I am a dabbler in home automation and thinking about starting to get into lighting. I have heard mostly good things about the Philip Hue line and wanted to see what peoples thoughts are about it.
Our main current automation are a large number of Google Smart Speaker and Arlo video doorbells. Everything is working now on the Google ecosystem which I think Philip Hue will connect with. Our house is 100 years old which means that our possibilities to automate are lower than a new home since we have very few overhead lights, power outlets are at a premium (we have lots of power strips running through the house).
We are thinking about doing smart bulbs in some lamps which we can leave on and a chandalier. I think the biggest issue will leaving things always powered on.
You must log in or register to comment.
I have a mix of normal Hue bulbs and some Innr brand GU10 (spotlight) bulbs. The difference in quality of light from both brands is quite noticeable, with Hue being far and away better in terms of colour blending and accuracy. There’s a reason the Hue bulbs are 2-3x the price of the competition
That said, I’ve had multiple Hue bulbs either outright fail or one LED die so that it still works but the colour is completely wrong. It’s frustrating for bulbs that are supposed to last decades but maybe the latest generation are more robust.
They’re also regularly on sale for Black Friday and the like, so I’d advise planning your purchases around those events.
I wouldn’t worry about leaving them on. Standby power draw is very low and I think even at maximum output they use about 7W each. It’s just not a big deal.
I think Black Friday will be the day to buy them. I have heard that they last 7-10 years so a bummer they don’t last.
They’re the closest light quality to old incandescent bulbs that I’ve found, but I don’t have any of their smart bulbs so can’t comment on that part.
I have some connected with ZigBee to my Home Assistant. Their new “Essential” line is price competitive with most other smart bulbs you can find and they’re working great so far.
you will never be upset with the hue ecosystem… they aren’t cheap, but they’re reliable as hell and have a lot more than just the lights if you ever want to go all in (eg the hue sync - for tv backlighting, light strips, most kinds of lighting fixture you can think of, etc)
oh and the quality of the light itself is top notch, which i think is super important
If you need a bulb or two, Matter/Thread hue is good, just expensive. Otherwise I’d try to wait until January when Ikea is supposed to release all their Matter/Thread stuff.
I have some. They work. They are just more expensive than other options. I have a few smart bulbs from IKEA that work just as well and are cheaper so these days I would just go the IKEA route if I needed more smart bulbs.
Edit: To clarify I do not use either the IKEA or Phlips Hue apps. I connect to all my bulbs via Zigbee.
If I get an IKEA bulb can I intergrate with google things? I am assuming I will need some kind of Zigbee hub which I then connect into things for automations.
HA will be your “hub”. What you need is more like something that lets you communicate to Zigbee devices i.e. a Zigbee dongle. There are a lot of choices and you can search online for the current best option.
HA will act as the main server that connects everything. HA can then expose all of your devices to Google Home and then you can control things via Google Home as well. As an example, if you turned off a light bulb in Google Home the chain of command will look something like this: You issue an off command -> Google Home -> Home Assistant -> Light Bulb.
I just realized that you are not using Home Assistant as your “hub”, I assumed you were due to the community. In that case I guess you would need the IKEA hub. I’ve never used an IKEA hub so I have no idea how well they work. If you plan to continue to use Google Home as your “hub” then my advice is less useful since I’ve no experience here. I would defer to someone else who is more experienced with the Philips Hue/Ikea hubs.
IKEA has its own hub. I used to have the old Tradfri one but now I just connect with a Sonoff Zigbee dongle. I think if you want to go through Google and then to Home Assistant you might need the Dirigera hub which is kinda pricey. My personal preference is to have as little as possible connect through the internet. I just want everything local.
As others have mentioned the Philips bulbs are about as good as you can get but they are also the most expensive. And that you can save money by going with the IKEA lineup but the quality isn’t as good. But your third option is Innr bulbs which sit perfectly in between Philips and IKEA for quality and price.
TLDR
Philips - best quality / most expensive
Innr - medium quality / middle pricing
IKEA - lowest quality / least expensive
Note: when I say the IKEA is the lowest quality, I just mean between these three. They are still miles ahead of any of the no-name brand crap you can get on Amazon.
Wasn’t considered any of the no-name brands. I might consider looking into the IKEA sets because I have had great luck with their furniture.
