Are Smart Bulbs safe for my lovebirds?

[Lysh87]

Hi I’m looking to get new lightbulbs in the room my birds live in. It is also my office so the lights are on most of the day. I’ve been reading about flickering and how it can be irritating. Can anyone help me with this? I was thinking smart bulbs would be great as I can pick a colour that may be nicer for them and can dim them to put them to bed and wake them up? New bird owner here so I’m just learning!

 

[SailBoat]

Smart light bulbs that one can switch, which color source is a nice gimmick but a very poor choice for a bird room or and office. LED, Daylight Bulbs that can be dimmed are a great choice as your can adjust the light in the room to duplicate the natural light outside.

Assure that the light fixture is connected to a light switch that is designed with a builtin dimmer. And that the LED Light Bulb includes the dimming feature.

NOTE; Never exceed the Maximum Wattage of the light fixture!!

With a dimmer you can and should adjust the light in the room to match outside. That means that you start with a near dark room in the early morning and fully bright at high-noon and then dimming back to a near dark room during the early evening. This assures that you do not screw with your biological clock or your Parrots!

I hope this helps!

 

[Lysh87]

Smart light bulbs that one can switch, which color source is a nice gimmick but a very poor choice for a bird room or and office. LED, Daylight Bulbs that can be dimmed are a great choice as your can adjust the light in the room to duplicate the natural light outside.

Assure that the light fixture is connected to a light switch that is designed with a builtin dimmer. And that the LED Light Bulb includes the dimming feature.

NOTE; Never exceed the Maximum Wattage of the light fixture!!

With a dimmer you can and should adjust the light in the room to match outside. That means that you start with a near dark room in the early morning and fully bright at high-noon and then dimming back to a near dark room during the early evening. This assures that you do not screw with your biological clock or your Parrots!

I hope this helps!

Thank you for your reply, this does help! So what about a smart bulb that does not change colour but does dim via my phone, will that be okay or is that still not good for them?

I thought I read something about dimming can cause more irritation flickering that they can see (even though we can’t?)

 

[SailBoat]

Are you talking about a smart light switch /dimmer that can adjust a light source? That makes sense as a Smart Light Bulb would be an expensive item that has a limited life when compared to a light switch that can be dimmed.

Irritation from flickering is an issue that occurs at the lower extreme of adjusting the light level. This commonly occurs when one has over-sized the light bulb(s) for the room and are selecting a dimming level to close to the bottom of the dimming range. Example: Placing a 100 Watt bulb in a room that needs no more than a 60 Watt bulb.

Hopes that helps!
Smart lighting is great for turning on or off, but over-kill for lighting levels. Just because you can, does not mean you need to!

 

[Lysh87]

Are you talking about a smart light switch /dimmer that can adjust a light source? That makes sense as a Smart Light Bulb would be an expensive item that has a limited life when compared to a light switch that can be dimmed.

Irritation from flickering is an issue that occurs at the lower extreme of adjusting the light level. This commonly occurs when one has over-sized the light bulb(s) for the room and are selecting a dimming level to close to the bottom of the dimming range. Example: Placing a 100 Watt bulb in a room that needs no more than a 60 Watt bulb.

Hopes that helps!
Smart lighting is great for turning on or off, but over-kill for lighting levels. Just because you can, does not mean you need to!

Okay you really helped me with understanding that wattage part and flickering! Thank you! For me it’s cheaper to buy the smart bulb that I can dim on a phone with an app than to rewrite and buy a dimmer switch. I’m not certain my dad would appreciate that extra work of switching out my light switch. Here is a picture of the bulbs I wanted to buy from Amazon (I don’t need to use the colours, just white warm/cold).

 

[Skarila]

Just a little suggestion - as SailBoat already mentioned flickering, you can check this by turning on the camera on your phone and aiming towards the bulb while it is on - If you see the flickering/moving picture on your phone - not good! if there is no flickering, then it is good! This is how we chose and bought bulbs for our home (Ikea for example always has bulbs on display so we could check)

 

[Cottonoid]

Just a little suggestion - as SailBoat already mentioned flickering, you can check this by turning on the camera on your phone and aiming towards the bulb while it is on - If you see the flickering/moving picture on your phone - not good! if there is no flickering, then it is good! This is how we chose and bought bulbs for our home (Ikea for example always has bulbs on display so we could check)

I've never heard of this trick and I tried it on a smart bulb I use in my bedroom to mimic sunrise/sunset - the difference between that bulb and normal bulbs is very obvious! Thanks for sharing this!