Making Dumb Solar Lights Smarter for Winter (A Tech Guy’s Guide)

Your Philips Hue lights are perfect indoors, but outside, you’re stuck with “dumb” solar. Let’s bridge the gap with some hacks.

First, the gateway drug: Get a Ring Solar Pathlight or a Eufy Solar Wall Light. These connect to your home Wi-Fi/App. You’ll get alerts if they stop charging, and you can force them to stay on or adjust schedules from your phone. No more guessing.

The advanced play: For non-smart lights, install a smart outdoor plug (like a Wyze Plug Outdoor) in a protected outlet. Plug a low-wattage LED spotlight into it. Use the smart plug’s schedule to turn it on at 4:30 PM and off at 11 PM. Use your solar lights as secondary fill-in light. This guarantees your walkway is lit, and the solar handles the decorative part.

Think of solar as your battery backup for your smart outdoor lighting system.