HomeKit Philips Hue Lights are amazing!

[guitargeek84]

So, on Black Friday I purchase Phillips Hue Ambiamce Light 3-Pack from Costco - holy cow these are awesome!

I have been dipping my toe in home automation for a bit and haven’t been pleased with another companies smart light switches. With that in mind, I was kind of hesitant to purchase pilot, but Costco is really good about returning things...

Overall, my thought is that the user interface (which is one of my biggest areas of pickiness) is smooth, the lights work exactly as they should, and automations are snappy, responsive, and compelling!

I have since purchased another three pack and several more of the less expensive “white” bulbs. I’m exploring compatible HomeKit switches also

What has your experience with these been?

 

[EastHillWill]

Glad to hear you're enjoying them! I have 5 Hue white/color bulbs and...I have no idea what to do with them, haha. (Right now they're in my garage and set to my football team's colors.) They work well and integrate with smart home control nicely, but I just don't have a strong use case for them. My particular issue is the house itself: It's a new build and uses LED everywhere, including a lot of non-standard base lights. For example, the ceiling lights have these LED strips which approximate bulbs but really aren't. I haven't sold my Hue lights though; keep thinking I'll find a compelling use case!

 

[srl7741]

I think you will be happy with them and find more uses in more places around the house. You may want to take a look at the hue bridge and consider the benefits of using that with the lights. They did have some nice sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, that's always a good time to add more smart home items.

 

[dotme]

The Hue system is solid. I run 54 bulbs across my home and it's very reliable. The key is to only blow money on white ambiance bulbs where it makes sense, and color bulbs even more so. Also, ceiling fixtures are probably better controlled with switches and dumb (but dimmable) bulbs. If you're looking for a solid solution for switches in the US, I would say Lutron Caseta ranks right up there with Hue in terms of reliability. I have a few Caseta switches and they work. Every time.

 

[malcky77]

Every bulb in my house (30) is a Philips Hue bulb, along with a whole bunch of light strips (11) and motion sensors (6) around the place too, and it all works perfectly.

I have never tried any other brands for lighting, just went straight in with the Philips Hue and gradually replaced everything in the house with them.....probably done over the space of about 6 months, but keep finding new excuses to put a light strip somewhere as I love creating a bit of an ambient lighting look now.

 

[Itinj24]

I’ll play the bad guy and say they’re overpriced garbage. They’re not very bright. Most of my automations in HomeKit didn’t fire properly. Had to hit the Scene button to get it to work. A lot of them go No Response randomly and for no apparent reason. Have to mount their ugly oversized dimmer on the wall that doesn’t fit a standard Decora wall plate and doesn’t match other switches. The color bulbs (to me) were a novelty that wore off real quick. Can only associate one Bridge per account. The dimmer switch buttons often needed multiple presses to work. Signed into HomeKit with my AppleID on an iPhone 4S to play with that beautiful old school phone again and it immediately corrupted my whole Hue system in HomeKit. To this day, that still boggles my mind.

I realized that I only used light temperature in the 5000k range so I since went to Lutron Caseta switches with 5000k dumb LED bulbs and I’m happy about that. YMMV though so as long as you’re happy with them, that’s all that matters. Keep in mind, I had more bulbs, strips dimmers and motion sensors than I can count running on three Hue bridges so that may have been an issue. I was definitely within the bridges max limits though.

 

[MacManTexas56]

So, on Black Friday I purchase Phillips Hue Ambiamce Light 3-Pack from Costco - holy cow these are awesome!

I have been dipping my toe in home automation for a bit and haven’t been pleased with another companies smart light switches. With that in mind, I was kind of hesitant to purchase pilot, but Costco is really good about returning things...

Overall, my thought is that the user interface (which is one of my biggest areas of pickiness) is smooth, the lights work exactly as they should, and automations are snappy, responsive, and compelling!

I have since purchased another three pack and several more of the less expensive “white” bulbs. I’m exploring compatible HomeKit switches also

What has your experience with these been?

I've had them dating back to 2016. The entire house is hue inside and out. I have a bunch of light strips as well so we could have under cabinet lighting in the kitchen and to add lighting to our pantry. They are awesome and work well, no issues at all in the 4+ years of owning them. The one downside is for your wallet LOL.

 

[MacManTexas56]

I’ll play the bad guy and say they’re overpriced garbage. They’re not very bright. Most of my automations in HomeKit didn’t fire properly. Had to hit the Scene button to get it to work. A lot of them go No Response randomly and for no apparent reason. Have to mount their ugly oversized dimmer on the wall that doesn’t fit a standard Decora wall plate and doesn’t match other switches. The color bulbs (to me) were a novelty that wore off real quick. Can only associate one Bridge per account. The dimmer switch buttons often needed multiple presses to work. Signed into HomeKit with my AppleID on an iPhone 4S to play with that beautiful old school phone again and it immediately corrupted my whole Hue system in HomeKit. To this day, that still boggles my mind.

