Smart lighting without rewiring

Why renters should skip the wall switch

Replacing a wall switch means opening a box with household wiring. Many leases forbid alterations, and in some places the work requires a licensed electrician. The Electrical Safety Foundation International recommends hiring a qualified, licensed electrician for electrical work in your home. A renter has an extra reason: switches stay with the apartment, and a smart switch you leave behind is money lost.

Everything below plugs in, screws in or sticks on. Rules vary by state and city, and leases differ, so check yours for clauses on alterations and adhesives. If you have a disability and need an adaptation, the Fair Housing Act allows reasonable modifications at your own expense, and a landlord can ask you to restore the interior at the end of the tenancy where that is reasonable.

Five ways to get smart lights with no wiring

Keep the wall switch from cutting power to smart bulbs

A smart bulb that loses power cannot hear commands. The usual renter fix is a switch guard, a clear plastic cover that fits over a rocker or toggle and keeps it on. You can also stick a label on the switch plate. Another option is a battery wireless remote placed near the switch, or one beside the bed that controls the same bulbs. These leave the wiring untouched.

If you want the switch to keep working normally, a motorized finger pusher can flip it for you, but then a person flipping the switch off will still disconnect smart bulbs, so it suits fixtures with standard bulbs. For deciding between bulbs and switches in general, see smart bulbs vs smart switches.

Plan by room

• Living room: smart bulbs in table and floor lamps. Group them in the app as one “room”, and add a button near the sofa. Add a smart plug for a lamp that has a standard bulb.
• Bedroom: warm bulbs (2700 K) in bedside lamps, scenes for “wind down” and “wake up”, and set the bulb’s power-on setting to off. See why smart bulbs turn on after an outage.
• Kitchen: plug-in under-cabinet bars on a smart plug. See smart under-cabinet lighting.
• Hallway and bathroom: a battery motion sensor that sticks to the wall and triggers one bulb at night at low brightness.
• Ceiling fixtures: screw in smart bulbs (check the bulb type, enclosed fixtures and maximum wattage on the socket label).

Choose the radio carefully

A rented apartment often has one router and no hub. Wi-Fi bulbs and Bluetooth bulbs need nothing else. If you plan more than a handful, a Matter over Thread setup may suit you better, because many smart speakers and displays already include a Thread border router. Matter devices can be used with Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa and others, and you can move them to your next place. Read how to choose smart bulbs for sockets, lumens and connections.

Keep your accounts secure: the FTC advises unique passwords, two-factor authentication and regular updates for connected devices. Do not share lighting accounts with former roommates.

Move-out checklist

1. Put the original bulbs back in the fixtures.
2. Remove adhesive remotes, strips and guards, using heat from a hair dryer and slow peeling to protect paint.
3. Remove the devices from your account and factory reset them.
4. Pack the bulbs, plugs and remotes. They work in your next place.

The Department of Energy says residential LEDs use at least 75% less energy than incandescent lighting, so smart LED bulbs you take with you cost little to keep on.