Smart Lighting Calculator

Smart lighting can mean anything from a handful of smart switches to a bulb in every socket, so this calculator maps your chosen automation level onto a concrete hardware list. At the Basic level it assumes you're controlling groups from the wall rather than individual fixtures, so it counts one smart switch per room plus one for every three outdoor lights, with zero smart bulbs. At Moderate it splits the difference: switches cover about 70% of rooms while smart bulbs handle roughly 30% of indoor fixtures (the accent and color-changing zones people usually want individual control over) plus every outdoor light, since exterior fixtures are rarely grouped behind a single switch. At Full, every single fixture — indoor and outdoor — gets its own smart bulb, with one switch per room retained purely for physical wall control.

Whatever mix comes out, the tool assumes any Zigbee or Z-Wave setup needs at least one hub as soon as there's a single smart device, then adds one more for every additional ~50 devices beyond that first hub's capacity, and prices hardware at approximate street rates of $12 per bulb, $30 per switch, and $60 per hub. The energy-savings estimate is independent of the automation math: it compares a 60‑watt incandescent-equivalent fixture running 6 hours a day against a 9‑watt LED smart bulb, then layers on an extra scheduling/occupancy savings of 10%, 12%, or 15% depending on your automation level, valued at $0.12 per kWh. That savings figure assumes every fixture in the home is being replaced and controlled, so if you're only automating a subset of rooms, scale the annual savings down proportionally rather than taking it at face value.