I realized that I only used light temperature in the 5000k range so I since went to Lutron Caseta switches with 5000k dumb LED bulbs and I’m happy about that. YMMV though so as long as you’re happy with them, that’s all that matters. Keep in mind, I had more bulbs, strips dimmers and motion sensors than I can count running on three Hue bridges so that may have been an issue. I was definitely within the bridges max limits though.

must be a user error kind of thing or you have bad wifi. you can associate more than 1 hub per account, but just won't be able to have Siri control both. But you can run 2 and can switch between then in the hue app.

 

[savagewatts]

So, on Black Friday I purchase Phillips Hue Ambiamce Light 3-Pack from Costco - holy cow these are awesome!

I have been dipping my toe in home automation for a bit and haven’t been pleased with another companies smart light switches. With that in mind, I was kind of hesitant to purchase pilot, but Costco is really good about returning things...

Overall, my thought is that the user interface (which is one of my biggest areas of pickiness) is smooth, the lights work exactly as they should, and automations are snappy, responsive, and compelling!

I have since purchased another three pack and several more of the less expensive “white” bulbs. I’m exploring compatible HomeKit switches also

What has your experience with these been?

I 100% agree. My entire house is smart and I started with Hue back in 2013. The bulbs have improved amazingly. When I say my house is smart, I mean everything is. Hue lights are the most reliable smart home product you can get in my opinion. Every light in my house is now Hue. 28 bulbs, 2 light strips, a Hue Go and two Hue Blooms. They work flawlessly. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better HomeKit product.

 

[malcky77]

@Itinj24 I really can't say why you have had such a bad experience with the Hue range and I very much doubt that its a user error kind of thing as I know you have lots of experience in the world of HomeKit and smart products as a whole....only thing I can say is that I did not know that more than 1 hue hub was allowed, I thought (and still do) that it was just one Hue hub per account/house/setup? but things may have changed in this regard since I started doing this.

 

[Itinj24]

must be a user error kind of thing or you have bad wifi. you can associate more than 1 hub per account, but just won't be able to have Siri control both. But you can run 2 and can switch between then in the hue app.

Bad WiFi? This whole time I thought the bridge was plugged in with ethernet and the bulbs were using ZigBee. Must be user error then since I’m totally confused on what protocols Hue uses.
Sorry but yes you do get all bulbs and accessories across more than one Hue bridge stitched together and exposed in HomeKit and Siri. In the Hue app, you can only tie in one Bridge per account so if you have three Bridges, you need three separate accounts for out of home control and simultaneous control of Hue accessories across multiple bridges in the Hue app is not possible. Am I missing something?

 

[Itinj24]

@Itinj24 I really can't say why you have had such a bad experience with the Hue range and I very much doubt that its a user error kind of thing as I know you have lots of experience in the world of HomeKit and smart products as a whole....only thing I can say is that I did not know that more than 1 hue hub was allowed, I thought (and still do) that it was just one Hue hub per account/house/setup? but things may have changed in this regard since I started doing this.

Correct. One Hue bridge per account but if you connect more than one, they get stitched together in HomeKit. You just can’t use all three simultaneously in the Hue app.

 

[srl7741]

Speaking of Bridges? I noticed this morning there was an update in the hue app and a software update to the Bridge. It doesn't list any new release notes. Still just points to release notes from the prior update from what I can see.

 

[dannyyankou]

I couldn’t think of anything to ask for Christmas this year, so I thought it would be as good a time as ever to get into smart lighting. They have a pretty sweet deal on the 4 pack starter kit at Target, $119 down from $200

 

[mrgreeneyes]

do they need the Philips hub to work? or can I add them to the home app and control them in the app with Siri?
I am thinking of getting a few for around the house in the rooms that we use often.

 

[srl7741]

do they need the Philips hub to work? or can I add them to the home app and control them in the app with Siri?
I am thinking of getting a few for around the house in the rooms that we use often.

You can use them via Bluetooth, I think up to 10 bulbs per room using the Philip Hue Bluetooth App but you lose HomeKit, Google and Alexa voice control. So to answer your question about Siri, yes you would need the Hub.

 

[Phil77354]

I have also had good experience with Hue bulbs and now have the various styles of bulbs, as well as light strips, throughout the house.

They are expensive - this is the major disadvantage of Hue. I only use the color-capable bulbs (color ambience, in Hue-speak) in a few places where I want that ability. I use the white ambience bulbs in several other rooms, and the basic (not color or tint variable) bulbs in other places, to be most cost effective. The color ambience bulbs are nice for use on the front porch and driveway and I have them in now red and green for the holiday season.

