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Old 06-08-2020, 10:53 AM   #1
GoinAllTheWay
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Not sure how I wasn't aware of these until recently. These seem like a ton of fun! Love the idea of playing with colours or having them dim as the sun goes down. Even better is the ability to make it look like someone is home when you are on holidays. Currently we only have 1 lamp plugged into a random timer for the single light to go on and off. Really like the idea of having multiple lights go on and off around the house.

I've usually been a bit hesitant deploying items in the IoT category due to what appears to be really flakey security built into them. I've read up on them and see this may be due to the usual mistakes (not changing default PW or keeping up on firmware updates etc...)

Regardless, wondering how others have made out with them? Anything in particular I should know? Hub, no hub? Any brand to stay away from, brands you absolutely want?

I'm already deep in the google ecosystem so something that works well with google home would be great.
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Old 06-08-2020, 11:19 AM   #2
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As someone who has tried dam near every single company on smart bulbs I would say lifx and hue in that order are the best. "Off Brands" seem to have many disconnect and power issues and they aren't worth the frustration of saving a few dollars a bulb.

Lifx are brighter, do not require a hub and have more color variations. However lifx bulbs hate airtime fairness and a few other settings in older routers.

Hue are not as bright, cannot display as many colors as lifx but the hub ensures great compatibility with routers and systems. Hue also have a bunch of accessories like sensors that can integrate with the bulbs flawlessly. Lifx require IFTTT to do the same.

I run lifx strips as ambient on all tvs that trigger when the TV is turned on as well as strips in my kitchen under cabinet. Then lifx bulbs in my living room pot lighting and office due to their brightness. I have hue in the bedrooms with a sensor in each bedroom, my pantry with a sensor, my garage with a sensor and both front and back doors with a hue sensors.
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Old 06-08-2020, 12:30 PM   #3
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Awesome stuff, thanks!

Where are your purchasing the lifx products? And the sensors, I assume those trigger the lights to come on when someone walks past? That sounds slick and I'll need that

And with the bulbs themselves, I assume they will still behave like a normal bulb? I need to keep this somewhat simple if it's going to be embraced by the household. I can still flip a regular switch and they will just come on like a normal bulb? I realize they need power to do the "smart" stuff.
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Old 06-08-2020, 12:54 PM   #4
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Awesome stuff, thanks!

Where are your purchasing the lifx products? And the sensors, I assume those trigger the lights to come on when someone walks past? That sounds slick and I'll need that

And with the bulbs themselves, I assume they will still behave like a normal bulb? I need to keep this somewhat simple if it's going to be embraced by the household. I can still flip a regular switch and they will just come on like a normal bulb? I realize they need power to do the "smart" stuff.
They do operate like a regular bulb (you can set what a bulb should do if it loses power and then regains it, so someone turning off the switch then turning it back on. I have mine set to go to last known state) But yes you are correct, if the switch is off it will not respond to routines, sensors or voice commands.

The sensors work exactly as you described, I have them in bathroom door ways, pantry's and hallways and have the brightness set dependent upon the time of day (example 10% in bathrooms and 15% in hallways from 10pm to 6am) so its enough light for us and the kids to go to the bathroom and move around but not wake anyone up. During the day the hallways upstairs dont light up and the downstairs hallways and bathrooms light up to 100%.

LIFX has great sales all through the year as they often have bogo sales and i go to town on them when that sale comes up. I also will buy LIFX bulbs from bestbuy if they have a sale as well. For Hue its home depot and lowes as they often put them on clearance.
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Old 06-08-2020, 02:28 PM   #5
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As someone who has tried dam near every single company on smart bulbs I would say lifx and hue in that order are the best. "Off Brands" seem to have many disconnect and power issues and they aren't worth the frustration of saving a few dollars a bulb.

Lifx are brighter, do not require a hub and have more color variations. However lifx bulbs hate airtime fairness and a few other settings in older routers.

