Elgato Unveils 'Eve' HomeKit Supported Smart Home Sensors, Hub-Less Smart Bulb

[JerTheGeek]

Does the bulb simply screw into the socket say of the light in my bedroom? And once screwed in, can it be controlled with the light switch in my room? Or can it only be controlled via the app? Since it is Bluetooth it would work without wifi, right?

 

[peterh988]

Buy HUE tap and set the bathroom visit to the button she chooses/finds best 🙂

That's one possibility for other rooms, but in the case of the bathroom specifically, the on/off switch has to be on a cord-pull if it's inside the bathroom under UK regulations. (I think, happy to be corrected if I'm wrong)

 

[TechViking]

Any idea what the "Air Quality" parameter shown is? Indoor Carbon Dioxide level?

 

[FieldingMellish]

I think these are all solutions looking for a problem.

Except in the case of, at distance, being able to check air quality in the toilet room.

 

[NewbieCanada]

Finally! I can monitor the air pressure in my living room!

We all share your pain and sympathize with your long struggle. 😀

 

[Takeo]

430 Lumens is pathetic. This thing is barely bright enough to be a nightlight. The Phillips Hue at 600 Lumens is also pretty dim. Not really bright enough for general overhead lighting. Only really suitable for mood lighting (and the colours suck... not it's not even great for mood lighting). Philips claims 600 Lumens is a 60 watt equivalent. Barely. More like a 40 watt equivalent. LIFX on the other hand outputs an impressive 1000 Lumens. Easily powerful enough for a single bulb to decently light up a fair sized living room (say 20' x 14'). It also doesn't use a hub.

As for people complaining about price... these bulbs will last at least 20 years. And actually closer to 30 years. The LIFX emitters are rated for 40,000 hours. These things are more like small appliances than just a "bulb". You'd take them with you when you move of course, just like you do your coffee maker, router, AppleTV, etc. And you wouldn't outfit your entire house with them. I use "dumb" LED bulbs for entry, hallways, bathroom... any place where you don't spend much time. But I have LIFX bulbs in my Livingroom and Bedroom.

Regarding wall control, I don't know about the others but LIFX works just fine from a wall switch. And it remembers the last setting (colour and brightness). If the last setting was 20% brightness red light (from the previous night) and you want 100% white light... you can reset it from the wall switch simply by flipping the switch off and back on slowly (about a 1 second pause... kinda like a slow "double click".) I don't know about Eve or Hue but I would assume any of these smart bulbs would also work with a wall switch. At least... I would HOPE SO!!! What a pain they would be otherwise.

I LOVE my LIFX bulbs!!!!!!!! Well worth the money. They just released a major firmware and software update with LIFX Cloud (control from anywhere and save schedule settings), Sunrise Alarms (wake up with 15 to 30 min brightening and colour of your choosing), Security Mode (lights switch on/off at random), Geofencing (lights switch on/off when you arrive/leave) and Nest integration. The Nest integration seems like it will be pretty cool. The bulbs can use Nest info to do things like automatically set the bulbs into Security Mode or turn on all the bulbs in case of fire... etc.

 

[Zxxv]

I LOVE my LIFX bulbs!!!!!!!! Well worth the money. They just released a major firmware and software update with LIFX Cloud (control from anywhere and save schedule settings), Sunrise Alarms (wake up with 15 to 30 min brightening and colour of your choosing), Security Mode (lights switch on/off at random), Geofencing (lights switch on/off when you arrive/leave) and Nest integration. The Nest integration seems like it will be pretty cool. The bulbs can use Nest info to do things like automatically set the bulbs into Security Mode or turn on all the bulbs in case of fire... etc.

where does LIFX store the info? if its in the cloud and you loose internet to the house it screws up, your bulbs could be doing anything or nothing. One benefit of HUE is its stored in the bridge so timers and security settings will continue to function.

I like the brightness or lack of from the bulbs because at night I don't need daylight. I actually prefer softer lighting. But thats me 🙂

 

[Takeo]

where does LIFX store the info? if its in the cloud and you loose internet to the house it screws up, your bulbs could be doing anything or nothing. One benefit of HUE is its stored in the bridge so timers and security settings will continue to function.

