[Updated 05/27]With over 20 years of active service and production of LED lights, TCP Lighting has gathered the requisite reputation for a trust-worthy and reliable light. In line with this, it has made groundbreaking endeavors in many areas and aspects of LED lamps such that leaves testimonials in its trails.
Before now, the prominent Connected by TCP Wireless bulb has proved itself to have the capacity of a super LED lights that fit your home need as well as your pocket.
In comparison with what is available on the smart light market, it is a brand to reckon with. The A19 bulbs are designed to be light weight and very durable to withstand harsh conditions. This feature specifically made them an excellent lighting choice for exposed areas of your home.
On top of this, it outputs a constant 2,700 kelvins of color temperature making it a very competitive smart light considering the low selling price when compared to other smart lights like Philips Hue and Lifx. Although they are non-colored white LED bulbs, TCP LED bulbs comfortable selection for potential users who seek to enter into the connected light bulb ecosystem.
Another added advantage worth considering as tipping factors are a long lifespan, low energy consumption rate and lower cost. These features don’t always come cheap. So, for those who know their game, they will understand why TCP lamps are a choice option if your lighting need is for simple white lights and efficiency at an affordable price.
Get To Know The Starter Kit
Containing three A 19 bulbs, one “Gateway” hub and one remote control, the Starter Kit is packed with all that is required for you to start you up with the LED light journey. Each bulb in the starter kit emits some 800 lumens of bright white lights that are equivalent to the same amount produced by the ordinary incandescent lamp.
Better than the ordinary incandescent lamp, TCP Connected LED lights save you money while it works. At a 3-hours daily usage rate, the LED lights are fitted to last some 22 years of use. Now, that is far better than any incandescent bulbs can offer and a little above what some smart lights in the same category offers.
For a lower price, you may decide to opt for the 2-pack kit that has two bulbs and the hub. In this case, you will have to purchase the remote separately whenever you deem it needed.
Like the Hue Bridge, TCP’s Gateway hub is the center of control for the connected bulbs. The point from which you can conveniently monitor and manage the connected bulbs. Boasting of the capacity to control 250 bulbs, which is a whole lot more that the Hue Bridge and app claim to control. So, that is another point in favor of TCP lights in comparison with other LED lamps in the same category.
With a remote control that works perfectly within 150 feet range, you can adjust, manage and set the LED bulbs from a good distance. There is also the ability to operate up to 4 light bulbs from the remote and turn them on and off when you want to. I’ll say that is a whole lot better for when your phone is not readily available for you to use the app.
Features Of TCP Lighting
TCP Lighting lamps have many features that endear it to its teeming users and growing number of new users. From durability to sophisticated app, cost effective and energy efficient bulbs, the brand has been fancied by many users. In this part of the review, I will be examining these features in details to determine how they appeal to would-be users.
Durability
The A 19, BR 30 and CFL bulbs are very durable and efficient in light emission. For the most part, a huge fraction of LED bulbs available on the market today do not have the capacity for outdoor use. If anything, they can only be used in interior spaces.
As an added advantage to the longer life span of the smart lights, the A 19 bulbs can also be used in moisture and dampened area like the bathroom and exterior area like the porch areas of your home. Even with use in these regions that expose the TCP lights to moist and damp, it still promises some three years warranty on the LED bulbs. Smart lighting couldn’t get any better or more promising than this.
Intuitive App
Available for Android and iOS users, the app is well-designed and easy to use. For a smart light, you wouldn’t expect that the app should be dumb looking and clumsy. It just meets that expectation, if not surpass it. Quite a number of people are agreed on the fact the sleek nature of the app is borne out of its long experiential existence. Therefore, it has seen years of tests, development, and upgrades that now makes it a super reliable and intuitive app for users.
The home screen, you ae greeted with a well-documented and stratified system that delineates settings and other management tabs. You also have the “home” which denotes the particular bulbs in your house and how to schedule them. With this kind of settings, you can effectively group your bulbs into different strata for easier and more accessible control. What is more, the app is designed for easier control, so it should deliver just that or more. Well, TCP smart lights make that available for you.
Non-Compatibility With Third-Party Apps
You will agree with me that this is a feature too, albeit a negative one. TCP lighting bulbs do not make provisions for third party apps like SmartThings, Apple HomeKit, and Amazon Alexa to work with them. Even the more widely accessible IFTTT feature is not welcomed for use with this LED light. This is a major setback that poses a big drawback to the smartness of the TCP bulbs. If for nothing, the fact that these apps make for better sophistication in home lighting deliveries makes users require them.
If all you care about in this regard is the ability to use your bulbs remotely and not preference for popular names, then WigWag is there to the rescue. With WigWag, you can connect your TCP bulbs to the Relay “hub” and control the lights in your home from anywhere even on the go. This is made available by connecting to the WigWag cloud that allows you manipulate your lights from anywhere that you are. Big names like Apple HomeKits and Alexa does just about the same thing, so you are covered in that area.
Our Verdict
As earlier pointed out, simplicity and efficiency are what TCP Lighting offers. So, it doesn’t compete finely with the popular color changing bulbs like Hue and Lifx. On the part of span and lumen/kelvin metrics, it doesn’t have so much to offer too.
However, it shines brightly in the area of durability, uniqueness, cost effectiveness and energy efficiency. Therefore, it will comfortably fill your lighting need if these things are what you desire when opting for a LED light. More so, given the transient nature of human fascination, color changing lights soon lose their fancy in no time. This is where LED lamps like TCP Lighting take preeminence.