Hue are not as bright, cannot display as many colors as lifx but the hub ensures great compatibility with routers and systems. Hue also have a bunch of accessories like sensors that can integrate with the bulbs flawlessly. Lifx require IFTTT to do the same.

I run lifx strips as ambient on all tvs that trigger when the TV is turned on as well as strips in my kitchen under cabinet. Then lifx bulbs in my living room pot lighting and office due to their brightness. I have hue in the bedrooms with a sensor in each bedroom, my pantry with a sensor, my garage with a sensor and both front and back doors with a hue sensors.
Hue has new bulbs that are supposed to be brighter and use Bluetooth so you don’t need a hub. I haven’t tried them so I can’t vouch for them.

I have them in my living room, dining room, kitchen, office, and bedroom. The bedroom bulbs are on a timer so they slowly turn on when I get up and get dimmer and warmer at sunset. I installed switches in each room but I mostly use the app or voice commands. I live in a condo so one hub is enough to run everything.

I have multiple bulbs in each fixture so brightness isn’t an issue. I got the new “retro” filament bulbs for my living room lamps that are very cool.
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Old 06-08-2020, 03:01 PM   #6
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+1 for Hue. Routines are great, and, since it integrates into razers platform its fun for me and practical for other areas of our home.
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Old 06-08-2020, 04:49 PM   #7
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I've never heard of lifx until this thread, but if Diemenz vouches for them, I'm sure they are a good choice. For the IOT security thing, you could set up an alternate wifi (ie: unused guest account) for IOT devices. I don't think you can go wrong with Hue even if it's not Diemenz top pick though.

If you are doing more than half a dozen bulbs, a hub will probably be a better option than using direct to phone options (ie: Bluetooth, zigabee etc.).


I've used two smart LED brands for more than a year: Sengled and Hue. Hue is hands down vastly superior to Sengled, but Sengled is crazy cheap. I use the Sengled combined with an echo dot for voice command on/off/dim for things like the nursery. The Hue I use in main areas of my home and I will agree with Diemenz about the idea of a difference in color quality between brands.

I've also noticed more apps are willing to coordinate with Hue. For instance, Sleep Cycle (paid app) has a function that can use your Hue lights to do the gentle light wake up alarm or a color/time sync shut down to a schedule. Sunrise/sunset I'm not sure, but I feel like I've seen it in sleep alarm as well. Typically, the stand alone Phillips sleep alarms are like $100+, so adding this function for the cost of an app to pre-existing Hue lights is excellent value IMO. The Hue app has quite a bit of stuff that you can tinker with as well, Sengled doesn't have that.

The Hue feels better built than the Sengled by far. The interfaces and connectivity with other apps is easily superior too. The Hue ecosystem seems to be the most mainstream at the moment, so that might be worth considering as well in terms of FAQ, set up guides and support etc.
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Old 06-08-2020, 05:20 PM   #8
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Philips (or Signify) has great support. One of my coloured bulbs was failing and they sent a free replacement in a few days.
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Old 06-08-2020, 07:03 PM   #9
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DoubleF hue actually has a lab you can activate that will do the sleep cycle as longs as you are using a temperature enabled bulb. Hue labs are great during holidays as I switch a hollowed lab or Christmas lab to the outside lights.

One thing I can say about hue is they are really decent in the elements. I have 3 bulbs outdoor on my porch and they last through the winter on a rotating timer and using my nest hello as an activator (during the times they are off). I’m actually really surprised none have burnt out.

I have had 1 hue bulb go in the last 3 years, 0 LIFX bulbs go but I also have less of them. The LIFX flat top looks very good in ceiling pot lights which is Another reason why they are in my office and living room.

My 2 cents: if you need a bright light get LIFX, if you want synergy get hue. My family has grown so used to the sensor activated lights that when one doesn’t work it’s like the world is ending. Having lights light up as you approach a door or brighten as you do (at night I have the outside lights run 50% unless motion is triggered) is glorious. Also who doesn’t like the pantry to light up when your grabbing chips. You can adjust the brightness to be time dependant so when I do grab chips at 11pm I can be sneaky about it.