I like the brightness or lack of from the bulbs because at night I don't need daylight. I actually prefer softer lighting. But thats me 🙂

Some settings are stored in-app (previous colour / brightness setting, scenes, etc.) but anything timer related (scheduling) is stored in the cloud. I'd much rather have 1000 Lumens than the small benefit of timers being stored locally. It's a good point though! Something I hadn't thought of. But my internet dies once in a very blue moon (and usually only for a few minutes) whereas that 1000 Lumens is at my disposal at all times.

Even 1000 Lumens is not like a 100 watt bulb. I'd say maybe 75 watts (light measuring is tricky and subjective to some degree). Put it this way... I'd say it's bright enough to be a proper light bulb replacement. I guess you could work with 600 Lumens but you'd need a few of them in a larger room (I'd think). I have just one LIFX in my 20' x 14' living room and it lights the whole room quite well in early evening / early morning (before I've opened the blinds... or on an overcast morning). Yes... I dim it down later in the evening. And the colours from the LIFX are really spectacular. Very nice, saturated colours.

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That's one possibility for other rooms, but in the case of the bathroom specifically, the on/off switch has to be on a cord-pull if it's inside the bathroom under UK regulations. (I think, happy to be corrected if I'm wrong)

I would think all these bulbs work as normal bulbs as well. I know my LIFX does. You never need the app to just switch a light on. One "gottcha" is that the bulb remembers the last setting. It's a feature not a bug... but if the last setting was 20% red and you want 100% white... you can just toggle the switch off/on to reset to 100% white. All that said... unless you're someone who soaks in the tub... I don't see why anyone would have a smart bulb in a bathroom anyway. I don't require mood lighting for a quick #1 or #2. LOL 😛

 

[peterh988]

You never need the app to just switch a light on. One "gottcha" is that the bulb remembers the last setting. It's a feature not a bug... but if the last setting was 20% red and you want 100% white... you can just toggle the switch off/on to reset to 100% white. All that said... unless you're someone who soaks in the tub... I don't see why anyone would have a smart bulb in a bathroom anyway. I don't require mood lighting for a quick #1 or #2. LOL 😛

But that's the thing, If I just want to nip into the bathroom for a quick pee, or the bedroom to fetch a book, I can indeed switch the light on at the wall and have a default white light, but when I want to use the room for longer later in the day, I then have to reset the light to whatever tint I prefer.

I'm sure after the novelty of changing the room lighting more often than a nightclub has worn off, most people will want to set a colour balance they're happy with, that can be retained without the whole family having to take an iDevice with them whenever they move around the home.

 

[Takeo]

I'm sure after the novelty of changing the room lighting more often than a nightclub has worn off, most people will want to set a colour balance they're happy with, that can be retained without the whole family having to take an iDevice with them whenever they move around the home.

Well I've had a smart bulb in my living room for a year now (a LIFX) and I couldn't go back! It's not just a novelty for me. And when I'm in the living room I'm on the couch so my iPad or iPhone are always close at hand anyway. I use it every night. I usually start to dim the lights around mid evening. It's nice to have a dimmer switch close at hand. Also, there really isn't any good dimming solution with regular bulbs unless you stick with incandescent. I've never seen a CFL or LED that works well with a standard wall dimmer. So that's awesome. And I use the colours every night as well. About 30 minutes before bedtime I always set the bulb to red light with a 30 minute fade out. It's a very calming way to end the day and get away from all that bright light we are exposed to during the day. I think it even helps my sleep cycle. I absolutely love it. But yah, there's no need to have them in every room of the house. I think Living room and Bedroom are about it. For entry, hall, closet, bathroom... I just use "dumb" bulbs.

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But that's the thing, If I just want to nip into the bathroom for a quick pee, or the bedroom to fetch a book, I can indeed switch the light on at the wall and have a default white light, but when I want to use the room for longer later in the day, I then have to reset the light to whatever tint I prefer.

