How to connect Alexa to the lights

Smart lights are undoubtedly the first step in bringing the concept of home automation into the home, i.e. remote control (even with the help of voice commands) of all our electrical devices. If we decided to buy one or more smart bulbs and we wanted to control them with the voice commands offered by Amazon Echo and Alexa, in this guide we will show you how to connect Alexa to the lights and what voice commands we can use on them.
As a chapter we will show you which smart lights are definitely compatible with Alexa and Amazon Echo, so as to be sure that you can correctly configure the voice commands for them.
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Lights and sockets compatible with Amazon Alexa

Before doing anything with the voice commands, we will have to make sure that the smart lights are compatible with Alexa, otherwise we will not be able to add them to the system and control them remotely. If we have already purchased smart lights, we check whether "Amazon Alexa compatible" or "Amazon Echo compatible" is specified on the packaging or in the manual.
If we don't have any compatible lights or bulbs, we can consider purchasing an Alexa-compatible LED light, such as the models listed below.

1. Smart WiFi Bulb Smart LED Bulb E27 RGBW, Bawoo (13 €)
2. TP-Link KL110 E27 Wi-Fi Bulb, Works with Amazon Alexa (14 €)
3. Smart Bulb, LOFTer Smart WiFi Bulb E27 RGB 7W (16 €)
4. Philips Lighting Hue White LED bulbs, E27 socket, 9 W (2 pieces, € 29)
5. TECKIN E27 Dimmable Multicolor Smart LED Bulb (49 €)

If instead we wanted to reuse the bulbs we already have (without compatibility), we can also consider the purchase of smart adapters for any bulb, such as that offered by Smart WiFi E27 Light socket, Aicase Intelligent WLAN (€ 29).

We want to adapt living room or bedroom lights (those with dedicated electrical outlets) "> Smart socket WiFi Smart Plug Remote control ZOOZEE (24 €)

Osram Smart + Plug Zigbee (24 €)

TP-Link Wi-Fi socket with Energy Monitoring HS110 (29 €)

WiFi Smart Plug Smart Plug Energy Monitor Plug (4 pieces, 20 €)

All the products listed are compatible with Alexa, the only thing we have to do is connect them to our Wi-Fi network (following the instructions in the user manual), use the respective apps to configure remote access (we will be asked to create a new account) and, only after this basic configuration, we can proceed with the configuration of Alexa.

Connect the lights to Amazon Alexa

After connecting the smart bulbs (or the recommended sockets or adapters) and correctly connecting them to the home Wi-Fi network, let's get a smartphone and install the Amazon Alexa app, available for Android and iOS.

After downloading the app, start it and log in with our Amazon account. If we don't have an Amazon account yet, we can quickly create one within the app or on the official website.
After logging in, we tap on Devices at the bottom right, select the + button at the top right and press on Add device . In the new screen we choose the option based on the type of device to be configured: Bulb to configure a Smart bulb; Socket in case we have an intelligent socket or Switch in case we have chosen the Wi-Fi adapter for simple bulbs.
Now let's go to What brand is it ?, select the brand of our device, select the Continue button then tap on the Enable use item; now we will be asked for the access credentials for the service associated with the lights, sockets or switch purchased (as seen in the previous chapter). After entering the right credentials, simply select Link now to add device control into Alexa .
If the brand of the device with appears, we can always tap on Other and manually configure the device, so as to appear within Alexa. After the connection we will only have to choose a name for the device, in which room or category to insert it (Kitchen, Living room etc.) and tap Done .
In the next chapter, we'll show you how to use voice commands to control lights with Alexa .

Voice commands with which to manage the lights

After adding all the devices to the Alexa app, we can use voice commands from the Alexa app or on an Amazon Echo configured with the same Amazon account used for configuration.

Below we find a list of commands that we can use to manage lights with Alexa:

• "Alexa, turn on the lights [room]"
• "Alexa, turn on [device name]"
• "Alexa, turn on all the lights in the living room"
• "Alexa, turn off all the lights in the house"
• "Alexa, turn on the living room lights at 6pm"
• "Alexa, wake me up at 20 and turn on all the lights in the house"

These are just some of the voice commands we can use once the lights are configured on Alexa. To learn more, please read our guide to the Functions of the Amazon Echo, what it is used for and what it does .

Conclusions

An important part of the future home automation is the presence of intelligent lights that can be controlled through voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa, which will allow you to have maximum control over compatible devices.
If we want to make the same changes with a Google Home (and therefore take advantage of Google Assistant) we recommend reading our article on What Google Home can do: voice assistant, music and home automation . We don't know what to choose between Amazon Alexa and Google Home "> Alexa or Google Home? Comparison between better and smart Smart Speakers.