Edit : I forgot to mention one of the best things I do with the hue strips. I have them under both kids beds. At night they can pick the color they want to go to sleep with. In the morning the lights turn green and go full Brightness letting them know it’s time to get up (green means go). This prevents those little gremlins from running into our room at 6am on a Saturday.

Just to be clear, I still strongly suggest using the LIFX strips over the hue for tv ambient lighting as They are brighter and you can adjust them to pure white way easier than hue which will give you the deepest blacks and colours out of your tv.
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Old 06-08-2020, 08:24 PM   #10
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I had a demo of this the other day http://ketra.com

These are 300 canadian a bulb and the company was bought out by Lutron. To experience the night to day scenario you need a bulb that has a high CRI with R9 and can modify the colour temperature at the same time. These will do over 16,000 colors and are self correcting.

Hue doesn't have any of these aspects, it's more of a hey, red light now it's purple.

Literally you can make a red chair look blue. You can actually simulate the current day weather in Calgary.

Obviously very expensive especially for a home application but a stunning technology to witness. This is the "gold standard" for what the OP is looking for.
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Old 06-10-2020, 06:45 PM   #11
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I just got 4 Hue lights for my patio and absolutely love them. Summer evenings have never looked so good.
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Old 06-11-2020, 11:02 AM   #12
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I just got 4 Hue lights for my patio and absolutely love them. Summer evenings have never looked so good.
During Christmas time and whatnot, I liked using the candlelight flicker effect in the Hue Labs. It manually stacks on top of whatever routine you have set and you can set it to be deeper flickers (wider range of brightness) or just light ones (minor range of brightness).

I don't have many lights outside, but if I did, I would totally consider giving that a try in the evening. I feel like it would be a really neat effect to chillax to outside while sipping drinks and whatnot. It would work fine even on just white bulbs, but I think it would be even more neat if color bulbs/lights were used.
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Old 06-11-2020, 11:14 AM   #13
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I put in Yeelight smart bulbs for pretty much every light in my place. They're a fraction of the cost of something like Philips, they're compatible with Google's ecosystem and they work very well. Plenty of functionality also.

Edit:
https://www.yeelight.com/en_US/product/lemon2-color

This is what I use throughout my home. They're also only about $20 USD per bulb.

Why on earth anyone would pay hundreds for a bulb is beyond me. Looking at Ketra's product video, I don't really see anything they do that can't be done by Yeelight bulbs, apart from the pre-set physical switches on the wall. It's not like the tech is complex or anything, so seeing stuff like that is clearly just pricing based on product positioning.
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Old 06-11-2020, 11:57 AM   #14
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I have wanted to do this for a long time now but the price just keeps me from pulling the trigger. For my place in Hue color bulbs would cost me $1320, and the 2-prong bulbs only seem to come in white not color, am I just not seeing them? Lifx has color 2-prong bulbs and to do my whole place would be $1650. I only own a 2 bedroom condo, I can't begin to think what an entire house would cost to do. I have 17 2-prong bulbs, 8 regulars, and 8 big round bathroom bulbs.

And that is before I even consider adding sensors, and tv / computer / under cabinet light strips into the mix.
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Old 06-11-2020, 12:04 PM   #15
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I have wanted to do this for a long time now but the price just keeps me from pulling the trigger. For my place in Hue color bulbs would cost me $1320, and the 2-prong bulbs only seem to come in white not color, am I just not seeing them? Lifx has color 2-prong bulbs and to do my whole place would be $1650. I only own a 2 bedroom condo, I can't begin to think what an entire house would cost to do. I have 17 2-prong bulbs, 8 regulars, and 8 big round bathroom bulbs.

