They do utilise a mesh network, that needs something to bridge it to a regular network, ie the hub.
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Philips Hue Announces Lineup of New Fixtures and Lights, First Few Launching August 20
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They do utilise a mesh network, that needs something to bridge it to a regular network, ie the hub.
I actually refuse home automation products that DONT have a hub. The ones with hubs are much more reliable... and hubs can be upgraded as new protocols come out (which Hue has already done once by putting out a new hub with HomeKit capability).
Hue, Lutron Caseta, August Smart Locks, Chamberlain MyQ all have “hubs” in my house... and are all rock solid.
Anything I’ve tried in the past that either uses Bluetooth or had its own Wi-Fi is just too flaky to actually be depended on...
That's obviously true for standard wall switches, but there's no reason why a switch can't be designed to provide constant power to a smart bulb. In fact Hue already makes such switches, but none of them can be hard wired to existing electrical systems.
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I wouldn't call any of the examples you gave "rock solid," though they've certainly become more reliable over time.
A hub that translates between the various protocols will never be as reliable as a pure HomeKit accessory that doesn't require a hub.
An LED light produces the same brightness as an old filament light bulb at about one eighth of watts used. I have one 18 Watt LED light (not a hue light) which is about equivalent to a 140 Watt filament light. I had a 60 Watt filament light in that room. I could have bought a 9 Watt LED light, saving 51 Watt, with the same brightness. Instead I bought 18 Watt LED, saving 42 Watt, and now the room is BRIGHT.
Is there a way to increase brightness without increasing wattage? Probably yes, whoever finds it might get a Nobel price for it. Probably not much. _Any_ light bulb uses watts to produce light and heat. Filament lights produced a lot of heat. LED lights produce very little heat. If you can produce less heat, you can produce more light with the heat energy saved, but we are not very far from the limit.
BTW. A huge advantage of LED lights is that the last longer. They are a bit more expensive than filament lights, but not much more, and they last so much longer, you will actually save money. When LED lights were new and _very_ expensive, they were used for underwater lights in swimming pools, where fixing a broken bulb would have been an absolute pain. Really nice to have bulbs that you don't need to replace in that case. (I also read that lots of 25-30 year olds need an electrician to change a bulb. I hope it's not true, but these people should use LED lights and save tons in electrician bills).
That’s just nonsense. There is no such thing as a “pure HomeKit accessory”. There are two main protocols that HomeKit can use: TCP/IP (Ethernet/Wi-Fi network) and Bluetooth... with network being much more reliable (in my experience).
A “hub” typically connects to the network to make itself available to HomeKit... receives HomeKit commands then signals the device(s).
In the case of Hue and Lutron Caseta for instance: this is much more reliable because the hubs use proven mesh networking protocols to talk to the devices... protocols that Honekit doesn’t natively use.
My house is spread across 3 floors. If I were using Bluetooth lights (which don’t need a hub) then I would have to ensure that an AppleTV, iPad or HomePod were within range of all of my lights for them to work reliably. Instead, using Hue and the hub... the hub has a solid ethernet connection to the network... and uses an advanced mesh networking protocol to send messages through all of the Hue devices in my house. This makes the connection reliable and extensive.
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^this. I have a motion light in my garage, a Hue bulb would light to about the fronts of the cars but this one is only 30W and blasts enough light to light the garage and out into the driveway when I run the trash out. it’s only for 2-3 mins on the timer and then i’m back in. Hue isn’t going to replace “work” indoor/outdoor lights anytime soon and I’d certainly hate to see their current price trend if they were able to, probably 2-300+ for outdoor motion lights that flooded any usable lumen count.
That's actually a good recommendation. I've posted questions on the Hue FB page before, and they did indeed answer.
I agree 100%. I've got a lot of Hue bulbs in my but I had to buy extra lamps because the Hue bulbs didn't provide enough light in my existing lamps (I used to have 100 watt bulbs in my lamps).
Agreed. I’d like a smart bulb to replace my 100w equivalents. I have dumb LED bulbs in this 1600 lumens range, but no smart ones.
Maybe that’s the plan? Get us to buy more bulbs... Hmmm...
My Ecobee Thermostat, Schlage Smart Sense Lock, Ring Doorbell Pro, Ring Floodlight Camera and WeMo outlet work perfectly fine without hubs. The latest generation stuff must work a lot better. I only started getting into the game two years ago when I bought my second home. The lock was a little flaky at first but has been fine for a long time now. I remotely let in an electrician to fix something while we were on vacation a couple weeks ago.
What I would like to see is a true outdoor floodlight. One that doesn't require some kind of canister around it to keep it out of the rain. I mean there are standards to make them weatherproof.
And as someone else said I would love to see brighter bulbs that are equivalent to the old 100 watt light bulbs.
And as someone else said I would love to see brighter bulbs that are equivalent to the old 100 watt light bulbs.