energy efficient light bulb Vs a smart lightbulb
2. How much does it cost to run a energy efficient light bulb Vs a smart bulb
3. What are the cost saving comparisons for these bulbs
4. Is there enough life in a smart bulb to give me a ROI before I have to replace it, given a smart bulbs costs 10x a normal bulb is the life of a smart bulb 10x longer or 15x longer?
5. What happens to these numbers once the market is flooded with these smart bulbs and the price drops and margins vanish?
6. If I cant save money using smart bulbs before they have to be replaced then they will be a gimmick.
Talking about been able to turn lights off from smart phone or dim lights, I can my a $10 timer from Woolies that will do this. Smart home equipment from the likes of Nest offer not only light management but management of a lot of home appliances, how does this compare to the single smart lightbulb and benefits, are Nest and other smart home companies competitors to Lifx?
It would great of Lifx or BUD management could publish a paper outlining the benefits and costs savings so we could better understand the long term business model. It has taken solar 10s of years to get established for the same reasons as above. Until the costs dropped enough for a reasonable ROI to be achieved for a house owner.
Surely BUD management ran an analysis along these lines to work out if smart bulbs were a gimmick or not.
I am not leaning either way, would just like to know. DYOR
Hi,
I think most if not all people who chose smart lights do it for reasons other than finance. For people I talked to It’s cool is amore common reason and also is part of the journey to a smartify your home. Lights is a good place to start and play around.
Now when hen it comes to smart home people are concerned with comfort and security. Lights is added as it make sense and can add value to security. If you are spending thousands on smart home for aircon, entertainment and security throwing lights almost always get thrown in the mix.
adding more smart to lights as someone said before, to me, there is no value unless it’s part of a bigger smart home plan.
It will be great if this is BUD plan but if it is then I’ll probably sell my remaining shares. Competitors will include the like of Google with voice control and many others.
may be I’m missing something (did not read all the comments) but it’s seems some think BUD is going residential/ retail. My money will not be on them there.
whatever the plan with Lifx it must have something with commercial buildings. What that can be I don’t know.
i hope it’s good.
cheers