Lighting is one of the smart home market's first and broadest categories. It's also one of the first areas of the home most people aim to smarten, and smart light bulbs have come a long way in giving us light at the tap of a button or the sound of your voice. What if you don't want to replace every bulb with its smart counterpart?

The Noon Smart Lighting System, a new startup in smart lighting, is here to help with a $400 starter kit that replaces your existing light switches, recognizes the light bulbs you already have and creates custom lighting scenes you can control via switch, app or voice commands.

The catch? It's too expensive, and it isn't compatible with nearly as many smart home products as Lutron's more affordable Caseta line of switches.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

What exactly is the Noon Smart Lighting System?

The Noon Smart Lighting System system takes existing light fixtures and bulbs and identifies them to create what's termed a "layered light experience." Layered light is a technique in lighting design that dims or brightens each light in a room to create a certain ambience.

The Noon Smart Lighting System is made to orchestrate three types of lighting: ambient, task and accent. Ambient lighting includes things like overhead lights, which often provide the majority of a room's light. Task lighting refers to items like lamps or under-cabinet lights used for illuminating a workspace or specific area. Accent lighting is a more decorative type, like wall sconces or lamps that aren't task-related. Noon says it uses machine learning and algorithms to recognize the type of bulbs you have in your home by detecting the amount of power going to each bulb. The system is compatible with dimmable and non-dimmable bulbs, incandescent bulbs, LEDs, CFLs, fluorescent bulbs and ELV (electronic low voltage) or MLV (magnetic low voltage) fixtures.

The Noon Smart Lighting System is built around a "room director" switch, which wirelessly controls every other switch in the room, also known as "extension switches". A room director must be installed in each room the Noon Smart Lighting System is controlling. The room director has a futuristic, but familiar shape with a glass, OLED touchscreen display. The room director detects movement and lights up when you walk by, displaying the current light scene. Swipe up or down on the room director's touchscreen to change scenes. Clicking the bottom of the room director turns all the lights in a room on or off.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Extension switches control individual light fixtures. These are meant to replace all the switches in your room. Extension switches communicate wirelessly with the room director to coordinate each light. You can also control individual lights from these switches by turning them on or off or using the switch's small bars to dim lights up or down. The Noon Smart Lighting System can function as either a single-pole or a multi-way switch. If you're using the switches in a multi-way configuration, Noon supports up to four switches per circuit. You'll need to replace each switch with an extension switch.

Noon does have its limitations. It isn't compatible with switch-controlled power outlets, fans, light fixtures with built-in fans, appliances or any other non-lighting product. Most of that isn't a large concern, but there are several rooms in my house in which the ceiling fan and its three or four lightbulbs are the main source of light. Noon won't work for that.

Installation

Before purchasing the Noon Smart Lighting System system, you'll need to be sure your wiring includes the required neutral and ground wires. This may rule out some older homes, unless you're willing to update your existing wiring. The Noon Smart Lighting System is 120V compatible and not intended for use with 240V circuits.

Noon Home

Installing the Noon Smart Lighting System's switches and panels isn't too tricky, but if you aren't comfortable doing any electrical work, the Noon Smart Lighting System partners with InstallerNet's team of trained professionals to get you up and running. I'm no electrician, and I successfully installed a room director switch in the CNET Smart Home easily with the use of Noon Home's step-by-step video tutorial. The starter kit also includes an instruction booklet. Here is Noon's official recommendation, taken from those instructions:

"If you've installed light switches before and are comfortable with high voltage wiring, installing a Noon switch is easy. If not, we highly recommend hiring a professional installer."

For installation, you'll need a screwdriver, voltage detector and wire strippers, along with the items included in the Noon Lighting System starter kit. As with any electrical work, always be sure the power is off at the circuit breaker before touching any wiring. The Noon Lighting System provides labels to identify each wire, and I recommended you label before detaching any wires from their original switch. From there, follow the instructions provided to wire your new switches.

The Noon Smart Lighting System puts some thoughtful provisions into the installation process. The kit comes with a handy sheet for protecting your wall, and the switches simply clip into the wall plate. While you're working with the wiring behind the switches, you can also hang an uninstalled switch from the wall plate by an outer clip system. This allows you a free hand that would otherwise be busy holding the switch while you attach the wires.

Once every wire is securely connected and the switches clipped in place, turn the circuit breaker back on for the lights in your room. Check for a good connection by pressing the Noon switches to turn the lights on and off. If that doesn't work, you'll need to do some troubleshooting.