No worries I have two outside and they worked when it got down to 14 degrees.
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Philips Hue Discussion
- Thread starter Superman07
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No worries I have two outside and they worked when it got down to 14 degrees.
I live in Maine. We have 2 Lux bulbs we use on the front and back decks in glass covered fixtures. They stay dry 100% of the time but it gets wicked cold here in the winter and they work just fine.
This is an older post but relevant still. I started with turning my lights on at sunset with ifttt but that's too late. The house is already dark before actual sunset. I have changed the location within the WeatherUnderground setting to a spot farther east of me and hope tomorrow see something different. My question is, have you found a way to turn the lights on maybe 30 minutes before sunset?
No I have not really looked for that since the sunset timer is fairly accurate where I live.
I like your idea of picking a spot further east.... did that not work?
It did work. My lights turned on about 25 minutes before sunset here. I wanted a little more time so I have them set for a spot even further east which may be enough now. Hope in the future Philips just includes the option in the app. I have not looked into Lutron yet but its next on my list. I have a few spots around the house that switches will be a better option than bulbs. Mostly because I have several places with bulbs that are one one of the few offered by Philips. I hear some brands are going to offer Homekit switches that do not require a hub. A second hub for a second brand is not a deal breaker so it may not in the end but a factor.
You know what might be worth researching a little. There are tons of third party iOS apps that work with Hue. I wonder if one of those would have the sunset feature you want?
Thanks. The main thing I'm after is automation. I have been researching a ton and think I have it working well with IFTTT at the moment. I will however keep reading to see what everyone is doing and how they are doing it. Half the fun is seeing what and how everything works.
Maybe I missed it somewhere but do you guys have any ideas for the White Ambiance bulbs and Siri? I have two come on in the morning at alarm time in the high kelvin color for energizing. (not sure it works but its cool). They turn off again later in the morning. The trouble is, asking Siri later to turn them on they come on again in the high kelvin color.
What I'm doing at the moment is changing the scene to reading then a minute later telling them to turn off. This way when I ask for them to be on later I can simply ask for the dimming level and get the color I want. I can't seem to find a way to ask Siri to set them about 2700k and about 55%. Maybe I'm asking too much at the moment. Also, you can't change the color temperature within Homekit, only with the Hue app.
What I'm doing at the moment is changing the scene to reading then a minute later telling them to turn off. This way when I ask for them to be on later I can simply ask for the dimming level and get the color I want. I can't seem to find a way to ask Siri to set them about 2700k and about 55%. Maybe I'm asking too much at the moment. Also, you can't change the color temperature within Homekit, only with the Hue app.
Yep, I kind of regret buying a couple white ambiance BR30s now since the temperature can't be controlled via HomeKit. I would guess Apple and Philips will eventually get add the proper support, but for now I'm only buying full color bulbs where I think I might want temperature adjustments.
Question for you guys...I just added a bunch of Hue bulbs to the ceiling lights in my den and while they seem to be working as expected, I've noticed a very, very slight humming or buzzing noise coming out of them that I didn't notice with the bulbs we had before. It's very faint and I'm sure if I asked others in my family if they head them, they wouldn't, but again it is rhere. They're just in regular ceiling lights and wall sconces, and we had non-smart LED bulbs in them all before (that physically look the same as the Hue bulbs, in terms of fit and shape and stuff) that didn't have this issue. Again, they're working fine otherwise and the buzzing itself doesn't bother me...I just want to make sure this isn't a sign of something potentially dangerous or whatever.
Also I should add that the light fixtures themselves all have dimmer switches built in. I figured that now that we have the Hue bulbs, we'd just keep the dimmer on max and control the brightness via the app/Siri if we needed to (since we never really used the dimmer switches much anyway; usually the lights were just on or off). Could that have anything to do with it? I haven't experienced this issue with the Hue bulbs I have in my floor and table lamps and that's the only big difference I can think of...
Also I should add that the light fixtures themselves all have dimmer switches built in. I figured that now that we have the Hue bulbs, we'd just keep the dimmer on max and control the brightness via the app/Siri if we needed to (since we never really used the dimmer switches much anyway; usually the lights were just on or off). Could that have anything to do with it? I haven't experienced this issue with the Hue bulbs I have in my floor and table lamps and that's the only big difference I can think of...
It is not dangerous and won't hurt anything, but I can just about guarantee you the buzzing is caused by the dimmers. Can you just swap them out for a regular light switch?
Ok good, thanks for your quick response @Weaselboy. Again it's very faint and I'm sure most people probably wouldn't notice it.
