I don't mind the bridge, or even multiple bridges, I mind that they're effectively two completely separate isolated systems. If they had master/slave bridges to handle the load, but presented them as a single entity to all the software apps, that'd be fine. But having to manually switch between bridges in the app to control them is painful, and even apps like iConnectHue don't allow for cross-bridge scenes.
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Philips Hue Line Gains New HomeKit-Compatible Lights and Accessories
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I got Nanoleaf bulbs which are Thread and AppleTV is the mesh.
Don't want an ugly looking box from Philips just so I can use HomeKit for my lighting etc.
Don't want an ugly looking box from Philips just so I can use HomeKit for my lighting etc.
lol no problem.
Not meant in this way. 'Rort' can also be used to simply say something's way too expensive & poor value for money, which I still think smart lights are, especially in my country.
I was considering some Nano Leaf tiles, but the asking price wasn't worth the trouble...for now.
I LOVE Hue lights. I have maybe 55 or 60. I’ve bought a lot of crazy light set ups over the years. But there isn’t enough alcohol in the world to make me pay $350 for a lamp.
I completely agree here. WiFi stops working so well once you have dozens of devices, especially when a lot of them might be far away from the access point so they consume more airtime to stay associated.
Zigbee (what Hue uses) is a mesh network. It's lightweight, doesn't have to constantly send and receive beacons to stay associated and, once set up, is bulletproof. I never touch my Hue bridge; it just stays out of the way plugged into a port on my switch consuming a single IP address on my network.
WiFi is fine if you have two or three bulbs, but once you have a dozen or more it gets annoying fast.
Ugly? The Hue hub is 3-1/2" square and 1" thick. Do you really have nowhere in your house that you could hide such a thing? Since it communicates by radio waves, it can be inside a cabinet.
Am I the only one who has tons of issues keeping Hue working with HomeKit? At least once a month, one or all of my lights stops talking to HomeKit and I need to do this rain dance to get it working again.
It's been years since I had to juggle gear to get Hue lights working in HomeKit. I do have problems occasionally with Siri failing to make changes, but if I go into the Home app and tap on the scene, it works fine. Occasionally I think I need to reset one of my HomePods (the one that fails because it can't find the internet or my phone is literally sitting 2 feet away from the router and 6 feet away from my phone - the one that's in another room always works - sigh - I really ought to reset it).
I'll look into that! I'd wish the one in the living room as well as the bathroom would be brighter. The ambient, moods etc are fine as it is!
I'm a big Hue user with HomeKit, but I'd never recommend people buy their actual light fittings. I've got 4 Signfy/Hue outdoor lights and a light fitting in my office. Although I like them very much, they were expensive and - more importantly - the LEDs, drivers and controllers are built into them, they're not separate bulbs so once the LEDs die, you have to replace the whole lamp/fitting. When one of the 8 'bulbs' in any of my 4 outdoor lights dies, I'm going to have to replace all 4 lights to keep them matching if Philips don't make that model any more.
It only occurred to me after having installed my outdoor lights than I could have achieved exactly the same by installing some 'dumb' outdoor lighting fittings and putting Hue GU10 bulbs in them. Would have been cheaper, replaceable and actually more controllable as I could have controlled the up and down-facing bulbs separately, whereas the each Signfy light is only controllable as a single device.
I make these mistakes so you don't have to!
It only occurred to me after having installed my outdoor lights than I could have achieved exactly the same by installing some 'dumb' outdoor lighting fittings and putting Hue GU10 bulbs in them. Would have been cheaper, replaceable and actually more controllable as I could have controlled the up and down-facing bulbs separately, whereas the each Signfy light is only controllable as a single device.
I make these mistakes so you don't have to!
Love my hue lights, about 2/3rds of the house has them now, never had a problem with a bulb in 4-5 years of use.
BUT please HUE bring back the Apple watch Hue app - that was so useful to dim/turn off lights whilst getting my toddler to sleep and not having my phone with me. My watch of course is is always on me.
BUT please HUE bring back the Apple watch Hue app - that was so useful to dim/turn off lights whilst getting my toddler to sleep and not having my phone with me. My watch of course is is always on me.
liking the look of the new tap switch, certainly better than the smart button which should be called the stupid button, having bought one just last week im amazed all you can do with it is turn on, off and dim.
this looks cracking, the ability to control multiple zones is really useful.
this looks cracking, the ability to control multiple zones is really useful.