I have a few Philips wiz lights and they are reliable. I blocked them from connecting to the internet and I manage them from HomeAssistant. The only issue is that if I have a blackout, they come back all on at 100% brightness. I know there’s a setting for “keep the last state” on setup, but I redid it a few times and it never sticks.
Expensive but the color quality is the best on the market.
Wasn’t a fan of their hub so I connect the bulbs directly to my ZigBee hub/dongle.
I won’t get on too high of a soap box, but strongly considering moving away from Google especially for home automation. Support open source privacy respecting systems and products (or at least products that don’t push anti-consumer practices).
I know Phillips doesn’t fit that by any means, but any device that supports a local API/ZigBee/z-wave/matter is fine in my book.
Wasn’t a fan of their hub so I connect the bulbs directly to my ZigBee hub/dongle.
I did the same, I wish it was more widely known that it was possible (and very easy with Zigbee2Mqtt).
If I was going to do more automation I would consider moving away from Google. Since their smart speakers are 90% of what we have automated there doesn’t seem to be a point now.
To be honest the best “home automation” we have are two sets of these Wireless Remote Controls that are dumb automation. Just a remote to turn things on and off. Its been the most reliable thing and simplies thing to set up so far.
What was your problems with their Zigbee Hub? I know I will need one but want something that is plug and play. We just had a new baby so I don’t have forever to play around with setting up automations
I had a few issues with pairing. Besides that, Phillips has made some controversial changes in the past that were anti-consumer.
But bypassing their hub and therefore the app and online account by using a ZigBee hub avoided those concerns for me.
Connecting and setting up a ZigBee hub was very simple. But I’m also using Home assistant so can’t vouch for the process with Google.
They work well. They cost more than other options, but (at least in my experience) colours are more consistent and uniform.
Not sure if it’s still the case, but the ones I have from a few years ago use Zigbee so you don’t actually need their hub - any Zigbee coordinator will do (I’m using a PoE one, the smlight SLZB-06).
Consider using smart switches instead of smart bulbs. However, given how old the house is, you might not have neutral wires at the switches, which limits the types of smart switches you can use. Do you know if the electrical wiring is still original, or if it was redone at some point?
For the power outlets, I’d highly recommend getting an electrican to install more. It’s way more convenient than having power strips everywhere.
I’ve done smart switches and so many suck shit. Also different colors for the bulbs are so nice. And hue has options for wall switches too (slap a little switch on the wall that has different scene options and such). They’re just better honestly lol. Instant response time too. I was cheap for so long avoiding these and I just kick myself now.
Smart switches can have instant response time too.
I’m using high-end smart switches (Inovelli Blue) and they’re great. They don’t have any of the problems of the cheap ones. You can use them with regular bulbs, or in conjunction with smart bulbs. For smart bulbs, you can pair the switch directly with the bulb.
We don’t have neutrals anywhere except the kitchen which have a GFI which ground at the outlet. The rest of the wiring is very old. I have installed new light fixtures and there are no ground anywhere. Almost all have the larger gauge older wiring and some don’t have a white or black wire. (That is really fun to try to figure out what black wire is hot and which one is neutral). I am thinking smart switches will be out.
We have considered having an electrican to install more outlets and set up grounds for the main floor. Its just kind of expensive and would rather spend it elsewhere for now.
If there’s no ground then I’d immediately contact an electrician and get a quote to replace all the wiring. The existing wiring is likely unsafe, especially with the amount of power pulled by modern devices (old electrical wiring wasn’t designed with that much power usage in mind!)
Also get them to take a look at the main electrical panel and ensure it’s okay.
My house was built in the 1960s, but the wiring was redone at some point by a previous owner. The 100 amp main panel was still original though, and it was a brand that was known for issues. I had it replaced with a new 200 amp panel.
We have check the main electrical panel multiple times and its up to code and safe. That was redone when the previous owner did the basement. We had people out to install heat pumps and they had enough power. We are thinking about getting the wiring redone on the mainfloor but haven’t got around to it…
I would really recommend fixing the wiring before investing any money in home automation.
Don’t build advanced sensitive low voltage systems on top of shaky high voltage systems that can melt and destroy them. Not having enough outlets because of old shoddy wiring is inconvenient when you can’t plug stuff in and waste time running extension cords, it’s expensive because you end up buying that much copper to run extension cords, it’s expensive because shoddy wiring can easily fry electronics, and it’s tragic and expensive when it burns your house down.