I have had no issues with any of the hue bulbs although I've learned to not attempt to use them on a circuit with a wall mounted (non-Hue) dimmer switch. They don't like that at all, the dimming and control of the bulbs (other than on and off) needs to be controlled using either the Hue app or the Home app.

I'm also using regular Philips LED bulbs in locations where the Hue capabilities aren't really needed - rooms where dimming isn't necessary, such as the laundry room. I've also used ecosmart LED bulbs from Home Depot, but I've already had some of those bulbs burn out or go bad, and I've also found that they have made manufacturing changes over time that cause the same model of bulb to behave differently when I've had to replace one.

All in all, LED bulbs are a great thing, but they require much more thought and even strategy in deploying them, than was ever necessary back in the 'good old days' when all we had were GE incandescent bulbs and the only question in replacing a bulb was the wattage!

 

[srl7741]

All in all, LED bulbs are a great thing, but they require much more thought and even strategy in deploying them, than was ever necessary back in the 'good old days' when all we had were GE incandescent bulbs and the only question in replacing a bulb was the wattage!

So true

 

[rexone]

Well... I've been using Hue for a few years now & will throw my hat into the ring on this topic...
We have a Bridge (Gen2) and around 20 globes and few remote dimmer switches.
Up until recently I totally loved it.
What I have always found frustrating is that you can't just name & control a single globe. You have to group it into a 'Room' or 'Zone' even if that means there's only one globe in that group.
Anyhews... we're renovating & I had big plans for extending our Hue gear including a new TV room totally lit with Hue globes.
I go to add a new 'Room' and get the alert in the screen shot. WTAF?!?!
Most of the 'Scenes' I have installed are their standard ones, I had this alert once before & had to remove all my 'colour recipes' based on advice from their support people so that removes a cool Hue feature - being able to blend your own colours - and I only have one routine set.
I have around 12 'Rooms' and 2 'Zones'.
Philips claim that you can load 50 globes into one Bridge but how does that work???
Each globe has to be allocated to a Room or Zone to be usable and if there is such a low ceiling on the number of Rooms & Zones it's pretty fraking useless isn't it?
Short version... Philips promote Hue as a 'whole of house', indoor & out, lighting automation system but I fail to see how they can claim that when you simply cannot achieve that due to apparent capacity limitations of the Bridge.

 

[Itinj24]

Well... I've been using Hue for a few years now & will throw my hat into the ring on this topic...
We have a Bridge (Gen2) and around 20 globes and few remote dimmer switches.
Up until recently I totally loved it.
What I have always found frustrating is that you can't just name & control a single globe. You have to group it into a 'Room' or 'Zone' even if that means there's only one globe in that group.
Anyhews... we're renovating & I had big plans for extending our Hue gear including a new TV room totally lit with Hue globes.
I go to add a new 'Room' and get the alert in the screen shot. WTAF?!?!
Most of the 'Scenes' I have installed are their standard ones, I had this alert once before & had to remove all my 'colour recipes' based on advice from their support people so that removes a cool Hue feature - being able to blend your own colours - and I only have one routine set.
I have around 12 'Rooms' and 2 'Zones'.
Philips claim that you can load 50 globes into one Bridge but how does that work???
Each globe has to be allocated to a Room or Zone to be usable and if there is such a low ceiling on the number of Rooms & Zones it's pretty fraking useless isn't it?
Short version... Philips promote Hue as a 'whole of house', indoor & out, lighting automation system but I fail to see how they can claim that when you simply cannot achieve that due to apparent capacity limitations of the Bridge.



View attachment 1781742

Get a second bridge… I was running three at one point when I was using Hue. BTW, you’ll need to create another account and you won’t have remote access on the second bridge. However, if you’re using HomeKit, it will all get stitched together in there.

 

[malcky77]

@rexone I think there must be more things filling up your Hue bridge than you realise.....20 bulbs in 12 rooms is defo NOT a problems for there Gen2 bridges........so can you clarify some info for us here:

How many remote dimmer switches do you actually have?
Do you have any motion sensors?
How many of your own scenes/colours have you created for your 12 rooms?

The reason I ask is because each dimmer switch takes up quite a bit of memory if you have them configured with the Hue app......I discovered that some of the switches would be easy enough to configure through the HomeKit App instead of the Philips Hue app.....just to save some memory space on the Hue bridge.

And for reference I currently have (according to the Hue App):

51 bulbs
9 dimmer switches (I think I have all these configured in the HomeKit App)
6 motion sensors
14 rooms
2 zones

All connected to 1 hue bridge.....I have not counted how many scenes I have created in the Hue app...but it won't be more than 15 tops.

What does your bridge show when you goto the manage resources screen?

Here is mine: