smart LED bulbs - Colour changing - Wifi controllable

[ExtraSlow]

So, I'm looking for some LED bulbs that are wifi controllable to a) change colour and b) change brightness on a schedule. Example, for a kids bedtime, bulb comes on full bright 7:00 pm, goes to 50% brightness at 7:30, goes to red at 50% brightness at 7:45, goes to red at 5% brightness at 8:30, and shuts off completely at 8:45.

Had some cheapo ones that worked great for a while, just as described above, but they now both are stuck on an ugly blue hue, and the wifi can't see them anymore. They were only about $20 per bulb on one of those "steals" websites.

I hear Phillips Hue are the "good" option, but they seem insanely expensive. Like a "starter kit" will be $300 bucks. WTF? Even $50 per bulb sounds okay to me if they are going to last more than a couple months and they have the functionality that I want.

[imranm]

If you look on kijiji there's a guy selling the regular white hue bulbs for $15 I believe. You pickup the hub and download the app and you're good to go.

[rage2]

The Hue's are expensive, but you do get what you pay for. They work awesome.

I have a scene for kids story time where it's a warm temp in the room with the kids reading lights being more white. For mornings, I mimic'd airplane lights where it's a cool white for the main lights and blue for the reading lights which slowly turns on between 5:45am to 6:00am just like on a long red eye flight. I also have individual remotes that controls all lights at the main switch, and 2 separate remotes for controlling the individual reading lights on each bunk bed so the kids can turn on just their lights to hit the bathroom.

The Hue setup will do everything you're looking for. I went with the starter kit (2 bulbs ceiling, one bulb for desk lamp), one additional bulb for top bunk lamp, LED strip + extension for bottom bunk, and 3 remotes. About $500 worth of crap haha. I also had to remove the original light switch and wire it to be always on. Same goes for the desk lamp and top bunk lamp. These bulbs require power at all times otherwise they're not reachable/controllable.

Siri control is great too, kids can voice control lighting through their iPod/iPad.

[Stephen81]

I've had several HUE bulbs for about a year now and no issues.

Rage, which App are you using to control them and build your scenes?

[mr2mike]

I just assumed that pot heads bought up these color changing bulbs.
Or for kinky bedroom role playing but, what do I know?!

[rage2]

Originally posted by Stephen81
I've had several HUE bulbs for about a year now and no issues.

Rage, which App are you using to control them and build your scenes?
I build my color scenes using the Hue app, then I export them to Homekit so I can control it using Siri or the widgets from the Home app.


Originally posted by mr2mike
I just assumed that pot heads bought up these color changing bulbs.
Or for kinky bedroom role playing but, what do I know?!
I think they're stupid too, when I first got a set to test with in my bedroom it was so tacky and cheesy and looked absolutely stupid. But then I installed them into the kids room and the kids just love it.

[RealJimmyJames]

http://www.shopbot.ca/m/?m=philips+hue+starter+kit

Seems like $199 is the best price for the colour kit. No idea if you could use the hub from the white kit with colour bulbs bought separate. Memory Express sells this kind of stuff, has a few options, and has that starter kit of $199.

[rage2]

Yea, it's selling for $199cdn at Home Depot and Apple store. I loaded up on the setup because they haven't adjusted to US pricing yet, they're still priced at 1:1 compared to the States ($199US). At some point, all this will go up in price to reflect our weak CDN$. The wholesalers have already bumped up the pricing, Gescan sells the starter kit for $276cdn. :nut:

[ExtraSlow]

Got the philips Hue system. Bought the white starter kit and a single coloured bulb, worked out cheaper, and seems to be doing what we want.

[speedog]

rage2, you are indeed the ultimate nerd by far.

[JustinMCS]

I have the phillips HUE. It's amazing. Not much else to say about it. Have it on schedules and room controls by WINK, but now they have room controls in their own new Hue V2 App.

[sabad66]

i picked up Green Bulbs at the home & garden show last year. Similar to hue but much cheaper. Can be controlled by remote or wifi/phone app. I believe they are a Canadian company as well.

http://thegreenbulb.com/

i have two of them in my living room lamps... 99% of the time i keep them on white but it's nice to be able to adjust the brightness from the remote. i don't use the colours much unless i'm having a party or something.

[speedog]

Originally posted by sabad66
i picked up Green Bulbs at the home & garden show last year. Similar to hue but much cheaper. Can be controlled by remote or wifi/phone app. I believe they are a Canadian company as well.

http://thegreenbulb.com/

i have two of them in my living room lamps... 99% of the time i keep them on white but it's nice to be able to adjust the brightness from the remote. i don't use the colours much unless i'm having a party or something.

