I would like to get some Phillips Hue lights or similar

[SAWYER]

But this whole iot/home automation stuff seems like a disaster so far, is now a good time or should I wait for something better coming? I would prefer stuff that would be open and work with different things and be able to expand to other devices, no closed platform stuff.

 

[Commodus]

But this whole iot/home automation stuff seems like a disaster so far, is now a good time or should I wait for something better coming? I would prefer stuff that would be open and work with different things and be able to expand to other devices, no closed platform stuff.

I'd say that now is a fairly good time to jump in. Both Philips and LIFX recently put out their third-generation gear, and it's well-developed.

What you pick depends on the kind of ecosystem and features you're looking for. LIFX is better for integration with IFTTT and Alexa, for instance, but Hue talks to third-party bulbs (those that use Zigbee) and is always the kit that you know will work with your new voice assistant or smart hub. Google Home talked to Hue first!

I use a second-generation Hue kit and like it, in part because it works well with Apple gear. There's something slick to turning on your lights by talking to your watch.

 

[QueBert]

question to anyone using Hue, what app do you use to control it on iOS? Best Buy has the 2nd gen on sale for $150 so I picked it up last night. Won't have a chance to set it up for a few days. But I was looking in the App Store and both of Phillip's versions are about the worst reviewed apps I've seen. I see a bunch of 3rd party apps, but they seem to be more for tricking them lights out. For core functionality what's the best route to go? Reviews for the Hue lights are mostly good, would suck if the iOS app's are as bad as mostly all the reviews say.

As for the sale, the 2nd gen seems pretty close to the 3rd. They're not as bright, don't dim quite as low and some of the colors like green look off. But the price was right for me to test them out.

 

[Commodus]

question to anyone using Hue, what app do you use to control it on iOS? Best Buy has the 2nd gen on sale for $150 so I picked it up last night. Won't have a chance to set it up for a few days. But I was looking in the App Store and both of Phillip's versions are about the worst reviewed apps I've seen. I see a bunch of 3rd party apps, but they seem to be more for tricking them lights out. For core functionality what's the best route to go? Reviews for the Hue lights are mostly good, would suck if the iOS app's are as bad as mostly all the reviews say.

As for the sale, the 2nd gen seems pretty close to the 3rd. They're not as bright, don't dim quite as low and some of the colors like green look off. But the price was right for me to test them out.

Personally, I just use Apple's Home app (you need the Hue app for basic setup, but that's it). I created all my scenes there and use Siri to control them a lot of the time. Waking up my apartment with "hey Siri, good morning" is rather nice.

 

[QueBert]

Thanks for the reply, the reviews of the Phillip's apps are scary bad. I wasn't even thinking how the Home app should control everything. That's good to know.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I'm a little late to this thread, but I'll throw in my 2 cents. Lifx has the best color of the various color bulbs I've tested (Lifx, Osram, Hue, etc). Osram probably makes the most interesting form factors IMO (such as the garden minis, which I have outlining a flower bed), whereas Hue is pretty solid and can be found on good sales. I use all of these with SmartThings and Wink (I prefer SmartThings) and Lifx and Hue can directly integrate with Amazon Echo as well.

If you want to go with an HA platform now in order to take advantage of a ton of different sensors/lights/etc, I'd go with SmartThings. It is cheap (it was on sale for $50 over the holidays), has been reliable for me, and is open with a community of developers building apps and device handlers. Avoid Wink like the plague - it is a complete disaster at the moment and is a closed system with a lack of useful devices. I'm starting to pull things off of Wink and move them to SmartThings and will probably sell my Wink gear soon.

 

[cliftonite]

We are looking to build a house next year and that got me started on home automation. Is it better to get something like the Hue or put in smart switches thoughout the house? If so who are the leaders in that category?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

We are looking to build a house next year and that got me started on home automation. Is it better to get something like the Hue or put in smart switches thoughout the house? If so who are the leaders in that category?

Smart switches vs smart bulbs is an age-old question. The issue with smart bulbs is that they always require power, meaning that if they're in a fixture controlled by a switch, the switch must remain in the "On " position or else, the bulb will lose connectivity to its hub. Obviously, though, the only way to get colored lights is with smart bulbs. Smart bulbs (at least the plain white kind) are generally much cheaper than smart switches.

In my house, I only use smart bulbs in lamps, as those are easier to ensure that power remains on. For lights controlled by switches, instead of using smart switches, I have some smart relays attached to existing switches to control them. The relays are around the same price as the smart switches BUT can usually control two physical switches.

 

[Commodus]

One thing I've noticed: smart bulbs don't practically consume more power than the conventional kind, since their 'off' state still consumes very little energy. That and they tend to be very efficient LEDs that don't use much power even when they're at full brightness.

 

[ericlp]

I'll throw in my 3 cents........ I bought a TP Link TP100 basic wifi light, I don't really care if it's the warm one or not, but I prefer the sun light leds (bluish). They do offer a bluish or changeable color temp bulb but, I really wasn't too interested in it.

Anyway, I wired up another bulb receptacle next to the switched cree lamp I already had. Amazon had a pretty good sale, so I jumped on it early, I think I got it for 11 bucks but now it's price is 20 dollars or so.

The good --
* Don't need a hub since it's a wifi lamp
* The app it uses is pretty much set it and forget it.
* It's very nice for security to have a light turn on at a certain time
* can control the light from my phone away from the house - if you wanted
* The light dims to 50% at 7:30 for movies, kinda nice
* Bulb then dims to 30% after around 10PM
* Then it goes down to 1% after midnight (again security, offers enough light to appear someone could be up)
* This creates a really nice ambient light for going to the bathroom or late night getting up to do things.
* Bulb turns itself off at around 3AM
* you could set the bulb to do different things for each day as well
* saves power by dimming and secures the place with light.
* app has a really nice power meter mode, shows how much watts the light used per day/week/year.

Cons
* It only works with amazon echo so far, I'm hoping it will work with google home and some third party apps or work with a raspberry pi in the future.
* I would like the option for an app to be able to figure out when the sun sets and turn on automatically since, I pretty much just turn it on at 5:20 regardless... it may waste an hour or so of LED time being on in the summer when the sun is still up and doesn't go down till 6:30.
* It's not as bright as my cree light, but like I said, if I need more light, I'll just flip on the cree, no big deal. I don't ever switch on or off the wifi lamp, it just does it's thing working around my schedule.
* it doesn't change colors, kinda cool if it did, but it's not what I bought it for.

Other than that, I really like the bulb, it kinda is a bit spooky like a ghost in the house controlling the bulb. I've been using it for about 5 months and never had a problem with it. Never had to funk with it or reset it. It just works doing it's thing.

 

[Commodus]

That sounds like a pretty solid bulb. I have to admit that it's hard to escape the Hue universe, though, simply because everything works with it.

 

[Ravenit]

I have just upgraded 9 lights to the gen3 Philips hue.
Amazon had a sale the other week of the gen 3 starter kit so got a whole heap and on sold the bridges.
Very impressive coupled with Google home for voice commands to turn lights on and off and change colors it's great.
Just need to get the gu10 hues now and do the down lights.
I thinks the hues are slightly Infront of lifx and get lots of great reviews.
I don't mind the bridge others hate it. It's small and hidden away.
But a $50 a globe its expensive to set up a whole house.