That's where the Hue Tap is actually a pretty nice accessory... 1-click pre-sets without an app. With LIFX I either get 1 "click" for the previous setting (wall switch on) or 2 "clicks" (toggle wall switch on/off/on) to go back to default 100% white. Not ideal but for my 2 bulb setup it's fine. I'd love to see LIFX come up with something similar to the Tap but being a smaller company with fewer resources... I think it'll be awhile. I saw one guy who bought a cheap used iPhone 3 online and stuck it to the wall as a dedicated switch. LOL 😛 Again thought... for me I'm just using one in the living room and one in the bedroom and for that... for me... the issues you raise are a complete non-issue for me.

 

[BadMelonFarmer]

Agree that the 430 lumens is pretty useless. You really need a bulb nearer to 1000 for a room that you have used a 75watt bulb for.

Will have to look into the lifx as I have one location where the Hue's 700lumen (Hue Lux) is just not enough.

But guess I will hold off until the home kit integration is discussed more.. I would like to see how lifx and hue can co-exist without having to resort to different apps and controls.

Great to see that lifx have recently discussed IFTTT... Although the that is only as good as the triggers and actions implemented.

 

[rei101]

Pretty useless.

 

[MarkusL]

430 Lumens is pathetic. This thing is barely bright enough to be a nightlight. The Phillips Hue at 600 Lumens is also pretty dim. Not really bright enough for general overhead lighting. Only really suitable for mood lighting (and the colours suck... not it's not even great for mood lighting). Philips claims 600 Lumens is a 60 watt equivalent. Barely. More like a 40 watt equivalent. LIFX on the other hand outputs an impressive 1000 Lumens. Easily powerful enough for a single bulb to decently light up a fair sized living room (say 20' x 14'). It also doesn't use a hub.

This is one of the reasons I buy Osram. They tend to be honest about the equivalence, for example they claim 60W equivalent for the 12W 810lm bulbs I bought. That's 9€ dumb bulbs though. I have not felt a strong enough urge to move to smart bulbs yet, so I have not investigated what Osram may be selling in that category.

 

[jclardy]

Couldn't the bulb have an internal memory so it at least remembers its last settings without having to be controlled by wifi or hub?

It could, but it would also need some kind of rudimentary processor if you set some kind of timer settings to have it fade in/out as an alarm or sleep timer. My guess is they don't at $50 each.

The other issue is how to trigger this with a physical switch and not just your phone. With Hue you can use the Tap which connects to the bridge, or you could use any other wireless switch and something like IFTTT to adjust the bulbs accordingly.

I guess they could make a bluetooth switch, but overall I think you are limiting the possibilities by only having your bulbs be connected when your phone is around. Not worth the $10/bulb savings when you are already laying out $50 per bulb.

 

[alexgowers]

I think these are all solutions looking for a problem.

Except in the case of, at distance, being able to check air quality in the toilet room.

Agreed. This whole home automation lark is beyond moronic.

Light switches are usually located just where you need them already and I challenge anyone to use an app faster than me leaning over for the switch.

The only one I have and think is great is the fat/weighing scale to keep track of health and metrics. The humble light bulb is not in need of a reinvention, with so many fixtures gu10 e14 and the rest, these bulbs will be wrong for all of them!

I get it some might think the idea has legs but it's overkill for a non issue. Turning lights on and off is not going to make burglars think you're out!

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This is one of the reasons I buy Osram. They tend to be honest about the equivalence, for example they claim 60W equivalent for the 12W 810lm bulbs I bought. That's 9€ dumb bulbs though. I have not felt a strong enough urge to move to smart bulbs yet, so I have not investigated what Osram may be selling in that category.

810 lumens! why do you need a room to be that bright, maybe get some windows put in instead!

 

[rdlink]

Can't wait for hackers to take control of every house. Appliances and lights randomly turning on and causing huge electricity bills, doors and windows opening at theft's will, alarms alerting the cops for nothing, smoke detectors bringing firemen to extinguish non existent fires... It's going to be fun.😀

Are you one of the people who said that internet commerce was going to clean out everyone's bank accounts?

 

[whooleytoo]

Agreed. This whole home automation lark is beyond moronic.

Light switches are usually located just where you need them already and I challenge anyone to use an app faster than me leaning over for the switch

Well, the problem is with physical switches vs home-automation. My home is lit by free-standing lamps, which I control in sets via a RF remote control and cheap RF receivers in the plugs. I couldn't do that with physical switches unless I rewired a room every time I wanted to move/add a lamp.