We want to upgrade the electrical but you are talking about a couple of grand if not more to replace everything. It is on our to do list.
Yes, I know, do that, or save to do it sooner, or see if you can get low interest financing to do it.
There’s a difference between ‘oh this house’s outlets are mounted lower than code says these days’, and ‘most of the house is missing a core safety wire that’s been part of the code for 50 years’.
I would urge you to have an electrician sort out your electrical issues first.
I helped a friend gut and rewire his kitchen and besides not being grounded, the wiring was very poorly done. I told him it was a miracle he didn’t have a fire.
Their microwave would flip a breaker if anything else was on in the kitchen. I traced the circuit to a pull string light in the basement. The ENTIRE kitchen circuit was passing through a rusty old screw terminal on the light fixture. The wire’s sheathing had completely melted back exposing 4" of bare hot wire.
Don’t trust that old wiring at all. And if you can’t afford to fix it asap, at least stock up on smoke alarms and have an escape plan.
The wiring isn’t poorly done just old. With houses this old all the bad ones are already gone. The only one’s left are working fine.
Electrical code and common practice has changed and improved drastically since ungrounded wiring was the norm.
I’ve worked on many houses and each one was a potential disaster waiting to happen.
Just sayin. Be safe.
I recently purchased Kauf bulbs, as they’re all locally controlled, which I value. https://kaufha.com/products/
Esphome based, so the learning curve it kinda steep of you just want a simple on/off bulb BUT it will open your eyes to what’s possible. This also avoids zigbee and z-wave. The state of those Z radios is so bad that Home Assistant released their own.
I have 16 of the Hue bulbs in my home, all running off a Hue bridge using Home Assistant. This was easy to setup, and basically I haven’t had any issues with them in the almost 8 years I’ve owned them. I have three Hue switches and an android tablet for control of the other lights, and Home Assistant runs off a raspberry Pi.
I don’t think I can really help you much though because I bought my setup mostly on sale and haven’t had other brands of bulbs or switches.
I will warn that Phillips also sells a whiz brand bulb and this product doesn’t run off zigbee and pretty much requires an internet connection to work. Do not be fooled by the cheaper prices.
I’ve had the same Hue bulbs for over 7 years now with no issues. The brand itself is very good. As other have said, you can interact with them via Google or Home Assistant directly, and when you’re ready you can directly switch them over to Zigbee or something more open if you want to ditch the online services. People here will pressure you to do that immediately, but I think dip your toes in with the official automations, see how you feel, and then see if you want to switch it over. Hue is a great way that will work from app based official all the way down to 6 years from now when you’re coding your own automations.
I leave my lamps powered on all the time with hue bulbs and have never had an issue. Even very old lamps have been completely fine. For usability and wife approval I would recommend getting a switch (which is useful for other reasons too) that you can stick on your wall and turn them all off at once. Even if your wife is onboard with automation, a switch will make it mother-in-law proof.
Mixing in some Ikea bulbs on the hue bridge will work just fine as well, with both Google and home assistant. The Ikea switches and sensors are paired directly to a bulb, so don’t buy those if you do get their bulbs.
I am glad that your bulbs have lasted 7 years. I knew the Hue were the high end brand and am glad it isn’t all branding but hold up over time. I didn’t consider the switch but that will be needed for a few of these. Some we were considering would be set on timers all the time but having a switch would be nice
I didn’t think I needed a switch until the mother in law came and turned off all my lights manually. A switch keeps things in line but lets family still work with your bulbs the old fashioned way
Makes sense to have a switch to make it simple and idiot proof. We have a sink that has a sensor and a handle that both need to be on to turn on. We have to explain it to everyone who tries to wash their hands at our house.
I got into Hue way back in 2014, before I knew what HA was, and before I cared about local control. Hue is OK, and they have a wide variety of form factors to choose from, but I’m always afraid they’ll enshitify to the point you can’t pair the bulbs with a non hue zigbee controller. I’m pretty sure I can’t update the bulbs unless they’re connected to a hue bridge.
Using smart bulbs to mitigate the lack of in-wall plugs/switches is a great idea. I do that with my bedroom fan since the light chain is busted.
If you use Zigbee2MQTT in Home Assistant, you actually can update the firmware on Hue devices, obviously it’s up to you if you actually want to push the update though
I use ZHA.
I like ThirdReality’s zigbee bulbs.
