Of all the everyday objects being upgraded to smart devices for the home, it seems the ubiquitous light bulb is getting quite a bit of action. From motion sensors to speakers, the light bulb is getting smarter and being layered with more secondary functions, acting as a gateway for a myriad of connected services.

The latest smart bulb combo is a light and a proactive security system, deterring burglars and aiding in home emergency scenarios. BeON officially launches its Home platform today, now available to the public. The startup is taking a novel approach to home protection with the use of smart modules hidden inside LED light bulbs, which can be trained and also passively learn home occupants’ behavior for mimicking home activity and guiding users to safety in the event of a power outage, fire or carbon monoxide leak.

“Right now, your home is the only place without emergency lighting – you have it in schools, stores, and offices – literally everywhere except where you need it most,” said Alexei Erchak, CEO and cofounder of BeON Home. With rechargeable batteries built in, the BeON modules provide power for backup lighting during a power outage. The smart modules also hear fire or carbon monoxide alarms and turn on the BeON bulbs for instant exit lighting so that your family can escape.

I’ve spent the last week testing the BeON system. Included in my package were three BeON bulbs and three smart modules, one for each bulb. Here’s my review:

Setup

Setting up the bulbs is easy enough – slide in the smart modules, screw the bulbs into their respective sockets and download the app to your smartphone. The BeON bulbs are quite convenient in that they fit standard U.S. light sockets, are charged through the sockets so there’s no need to replace the batteries, and don’t require connectivity to your home Wi-Fi network.

In lieu of Wi-Fi, the bulbs communicate with each other and your smartphone via Bluetooth, which BeON says is safer from, say, hackers than Wi-Fi connectivity. For some smart home products, Bluetooth-only connectivity would be a limiting factor keeping users from remotely controlling gadgets when away from home, but the BeON bulbs are designed to require minimal human interaction. This just adds to the convenience factor, but it’s worth noting that these lights aren’t necessarily for constantly controlling through an app. They don’t change colors, you can’t set scenes for date night. They serve a very distinct service, the cornerstones of which are safety and minimal human interaction.

As the bulbs are utilitarian by design, the app is equally as straightforward and helps simplify the setup process. Upon opening the app, the bulbs are immediately detected and added to the app. What I appreciate about the bulb-app interaction is that the bulbs will “blink” in acknowledgement when they’ve been added to the app, and also when their settings have been changed for other functions (read on). From this initial setup screen you can rename your bulbs (they’re numbered by default), and troubleshoot for any bulbs the system may have missed in the auto setup.

It’s important to note, however, that one drawback of being Bluetooth connected means there’s potential for interference with other Bluetooth devices in the home. Before the BeON app was able to recognize the bulbs, I had to disconnect by Bluetooth from another company’s smart bulb system I’m currently using in my home. So managing both systems at any given time would require my going to the phone settings or to the respective app to connect or disconnect the Bluetooth.

General settings for the bulbs include brightness levels (turning the brightness down will not, however, turn the bulb all the way off), battery status, and the functions for which the bulb has been trained (doorbell and alarm). From a bulb’s settings menu, you can also remove (disconnect) it from the phone.

Features

Similar to the Nest Learning Thermostat, BeON bulbs passively learn your behavior with every flick of the light switch. From this data, BeON will determine sequences for turning lights off and on throughout the house, having noted that you may turn on the foyer light, then kitchen light, followed by the living room light, in that order.

Welcome Home

With Welcome Home, the lights will turn on on for three minutes as you enter the house and get settled.

What’s lacking in the Welcome Home feature is the ability to automatically trigger the light sequence upon arriving home – you’ll need to open the BeON app and click “Welcome Home” to activate this feature.

Doorbell Lighting

The Doorbell feature is an interesting one, as you can train the bulbs to recognize the sound of your doorbell to trigger a light sequence that is meant to mimic activity in the home. I thought training the bulbs for the doorbell audio cue would be more difficult and time consuming, but it took just a few seconds to complete. Perhaps the only hiccup in training BeON bulbs for audio cues was keeping my dog quiet so as not to confuse the lights. Fortunately my alarmist papillon was unusually cooperative, considering he’ll bark at something so trivial as a leaf falling to the ground.

There are a handful of manual options for the Doorbell feature, setting the order of the lights to turn on and changing the duration of time between each bulb is turned on. Each light will remain on for 60 seconds after activation.

While the Doorbell feature is interesting, it’s also limited in reasonable use cases. I imagine mimicking home activity could deter a burglar trying to case the house, but for a neighbor stopping by to say hello, they could feel a bit offput if they think someone is home but ignores their visit. Of course, this latter scenario would only happen if you’re away from home.

Security Lighting

This is an option to set your lights into auto-mode when away from home, and encompasses the learned lighting behavior as well as the doorbell-triggered capabilities. Just toggle the switch for Security Lighting to put this in motion.

You can see your bulbs’ learned interaction patterns under the “Lighting” tab, found in the “Security Lighting” menu from the home page. There’s an option to preview the lights’ sequencing over an entire week, broken down by day. You can play the preview at multiple speeds, which sets your lights flickering in a data-driven dance.

Another option I hope to see from BeON is the ability to manually schedule light sequences for something like a Vacation setting. While I may find a manual schedule helpful, BeON explained to me that a core value of its system is to keep the user experience as easy as possible, centering the bulk of light-human interaction around the actual light switch.

Note: there is one option under Security Lighting that’s not yet activated, currently labeled “Activation.” BeON has not indicated what this module will be, only that it’s not yet available.

Safety Lighting

Perhaps the most useful feature in BeON’s system is the Safety Lighting option, which will activate lights when a smoke detector or carbon monoxide detector goes off. The training for this is the same as for the Doorbell feature, but a little more obnoxious (it’s a smoke detector, after all). Just hit the test button on your smoke detector to train the bulbs for this audio cue, and keep all other noise in the home to a minimum.

The purpose of activating lights in an emergency scenario is to help guide you out of the house safely.

The Power Outage feature is also extremely useful, as the lights can be controlled from the app. From this menu you can turn all the lights on or off with the click of one button. There’s also the option to turn individual bulbs off or on. You can also see the exact battery percentage for each bulb, and change the bulb brightness. They are set to the lowest dimness possible by default, to preserve battery life, but you can make the lights brighter if needed.

The final feature of the BeON lighting system is the Slow Fade, which is a nice perk, especially for those afraid of the dark. For each bulb enabled under the Slow Fade setting, the light will dim down over 10 seconds to give you time to navigate out the room after turning off the light switch.

Pros

• Being battery operated, the BeON bulbs are able to provide light in power outages, and can function even when the Wi-Fi goes out.
• The smart modules in the bulbs are removable, which means they’re upgradable. This is the software core of BeON’s smart lighting system, future-proofing it to some extent. BeON tells me they plan to add more device connectivity through these smart modules in the coming months, and will also leverage them for firmware updates.

Cons

• Bluetooth-only connectivity means the bulbs can’t be controlled when away from home, and can interfere with the management of other Bluetooth-connected devices.
• The use cases for the BeON system are still rather limited, so this product is not recommended for those looking to fully automate lighting for a vacation home, or even to fully replace socket timers on lamps, as there’s no manual scheduling capabilities.