You mean Canadian company that sells product that's most likely been manufactured in China. I would be very surprised if there is any Canadian company selling LED bulbs that are actually manufactured in Canada.

[flipstah]

My cousin in Oakland has HUE. I'm sold. I'm going to see where I can buy it tomorrow.

[rage2]

Home Depot and Apple Store is the cheapest place to go for Hue.

[speedog]

Originally posted by flipstah
My cousin in Oakland has HUE. I'm sold. I'm going to see where I can buy it tomorrow.

TomcoPDR has some for sale on here - link to thread, second post (http://forums.beyond.ca/st/198753/for-sale-and-for-free-random-stuff/).

[flipstah]

Bought Tomcos kit and it's life altering lol. My living room doesn't have a dedicated light switch so have to be dependent on floor lamps. Not anymore!

Edit: will play around and see if Zigbee non-HUE bulbs will work with the HUE hub.

GE Link is cheaper per piece.

[rage2]

Yea it works with other ZigBee bulbs. It didn't for a week last year though when Philips blocked them.

In other news, if you don't care about color but care about color temperature, the White Ambiance bulbs came out yesterday. White, adjustable color temp from 2000k to 6500k, $30/bulb (1/2 the price of color'd Hues).

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.hue-white-ambiance-a19-single-bulb.1001010085.html

Starter kit at $130, 2 bulbs, Homekit compatible v2 Hub, and a dimmer:

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.hue-white-ambiance-a19-starter-kit.1001010086.html

[Proyecto2000]

I just got a free HUE starter kit from Enmax so guess I better give them a try :)

[sabad66]

Originally posted by Proyecto2000
I just got a free HUE starter kit from Enmax so guess I better give them a try :)
how did you get that?

[schocker]

Originally posted by sabad66

how did you get that?
Looks like this:
https://www.enmax.com/home/electricity-and-natural-gas/chooselight

I might look into that, except that I think floating +1 right now I think is only about 4.3c but throughout the year the 6.59 would be better at times.
https://www.enmax.com/ForYourHomeSite/Pages/Rates-Easymax-Electricity-After.aspx

[rage2]

Are you guys using the Hue v1 or v2 app?

It's kind of annoying how they rewrote v2 and lost a lot of functionality from v1. I have 3 switches setup in the room, a master that turns on/off/dims all lights, and individual switches that just controls each bunk's light. The old app allows you to assign lights to each switch, while the new app is room based only so that won't work at all. Also, not migrating all my scenes from v1 to v2 blows. The scene creator had much better control in v1, v2 again is room based scenes.

It's like they completely dumbed v2 down to make it easier, when it wasn't even difficult to begin with. :dunno:

[flipstah]

FML I need natgas too to get the kit for free.

Anyways, I might go light strips too for the undercounter lighting in the kitchen. Oh man... :eek:

I think I'm on v2 and I can drag/drop lights into rooms.

[Proyecto2000]

Originally posted by sabad66

how did you get that?

I renewed my electricity fixed rate on the 3 year plan which dropped my rate by $0.02x and kept my gas on the floating rate.

always nice to save a few cents and score a freebie without having to go through the hassle of switching providers.

[rage2]

Originally posted by flipstah
Anyways, I might go light strips too for the undercounter lighting in the kitchen. Oh man... :eek:
The lightstrips are beautiful. I lined the edge of the lower bunk bed that's against the wall with it, which bounces the lights off the wall for a really smooth and even light distribution in the lower bunk. I'm jealous I don't have it for my own room.

[flipstah]

Originally posted by rage2

The lightstrips are beautiful. I lined the edge of the lower bunk bed that's against the wall with it, which bounces the lights off the wall for a really smooth and even light distribution in the lower bunk. I'm jealous I don't have it for my own room.

Can you cut the strips and form another circuit or forced to do wrap around if you're too long?

EDIT: Rage, would you recommend going parallel strips for under cabinet lighting or is one strip in the middle of the cabinet enough?

I might do this if it's too long.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Hue/comments/3pj9dp/successfully_split_and_extended_the_hue_light/

[JustinMCS]

I will have to take a pic of my setup for you flipstah.

If you get the hue lightstrips plus - the new one, not the old one - it can do white + RGB. One strip is enough, they are super bright. Way brighter than the old ones. I upgraded the old ones to the new ones because the old one did not have white, it only had RGB.

You can cut them to your desired length and they are extendible with the lighstrips plus extensions. I did them above my kitchen facing up. I already had LEDs under the counters hardwired in so no point

[flipstah]

If you can take pictures, that would be awesome. Especially how you mounted it, because either I do 2 strips parallel or one strip straight down the middle.

[JustinMCS]

Originally posted by flipstah
If you can take pictures, that would be awesome. Especially how you mounted it, because either I do 2 strips parallel or one strip straight down the middle.

I just stuck em to the cabinet near the front, facing up to the ceiling. I would install only one row under the cabinet. When you get them, turn them on and hold them before you peel of the sticky backing. Then you can see what is best for light optimisation - near the front or middle? I did under my TV cabinet right near the front - but not so close you could see them.

[flipstah]

Sweet, thanks! I might do a mix of IKEA LED's and Hue because one Hue strip is $89. Jeez.

[JustinMCS]

Here are some pics in the colour I use the most :)

http://banggraphics.ca/images/IMG_20160524_171328.jpg
http://banggraphics.ca/images/IMG_20160524_171411.jpg

[TomcoPDR]

I kinda miss my hue now :( it does put a sense of elegance to sexy time.

[rage2]

Those ikea ones suck. I have a bunch you can have for free.

[flipstah]

I just cleaned out Sunridge Best Buy lol.

[JustinMCS]

Originally posted by flipstah
I just cleaned out Sunridge Best Buy lol.

its addicting, be careful lol

[flipstah]

Too late lol

[flipstah]

So the white bulbs are $14/pc at best buy. Not sure if they're Gen 1 or is that regular price? Anyways, this is the plan to put light strips on top and underneath the cabinets. The galley and track lighting cast shadows and I don't like it. It's okay but if I can change it, I will.

[rage2]

The new ones aren't in stores yet, just announced on Monday and should be in stores in a week. They're called white ambiance and you can set the color temperature on them. $30 each. The ones you got are fixed at 2700k color temp.

[flipstah]

After using both apps, v1 is better. More alarm customization.

[jwslam]

Originally posted by rage2
Those ikea ones suck. I have a bunch you can have for free.
I like free. Can i haz plz.

[bball2]

What else do you guys have at home that are smart / wifi controlled?

Added a nest recently and was looking at the Serena motorized blinds as well.

[rage2]

Thermostat, dimmers and Serena shades.

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/396913/diy-home-automation-with-apple-homekit/

The Serena shades are the best investment I've made. Cut down so much on A/C usage. I tried calling all 3 local distributors and they were useless and didn't want to sell them. If you call Serena shades directly they have CDN$ prices to the door, you can ask for a volume discount of 30%, and the shipping is relatively cheap. Takes about a month from order to delivery.

[JustinMCS]

I have the WINK system, I have sensors on all my doors and windows, I have automated sequences that happen. I have the front door lock keypad, if the front door is closed for longer than 10 mins, it locks it if its not locked. Things like that. Every light in my place is on a Caseta in wall dimmer, have philips hue, have go control alarm, nest thermostat, nest protect smoke detector, touchscreen on the wall, ring video doorbell, and they're all connected, etc etc. lol. its fun.

[rage2]

You have a beyonder to thank for WINK. The project was founded by E36M3. :thumbsup:

[JustinMCS]

Originally posted by rage2
You have a beyonder to thank for WINK. The project was founded by E36M3. :thumbsup:

Lol really? Ben Kaufman? Cool beans. Wink is getting better and better, although he stepped down. Neat to see DIY home automation become THE thing.

[bball2]

Picked up some GE light bulbs from home depot (50%+ sale - $10/ea and the starter kit was $30 - lots left at the Marlborough location), here's the links from the US site (couldn't find them on the Canadian site):

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Link-Starter-Pack-Link-Hub-2-Link-A19-Light-Bulb-PLINK-SKIT/205311040

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Link-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-A19-Connected-Home-LED-Light-Bulb-PSB19-SW27/205404345

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Link-65W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-BR30-Connected-Home-LED-Light-Bulb-PSB30-SW27/205404353

Apparently there's a way you can get them to work with homekit / hue hub, going to try to get that working this weekend.

[rage2]

Originally posted by JustinMCS
Lol really? Ben Kaufman? Cool beans. Wink is getting better and better, although he stepped down. Neat to see DIY home automation become THE thing.
No, not Ben.

Originally posted by bball2
Apparently there's a way you can get them to work with homekit / hue hub, going to try to get that working this weekend.
You just connect it to Hue hub as a bulb and it acts like a hue bulb minus the color change.

[flipstah]

$10/each? That's $4 cheaper than the Hue bulbs I bought. I might grab a couple more to change the ceiling fan and kitchen lighting.