The problem is at the phone end - an iPhone is a very poor remote control. Having to unlock the device then launch an app before you can switch lights on and off. Or it would be awkward if you walked in the door while talking on your iPhone and had to turn on the lights - it'd be so much easier to just use the physical switch.

Maybe Apple will add location sensitive functionality so the HomeKit controls are readily available when the device detects you're at home, if so it might be a bit better.

 

[chiefsilverback]

I think these are all solutions looking for a problem.

I agree with you to a point, but I think as you look to more eco friendly/sustainable houses having this sort of data streaming back will be beneficial, it will allow other smart units fine tune their performance eg. fans, dehumidifiers etc...

With solar panels or other renewable energy sources I'm sure have a very accurate read on the power consumption/requirements of the house be very useful too?

 

[Thunderhawks]

ouch, $50 for a lightbulb 😱

Plus of all people it takes to screw them in.
(Old joke: 1 person holding the bulb, 5 people to turn the table he is standing on)

 

[HowEver]

That sounds like a 'lightbulb moment.' 🙂

YES! My 3 month old daughter is called Eve.
This may grant this range of products extra "wife approval points".

Or, more realistically only -4999 points rather than -5000.

 

[andreiru]

"Sense", the Kickstarter project that was reported on here earlier, will potentially do many of these things and in addition to monitoring our sleep.

 

[fallenjt]

As for people complaining about price... these bulbs will last at least 20 years. And actually closer to 30 years. The LIFX emitters are rated for 40,000 hours. These things are more like small appliances than just a "bulb". You'd take them with you when you move of course, just like you do your coffee maker, router, AppleTV, etc. And you wouldn't outfit your entire house with them. I use "dumb" LED bulbs for entry, hallways, bathroom... any place where you don't spend much time. But I have LIFX bulbs in my Livingroom and Bedroom.

.

It's bs to believe these bulbs or any LED bulb will last 20 years as claimed. 20 year lifespan is estimated for LED, but the bulb is more than just LEDs. For electronic components inside the bulbs manufactured in China, you'll be lucky to get 5 years out of them. Unfortunately, no company gives you 20 yr warranty for bulbs, so you're screwed. Unless the bulb can cook me a meal, I wouldn't spend my hard earned money on a $50 light bukb.

 

[MarkusL]

810 lumens! why do you need a room to be that bright, maybe get some windows put in instead!

It's not necessary all the time, but I won't settle for less when I am cleaning the floors for example. And I live at 59 degrees north, so for a large part of the year the windows do me no good in terms of providing light after I get home from work. In the middle of the winter we get 6 hours of sunlight (except it's often cloudy), and the sunset is before 3pm.

In my living room I have three of those bulbs...

 

[duffman9000]

430 Lumens is pathetic. This thing is barely bright enough to be a nightlight. The Phillips Hue at 600 Lumens is also pretty dim. Not really bright enough for general overhead lighting. Only really suitable for mood lighting (and the colours suck... not it's not even great for mood lighting). Philips claims 600 Lumens is a 60 watt equivalent. Barely. More like a 40 watt equivalent. LIFX on the other hand outputs an impressive 1000 Lumens. Easily powerful enough for a single bulb to decently light up a fair sized living room (say 20' x 14'). It also doesn't use a hub.

Same thing I was about to say. I think the Phillips at 600 is already too dim. Definitely not enough to light a room without having to group bulbs. Is 430 enough to even read a book? LIFX ain't cheap, but it's packing a 1000 lm bulb. Never tried LIFX but it sure sounds bright enough to light a room.

 

[downpour]

810 lumens! why do you need a room to be that bright, maybe get some windows put in instead!

I have a 1000 lumen IKEA LED bulb in my son's room and it doesn't seem quite as bright as a 60W incandescent.

I just swapped three bulbs in my dining room with 400 lumen IKEA Bulbs, (so 1200 in total I guess) and the light level is about right.

Perhaps you like dingy rooms, but I prefer something approaching daylight –although I'm from the UK, so our daylight is pretty dull 🙁