When you want advanced lighting controls, you may want to take a closer look at the popular and highly rated Lutron Caseta Wireless Smart Light System. This works with just about every dimmable smart light bulb out there, and even with halogen and incandescent light bulbs. Its features are so astounding and its performance so reliable that it has received numerous accolades from customers and industry experts alike since it was launched in 2016.

Contents

What You Get with the Kit

The Lutron Caseta Wireless Smart Light Dimmer Kit consists of the following items:

  • Two (2) Pico remotes. Like any smart lighting system, the Lutron Caseta allows you to control your lights through an app in your smartphone. But what if you’re home and (hey, it can happen) you’re not currently holding your smartphone? Or perhaps your smartphone is currently charging? Then this Pico remote still gives you remote control over your lights. You can attach it to a wall plate if you want, or place it on a table pedestal.
  • Two (2) dimmer switches with wall plates. Some people are annoyed that they always need to use a remote when they wish to turn on their home lights. If you miss coming into a room to turn on the lights with a switch on the wall, you’ll appreciate having these dimmer switches for your wall. You can use these to simply turn on your lights and these walls witches let you dim them too. This doesn’t need a neutral wire to install, and the installation can take about 15 minutes.
  • Smart bridge. This is the device which connects your switches with your Wi-Fi network. You just have to plug it into its power source, though you need an Ethernet connection to your router.
  • Free app. This works for iOS and Android devices.

Compatibilities

So what exactly works with what? That’s often the problem with many smart devices and systems, as you can’t just pick and choose devices that work with any home automation system.

But Lutron doesn’t really sell smart light bulbs. Their system instead is compatible with over 1,000 dimmable light bulbs plus halogen lights and incandescent bulbs. Each dimmer switch can handle 17 light bulbs per circuit, if they’re 8.5W LED lights or 60W incandescent bulbs. The limit is 150W for dimmable LED and CFL lights, and 600W for incandescent and halogen lights.

The Lutron Caseta also works with just about every leading Smart Home brands out there. These include the voices assistants Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri. You can get this to work with Nest, IFTTT, Wink, Ecobee, Honeywell, Sonos, and even Serena Shades.

What Can You Do with the Lutron Caseta?

It’s safe to say that you can do a lot with the Lutron Caseta.

  • You can group your lights (porch lights, kitchen lights, living room lights, downstairs lights, etc.) and then you can use a voice command to control them easily. So you can ask Alexa or Siri to turn off all the lights downstairs, or perhaps just the kitchen lights, and the voice assistant will understand your command.
  • The dimmer switches will actually dim the lights. The controls are right there on the wall. Many of the cheaper wall light switches won’t let you dim the lights as they’re either on or off.
  • The app lets you do lots of things with the lights that you can do with other smart light bulbs, like automatically turn them on or off at specific times.
  • You can also turn on or off your lights randomly, to avoid the “Home Alone” scenario. This is when the burglar knows you’re not home because the lights turn on at exactly the same time as always. This “Smart Away” feature turns on the lights in a way that simulates when someone’s in the house.
  • However, you can also program the lights to turn on at times depending on the season or Daylights Savings Time. For example, you can program the lights to turn on at sunset—that will be at different times in summer or in winter.
  • Then there’s the geofencing mode. This is when your smart home automation system tracks your movement by checking the GPS of your smartphone (which is in all likelihood always with you). So when you’re nearing your home, your porch lights may turn on, or if you’re near your bedroom the lights there will be on when you enter. Conversely, when you leave an area or your home the lights can turn off automatically.
  • This works with a whole bunch of smart devices. For example, it works with your Serena Shades and Sonos. So you can have a morning program (you can program this at sunrise and not just at a specific time if you want) when your lights turn on at a very dim level, your window shades open, and you get a morning music playlist.
  • Or let’s say you want to watch a movie. You can tell your voice assistant that it’s movie time, and it will close the shades if it’s daytime or turn off or dim the lights if it’s night time. You can set various programs with different settings for parties, dinner events, reading, relaxing, or doing homework.
  • Don’t forget, this works with your smart thermostats too. So you can incorporate your lights in your programmed settings for summer or winter.

Pros

It’s easy to see why this Lutron Caseta Wireless Smart Light System is so popular with so many.

  • The kit offers various ways for you to control your lights. You can use a wall switch, your smartphone, the Pico remote, or your voice assistant. You can even find controls for your smart light bulbs in the Apple Home app on iOS devices. If you have an iPhone, the Home app also lets you transfer the individual light controls to your iPhone’s Control Center.
  • Everything’s simple and uncomplicated. The installation isn’t all that hard, the app is easy to use, and you’ll have fun devising programs and settings for various scenarios.
  • With your defined groups, you can simply tell your voice assistant torn on or off (or adjust the brightness) of the various lights you want. So you can give voice commands to turn on the living room lights or the upstairs lights, or the lights outside.
  • It’s great that you don’t have to limit your programming to specific times, but also to season-specific times like sunset and sunrise. You can now program your porch lights to turn on at sunset so it works when it’s dark and not when it’s still bright outside.
  • It’s astounding how this works with seemingly everything. You’ll get plenty of options for smart LED light bulbs, along with CFL, halogen, and traditional incandescent bulbs. It works with just about every major home automation system as well.
  • It’s great that you can really set the scene with this system, as it works with smart shades, smart speakers, and smart thermostats. So if you want a morning program or a smart setting for reading, you can get your smart devices working together.
  • The Smart Away feature gives you a way to have your lights turn on randomly as if you’re there. Now you don’t have to imagine a burglar (who looks like Joe Pesci) grinning when he can predict when your lights turn on.
  • The geofencing feature can be very convenient, as you won’t have to give orders at all when you enter a dark room. Also, you won’t have to worry that you left the lights on when you’re at work, as they can turn themselves off when you’re away.
  • If you’re used to cheaper light systems, you’d be amazed at how reliable Lutron’s system is. Everything just works as intended. One of the headaches that some smart light bulb users suffer is how some systems just won’t work every now and then. At least with the traditional switches, everything works all the time. But now Lutron offers that same level of reliability.
  • The switches, and even the Pico remote and the smart bridge, all look nice too. The switches are available in white, ivory, light almond, and black to suit your interior design.

Cons

Well, not even the Lutron Caseta is perfect.

  • As the Caseta was launched in 2016, several advances since then have come up that aren’t available in this system. The most notable feature it lacks is its inability to gradually dim or brighten over a period of time, which can be found in other light bulb systems. So this means when you wake up, you can’t have your lights turn off at a very dim level and then gradually become brighter over the next 15 minutes.
  • While it seems to accommodate every smart light bulb there is, there are still some brands that won’t work with the Lutron Caseta. You have to check first.
  • When you turn on the lights with the wall switch, it always activates with the highest brightness settings for the lights. It can be annoying when you use the wall switch to turn on the light at night in the bedroom and someone inside sleeping.

Conclusion

Aside from the lack of gradual turn on and off, the Lutron Caseta Wireless Smart Light offers an excellent smart light bulb for your money. With its various compatibilities, you can make sure your lighting system can work with all your other smart devise for a fully smart home.