Ew, only 850 lumens? I recently had a reliability issue with my Meross bulbs being able to connect to HomeKit, one that I just couldn’t resolve. So I swapped them out for LIFX bulbs yesterday, and those connected just fine. But the Meross bulbs are rated at 1300 lumens, and the LIFX bulbs were only 1100 lumens. 200 lumens didn’t seem like it would be too much of a difference (and I couldn’t find any other HomeKit compatible LED bulbs with 1300 lumen output, and there are no smart bulbs putting out 1500 or more lumens), but, once I got them in, I could tell that they’re not as bright as the Meross bulbs were. I do typically prefer having a brighter lit room, so that’s unfortunate. 850 lumens sounds like I’d need to add supplemental lighting to the mix.
When I was a kid, I never liked it when the fixture only had a 40w bulb in it and even 60w was a little dim for doing homework in my bedroom. I typically favored having a 60w paired with a 40w, never was able to get away with installing two 60w bulbs. LED bulbs and cooler color temperatures were a bit of a revelation for me. I use smart bulbs as primary lighting and prefer a daytime light and lighting intensity that emulates sunlight (to be fair, my apartment has north facing windows and is tree and building obscured, so I do need supplemental lighting to make up for it). The 1100 lumens of the LIFX bulb is noticeably dimmer than the 1300 lumens of the Meross bulbs (but having more reliable HomeKit control was more important to me, and the LIFX bulbs have a wider color temperature range of whites), so I couldn’t imagine using 850 lumens Phillips Hue bulbs as primary lighting. As bulbs in lamps on the side of your home theater room? Sure, that makes a ton of sense (and they’ll rarely be driven at max output anyway). As primary lighting for overhead fixtures? Not so much.
What’s the lighting figures for the higher intensity bulbs? I suspect it’s probably around 1000 lumens, as that would be equivalent to a 60w light bulb roughly. I know that running bulbs hotter does cause the LEDs to fail sooner, but, when you consider that a 1300 lumen LED bulb typically only uses around 10 to 15 watts, I’d really like to see some 20 watt LED smart bulbs (which have half the energy usage of 40w incandescent bulbs). Granted, I’d probably never drive them at max intensity, but it would be great for strong, room filling light (though it might make sense to limit them to adjustable whites instead of full RGB, if they’re going to be room filling).
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Good new options. But $350 for the Hue Signe lamp in oak is a bit high.
$350 for a lamp in general seems a little high for me, and I’m generally not fond of how minimalist the Signe lamp is or how directional the lighting is. If I going to pay $350 for home decor, it’ll probably be for actual usable furniture and not just bedroom lighting.
Yeah but just add them to HomeKit and you can forget about the bridge(s). I almost never open the Hue app, only really to add new lights and update FW. HomeKit doesn’t care what bridge they are attached to, automations across bridges work just fine.
I really wish I knew what the source was. I think it’s my Eero network, but have no way to prove that without buying a new mesh network. Unfortunately, Philips customer support has been abysmal, so I’m mostly left to figure it out on my own.
I agree, the upfront cost was well worth it! Best smart bulbs I’ve ever used! I bought a Starter Kit - with coloured bulbs on sale in November 2017. All lights are still working great and are used every day. I also purchased 2 dimmer switches and a motion sensor at the same time. I have never changed the batteries in my dimmer’s yet and have only had to change the batteries once in motion detector. (AAA batteries in the motion sensor) I did get a notification that one of my dimmer’s needs a battery change soon. I love that I get advanced notice! The dimmer’s have an odd shaped watch battery, so I ordered them online, as they were 5 for $7.77 from Amazon! (CR2450 battery). Hue lights work really well with Apple products, home kit and Google mini!
I agree! I like the bulbs and use my own light fixtures!! Way more flexibility that way!
I tend to agree on principle. I tried an LED light strip once but wasn’t really impressed with the result. Instead, I buy a fairly cheap lamp on Amazon that has the style I want, then I drop in a smart bulb. (Unless I only care about automation to turn it on and off and want as bright a bulb as possible, in which case I’ll stick a high lumen bulb in the lamp and stick the lamp itself on a smart outlet.) Lamps are a little easier to deal with than getting a ladder and trying to work with the globe fixtures in my apartment, and I can just set one up anywhere that needs some extra lighting.