How Bulbrite Solana Smart Bulbs Can Improve Your Life
While Chris and I have a really solid marriage, there are some things we each do that drive one another crazy. (Raise your hand, all you middle of the toothpaste tube squeezers like me!) One of my major pet peeves is that Chris will go into our bedroom, turn on his lamp while I am in there reading with my lamp on, and then he’ll leave the room to watch TV in the living room, forgetting about his lamp entirely. I know, you’re thinking it’s not that big of a deal, but when I am dead tired, as I am most nights, and I turn off my light ready to go to sleep, it feels like so much effort to have to crawl onto his side of the bed and reach his lamp to turn it off. Thanks to Bulbrite Solana, that is no longer an issue for us! Not only does Bulbrite provide smart lighting that you can turn on and off or even dim to different levels of brightness with your phone, but it’s solving our marriage issues, too! When Bulbrite Solana reached out to me to partner, to be 100% honest, I wasn’t super excited about writing about light bulbs. However, after reading about the company and what their light bulbs do functionally, aesthetically, and for our environment, I decided to give it a go, and boy am I glad I did! These light bulbs have changed my life and are about to rock your world, too.(This blog post is sponsored by Bulbrite, but all photography and all opinions are my own.) 
Why Bulbrite Solana Bulbs?
They are environmentally friendly.
Aside from making it easier for me to turn off Chris’ pesky lamp, Bulbrite Solana smart bulbs are incredible in so many ways which is why I wanted to share this brand with you. Did you know that smart bulbs are the most environmentally friendly light bulbs out there? As stated on their FAQ page, these LED bulbs are not any more efficient when it comes to the energy use when they are on compared to other LED bulbs, however, the ease of turning them off from anywhere makes the actual turning them off happen more frequently. In addition to turning his lamp on at night, Chris turns it on in the morning and when it’s out of sight, I don’t see it to turn it off. I’ve walked into our bedroom a couple hours after he’s left for the day only to find his light on. However, now I can check on my Bulbrite Solana app and turn it off from the kitchen, conserving more energy.) With regular use, Bulbrite Solana light bulbs will last for at least 10 years. Thanks to the scheduling feature in the app, I’m able to set my lights to turn on or off at specific times during the day, which gives me that added peace of mind on using them only when necessary. You’ll barely have to worry about light bulbs burning out! In addition to efficiency, Bulbrite is also taking care of our environment by making recycling their bulbs super easy for you as well. When I turned 41 this summer, I laid out so many tenets I wanted to uphold from here on out, and several of those had to do with bettering our environment and doing my part to be responsible. I am always grateful when I find a brand who makes going the extra mile for our environment easy on me as a consumer.
They can be operated from your phone.
That’s right! You simply add the Bulbrite Solana app to your phone, sync your light bulbs, and then you can easily control your bulbs with the touch of your fingers! However, there’s so much more than just “on and off.” You can also change the temperature of your light bulb (using warm/yellow tones all the way to cool/blue tones and everything in between.) While they cannot be used with a dimmer switch, you can easily dim them to any level from the app. In addition to the strength and tone of your light, you can also set certain scenes or moods and save those presets in your phone, and you can create schedules to set them for a gentle wake up or cool down to your day. There are so many great advanced options these light bulbs offer that Chris and I haven’t even played with every feature yet. We felt fancy enough with the fact that we could operate from our phone! 😉 For real estate agents or house sellers, I can see these being a GAME changer. How many times have you driven by a house that’s on the market and no one is there, but all the lights are on? Imagine you were selling that house… that’s energy and dollar bills flying out the window! With Bulbrite Solana, you could easily check them from your home and turn them off.
They can be synced with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple, and Android.
It can really be synced with so many types of technology that will make it easy to use for anyone. Obviously, my kids don’t have the Bulbrite Solana app on their phone, but they do have access to our Amazon Alexa, so they can just shout at her to turn the porch light on or off. That’s a feature they love! Kids these days have it so easy, don’t they? Even Wilder knows how to say “Alexa” so if you see my porch light flashing on and off, the toddler might be in control. 😉
They are stylish and can suit your aesthetic.
Bulbrite Solana comes in a standard shape, frosted or clear, as well as Edison style bulbs. There’s really something for everyone! If you’re someone who likes to have a lot of fun with your lighting, they even have color changing where you can set the color to be whatever you wish. I’m not that fun, so I just ordered non color-changing.
FYI, there is much more information available on the Bulbrite Solana FAQ page if I haven’t answered something you might be curious about.
How I am using Bulbrite Solana in my home.
When I ordered my Bulbrite Solana, I knew exactly where I wanted to use them. Of course, after using them now for a little while, I wish I had ordered more for the rest of the house because they’ve really made life much easier. I originally selected 4 light bulbs for our bedroom (each of our bedside lamps takes two bulbs), and 1 light bulb for the porch.
Let’s start out on the porch, shall we? Our porch is the first thing that people see when they come to our house, so a great first impression is really important to me. I gave this porch a little makeover last Spring, and I knew I wanted to use an Edison bulb for our light fixture there because it just looks the best. When I saw that Bulbrite Solana had industrial style bulbs, I was sold for our porch!
Our porch light is one that I love to turn on, especially when Chris is out of town. I go to bed rather early, so I will often crawl into my nice warm cozy bed, and think, “Oh no! The porch light is still on!” I then have to get up and walk all the way to the entry to the light switch. It may now sound that far, especially in our small home, but when you are already in bed and warm and tired, it’s actually the equivalent of running a marathon. True story. Now I don’t have to do that anymore… hallelujah! I can simply check my phone to see if I’ve left the light on and turn it off from there. (And yes, I know that phones are a no-no in bed, but I charge mine next to my bed so that I can use the flashlight in the morning without bothering Chris with my early wake up.)
Additionally, in the morning I take my dogs for a walk or I go for a run when it’s still dark. I usually don’t turn the porch light on before I leave, but now if I get home and can’t see well to get in the keyed entry, I can just turn the light on with my phone and see what I am doing. Using the Bulbrite Solana here made total sense for our lifestyle, and I am so glad it’s in place… especially when I am already in bed, I give a little “Thank you, Bulbrite!”
Below you can see our Bulbrite Solana circle through temperature level as well as brightness.
In the end I set our light on a slightly warm temperature because it just felt right to me. It also seems more inviting on a porch. 
In addition to our porch, I’ve also swapped out our nightstand lights for Bulbrite Solana. As I mentioned earlier, Chris loves to come into the bedroom when I am reading, turn on his lamp, turn down his side of the bed and remove his shames, and get the bed ready so he can crawl in later on. (He’s a night owl). When it comes time for me to actually go to sleep, it feels like so much work to have to crawl to his side of the bed and turn off his light. Now all I have to do is just turn it off with my phone. It’s so much easier and I am much less frustrated this way.
Not only can I control his light being on or off, but I can also control the temperature. At night, I really prefer the more golden light because it feels gentler on my eyes, but during the day, I prefer a whiter light.
Of course, we can also set our own sides of the bed to whatever we prefer so that’s a nice bonus. We don’t have to have the same temperature setting. Below you can see the light bulbs cycle through the different settings. To take all of these photos, all I had to do was set up my tripod and I left the settings the same for each photo so that you could see the luminosity. I didn’t have to move once; I just opened the app and changed settings on the light bulbs each time I shot a new photo. That’s how easy it really is!
Remember when I introduced this product in the beginning, and I told you I hadn’t been that excited about writing about light bulbs? Hopefully throughout this post you can feel my genuine excitement about this product flowing through. I have never loved a light bulb more than I love Bulbrite Solana. Our lives have been easier, I’m less annoyed with Chris’ lamp habits, and I know that we are now conserving so much more energy than we were before. I just wish I had ordered more for every room in our house! What is the first room in your house that you would outfit with these light bulbs? What problems could they solve for you? Tell me in the comments!