And that is before I even consider adding sensors, and tv / computer / under cabinet light strips into the mix.
You should take a look at these

I have never really gotten the lights to all sync with my music, but I only tried once and didn't try very hard cause it didn't really interest me, but everything else has worked well for me with these.
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Old 06-12-2020, 12:00 PM   #16
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I have wanted to do this for a long time now but the price just keeps me from pulling the trigger. For my place in Hue color bulbs would cost me $1320, and the 2-prong bulbs only seem to come in white not color, am I just not seeing them? Lifx has color 2-prong bulbs and to do my whole place would be $1650. I only own a 2 bedroom condo, I can't begin to think what an entire house would cost to do. I have 17 2-prong bulbs, 8 regulars, and 8 big round bathroom bulbs.

And that is before I even consider adding sensors, and tv / computer / under cabinet light strips into the mix.
What are you trying to accomplish with that many smart bulbs? Going full colored smart bulbs through out a home seems like way overkill to me. Color smart bulbs in a bathroom is weird. Doing color bulbs in a whole home sounds either super psychedelic or like a huge waste as you'd rarely use anything other than white for the vast majority of the bulbs.

Consider getting cheap $2-4 LED bulbs and pairing it with a smart sensor/switch/smart plug instead of doing just pure smart bulbs with hub. You should be able to do dimming and turning off via phone or whatnot for a fraction of the cost. (ie: Track lights)

Consider only acquiring high end smart color bulbs for certain high traffic areas, inexpensive smart color bulbs for lower traffic areas. Cheap brand color smart bulbs should be around $20 for decent ones on Amazon and white light smart bulbs should be able to be acquired for as low as $10.
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Old 06-12-2020, 12:46 PM   #17
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Here's my 3 Hue uplights in our patio planters. Have since added a bollard light to the setup as well.
String lights are not smart lights, just cheap LEDs put on a timer/remote.

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Old 06-12-2020, 01:09 PM   #18
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Here's my 3 Hue uplights in our patio planters. Have since added a bollard light to the setup as well.
String lights are not smart lights, just cheap LEDs put on a timer/remote.

Things I didn't know I wanted until...

I was planning on just adding globe lights to my backyard, but what you've done is so simple and snazzy that I definitely want to steal some of that idea for my backyard.

I'm even suddenly thinking it would be super bad ass to have string lights mounted under the glass of a glass patio table.
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Old 06-12-2020, 01:20 PM   #19
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Originally Posted by Swarly View Post
I have wanted to do this for a long time now but the price just keeps me from pulling the trigger. For my place in Hue color bulbs would cost me $1320, and the 2-prong bulbs only seem to come in white not color, am I just not seeing them? Lifx has color 2-prong bulbs and to do my whole place would be $1650. I only own a 2 bedroom condo, I can't begin to think what an entire house would cost to do. I have 17 2-prong bulbs, 8 regulars, and 8 big round bathroom bulbs.

And that is before I even consider adding sensors, and tv / computer / under cabinet light strips into the mix.
I will echo what DoubleF said. I didn't do my whole house bulbs, only did those i want to dim, activate with motion or color.

I have smart switches controlling things like the laundry room, dining room lights etc. Switches go on sale for $30 for 2 (kasa) regularly. The bulbs in my pantry are Hue single color, I bought them for $30 for 4 when Lowes has their sales. The light strips I got from Home depot when they were 50% off and the lifx bulbs during their bogo event which brought them to around $20 each. Start small in area's where you will get the most usage (for me i started in the bedroom, being able to dim and turn off lights without getting out of bed was the selling point) and go from there.

Edit: Just looked online and man the new hue with bluetooth bulbs cost 2x what the old bulbs cost. weak.
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Old 06-12-2020, 02:51 PM   #20
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Edit: Just looked online and man the new hue with bluetooth bulbs cost 2x what the old bulbs cost. weak.
As much as I want to go with Hue, their pricing just seems out to lunch and I don't like they way they do packages. You can buy a pack of 4 but think 2 are just plain white and 2 are colour.

Good lucking product lineup but they really need to work on those prices.
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