Best Buy is giving people a chance to experience the fully-connected home life with a Tech Home that is on display in the rotunda of Minnesota's Mall of America through September 17. The multi-room home has a wide array of connected appliances and devices, including one of my favorites, the Phillips Hue smart lighting system.

There are really two reasons to consider buying the lighting system: convenience and the quality of your home's lighting. The convenience factor is an easy sell. By connecting the Phillips Hue lighting system into your connected home system, you can use your smartphone or tablet to control the lights from anywhere. Whether that means turning on your living room lights before you're getting out of the car to adjusting the lights to provide the perfect home theater experience. Lights are often overlooked when planning a connected home, but they are an integral part of everyday life.

The best way to start is with a Philips Hue LED White and Color Ambiance A19 Starter Kit. The kit includes a wireless bridge that allows you to control any of the connected lights from your smartphone. It also includes three LED lights to get you started.

Most people know that LED lights are very energy efficient. But these LED lights can also display a rainbow of colors, allowing you to create the scene for everything from a quiet romantic dinner to a high-energy Friday night party. And all of it can be programmed and controlled remotely.

If you're not quite ready for more color in your life, there is also a white color only starter kit, but even that offers you an array of choices. You can select different shades of white lighting to fit your mood, including "energize" (which wakes you up), "concentrate" (which helps you study more effectively) and "relax" (softer yellow shade).

There are also a number of optional add-ons to the Phillips Hue lighting system, including dimmer switches and flexible LED multi-color lighting strips, which can be bent to fit your needs.

You'll have a lot of questions as you walk through the Tech Home, but there are plenty of Best Buy Blue Shirt experts and Geek Squad Agents around to answer questions and provide tips on how you can get started. Best Buy carries the latest and greatest in connected home technology products and their agents can can bring the experience to life by getting your tech connected and up and running.

The Best Buy Tech Home will be on display through September 17.  Come and visit Tech Home at the Mall of America to learn how you could win a $10,000 Best Buy Gift Card, a Samsung SmartThings Smart Home Collection, Samsung Dream Kitchen, and a Samsung 55” SUHD 4K TV and more. 



Be one of the first 250 to visit the Tech Home at the Mall of America each day from 8/22-9/17 and you could win one of many prizes made with Qualcomm technologies including Sonos Play:1 speakers, Samsung Gear S2, and more.
Abbreviated Rules: No purchase necessary. See www.BestBuy.com/TechHome for full rules.

NOTE: The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.