[bball2]

Originally posted by flipstah
$10/each? That's $4 cheaper than the Hue bulbs I bought. I might grab a couple more to change the ceiling fan and kitchen lighting.
Finally got around to installing everything with the new hue bridge 2.0 and the GE lights, but unfortunately the work around for getting third party lights to work with siri no longer works. Things still work from within the hue app, but only the hue bulbs respond to siri.

Going to end up returning all the GE bulbs to home depot / picking up some philips a19 from best buy (didn't realize they dropped in price down to $15, for $5 more per bulb, might as well get something that works straight out of the box)

[flipstah]

Bump. Any leads on strips that would work on HUE?

[firebane]

Bringing this back to life as I am looking into the hue system as well.

Still worth to buy?

[Tik-Tok]

Bringing this back to life as I am looking into the hue system as well.

Still worth to buy?

I've been humming and hawing about it for a week now. Missed the deal on Boxing day though, so that's why I haven't pulled the trigger. (was $150 for 4x colour bulb starter pack on Amazon)

[ExtraSlow]

Been good, but had some issues after we renamed one bulb. Never could get rid of the schedule associated with the previous name. So my top tip is to not name the bulb by the location because if you move it you'll have to rename. I suggest naming them things like rex, Jonathan, Sammy, Waylon, Ringo etc...

Really enjoying the colour fading for evening use. Reducing blue light before bed is very good.

[schocker]

I am pretty happy with my Hue. Works well with google home and alexa. App is OK and having the widget on android is nice to quickly choose a scene. They have started to increase pricing it seems due to the $. They are constantly on sale though for the kits.

[Tik-Tok]

Finally got around to buying these. I'm surprised there's no touch switch on the bulb itself. My preferred location for them is the bedside table lamps, so my natural action to turn them off when I'm tired is to reach up and hit the switch, which obviously turns off the bulb completely and the wake-up timer won't work.

I wonder if anyone makes a smart-switch to replace the bulb socket and works with the Hue.

[sabad66]

Finally got around to buying these. I'm surprised there's no touch switch on the bulb itself. My preferred location for them is the bedside table lamps, so my natural action to turn them off when I'm tired is to reach up and hit the switch, which obviously turns off the bulb completely and the wake-up timer won't work.

I wonder if anyone makes a smart-switch to replace the bulb socket and works with the Hue.

I have a couple of these in the house:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016AEHU70/

One i have mounted next to the wall toggle switch in the nursery, the other i keep "loose" as a remote in my living room to control living room lamps (two separate bulbs on separate lamps controlled by the 1 remote).

You could go with the loose remote option and train yourself to switch off the light using the remote instead of physically on the lamp.

[03ozwhip]

Bumping this. Its been a few years maybe things have changed. I have a few Google nest 2nd gens and im looking to start slow with bulbs and switches etc.

Where is the best place to buy these things now? I know they're all expensive everywhere, but where do you guys suggest and why.

[Asian_defender]

Costco has a 2 pack color changing LED light bulb for cheap.
I have them myself, not the brightest but I was happy with them, integrated with my google homes very nicely

[03ozwhip]

Costco has a 2 pack color changing LED light bulb for cheap.
I have them myself, not the brightest but I was happy with them, integrated with my google homes very nicely

If I have the bulbs, do I need the switch too? When would the switch come in handy if not?

[firebane]

While the app isn't always the greatest.. I'm still happy with my lifx bulbs.

[Asian_defender]

If I have the bulbs, do I need the switch too? When would the switch come in handy if not?

No you dont need the switch. Everything is built into the bulb
If there is a light switch (like a physical wall switch) it'll make it less of a pain to turn on the bulb. Try it out, its Costco so if you don't like it then you can just return it
its these guys if you want to look up reviews
https://globe-electric.com/en/product/globe-electric-wi-fi-smart-60w-equivalent-multicolor-changing-rgb-tunable-white-dimmable-frosted-led-light-bulb-no-hub-required-a19-e26-base-2-pack34207/

[Disoblige]

Is there cheaper Z-wave options out there so you can combine it with your Telus system for control? Wish this stuff was more mainstream.

Don't want like 4-5 different apps for every different lights you get.

[Rocket1k78]

Ive been using the Globes for a couple months now and theyre pretty cool but even on sale at Can tire they were $13 each. I was at beacon costco yesterday and they have them on sale in 3 packs for $23 if i recall right which is super cheap for them

[ExtraSlow]

What's the warranty 9n the hue bulbs? Have one that jist goes back to full bright half a second after any change in dimming.