I just encountered another weird issue - i got some Hue wall switches (the kind that have the dimmer buttons on them too) and while the on/off functions work fine, I notice that when I dim my lights that way, two of my bulbs in (in wall sconces) start noticeably flickering when they're dimmed below about 30%. Strangely this does not happen at all when I tried to dim the lights with the built in dimmers or when I dimmed them in the Home app, so I'm sure it's something to do with the Hue dimmer switch itself...anyone have any thoughts?
I think your issue is the dimmers you have. Try adjusting them down until the noise stops but the lights are still bright. It would be better to replace them but try the adjustment first. Not the Philips dimmers the original ones. If they are older they may not be meant to work with LED bulbs.
When you ask Siri to turn on the lights, they come back on at the last colour/temp they were last. That's why they're turning on at that same kelvin. You could set a scene for the 2700k/55% and ask Siri to turn on the scene instead.
Hmm...basically they'll only not buzz when they're at full brightness, which is odd. Even weirder is that I've noticed them flickering sometimes, but not always, when I dim them with the app now. It's so strange because there were LED bulbs in there before I got the Hue bulbs that seem all but identical to the Hues except for the fact that they aren't smart bulbs.
LED bulbs are like that. I have some non-Hue LEDs that look identical (from Philips) but some are from a year ago and some are newer. Some buzz and some don't
Yeah, I was afraid of as much. Is that anything that can be fixed on the light fixture's end by an electrician? I have one coming soon anyway for something else and if this is something that's fixable, I might have him look at it while he's here...
I'm afraid I don't know for sure. Some circuits seem touchy. For example, my bathroom fan. Using a normal on/off switch, turning it off would send some sort of surge through my system where my subwoofer would make the slightest noise (like a very faint pop), but they're not on the same circuit. When I later changed to a Lutron timer.. turning the fan off no longer made any noise through the sub
Thanks @chuyn! I'll probably have him take a look at it anyway. Since I installed them the buzzing seems to have subsided a bit, but the flickering still happens. Hmm.
Anorher issue I've found is that when I'm out of the house, I often (probably about 50% of the time) see "No Response" listed under my Hue bulbs in the Home app. I have a bunch of iDevices Switches and ConnectSense outlets that don't do this like the Hue bulbs do. I have my Hue hub connected to my router (a latest gen Airport Express running the most recent firmware) via Ethernet and have two Apple TV 4s as my home hubs.
Usually if I wait a few minutes and check the Home app again, the No Responde error goes away and they're controllable again. Still though, it's kinda annoying. Anyone have any suggestions about this?
Anorher issue I've found is that when I'm out of the house, I often (probably about 50% of the time) see "No Response" listed under my Hue bulbs in the Home app. I have a bunch of iDevices Switches and ConnectSense outlets that don't do this like the Hue bulbs do. I have my Hue hub connected to my router (a latest gen Airport Express running the most recent firmware) via Ethernet and have two Apple TV 4s as my home hubs.
Usually if I wait a few minutes and check the Home app again, the No Responde error goes away and they're controllable again. Still though, it's kinda annoying. Anyone have any suggestions about this?
Are one or both of your Apple TV units setup to never go to sleep? I get the no response every once in a great while but that is usually it. Normally everything works great. I have about 18 Hue Bulbs right now and some Hue Dimmers and a couple iHome outlets and everything seems to work pretty well together.
This happens to me too. My atv4 is set to never sleep. Lutron and August locks are good to go, but the Hues take a few minutes before they are good. It's annoying
I get the no response for my Hue bulbs on a regular basis. Not everyday maybe but often enough that I look for it. Most of my automations work but occasionally some just don't happen. This morning my office lamp was not on, it just didn't happen. The light out front turned off as it should which is scheduled after the time my office lamp automation is set to run but I can deal with it. Mostly, everything works very well.
I did at first have to change a setting on my TV that worked with the AT4 in order to keep it on. There is a setting I can't recall the name of that will turn the TV on when I hit home on the AT4 remote. That same setting will turn the AT4 off too even if you have sleep set to never. That changed, my AT4 has been on since. I'm wondering if I should turn the setting back on on my iPad as a backup. The iPad is in the house during most of the automated periods. Can I have both going at the same time for a home hub? I assume I can.
edit: well, my front light did not turn off either, I thought it did so two automation tasks this morning failed. Guess I will reset the tv and see what happens with the iPad and TV setup to automate.
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Can I ask how you managed to change the location? i've also tried the Turn on lights after sunset applet on IFTTT but it's too late by then. I've looked for a setting to change the location but there's no such option on IFTTT. Would appreciate your guidance.
Thanks
It's in the weather underground settings. Tell the application from within IFTTT that you are at some point east of where you are. The catch is any other weather related triggers will not be useful. Like flash a light for a storm. I made the changes through the website but don't think that makes the diffference.