Philips Hue WiFi lighting set up - what do you have?

Orion

emmetkenny wrote: »

I nearly bought more today sure. Going to get a Go when it drops in price again.

It's available in Curry's at the bargain price of €120!

BobbyT28

@Stoner yep. which is why I already deleted that post. You might need to refresh your browser if your still seeing it.

Yamanoto

Picked up a lightstrip plus when it dropped in price on Amazon pre-xmas and I have to say it's by far my favourite hue light, in terms of its impact on a space. Tried it out in several spots before placing it in behind the piano & the way it diffuses light absolutely transforms that corner of the room & makes a real feature of the instrument itself.

Will be keeping an eye out for a second one for sure.

AndyBoBandy

I've 3 light strips (1 is currently still in the box looking for a home along with 4 1m extensions), and they are indeed one of the best Hue lights available.

Optimus Prime

I got myself two blooms when they dropped in price. And while they are good , they don't throw out as much light as I was hoping onto a wall.

I've another motion sensor now, put it in the upstairs Bathroom. Great at night the light comes on dimmed so you don't get blasted with light in the middle of the night !

adox

The sheer joy I have of going into the hallway at night time and then upstairs onto the landing with the lights coming on automatically with the sensors.

I think my favourite products are my originals that I got - two Iris. They seemed to have the strongest brightness when using any colour. I have two in the front room, one hidden behind the tv facing to the all and one at the other end of the room behind my Mac, again facing the wall. Both walls are fully illuminated and they are th only light source I neeed really in the front room.

Have white bulbs and white ambient bulbs in the hallway,landing and bedroom s thy are straight forward enough. Have a Hue Go which I love as well but it's more about the object itself and the soft light it produces rather than a proposer light source.

Have a lightstrip plus that I got cheap before Christmas and have that running along the top of the units in the kitchen. I do love it as well, really adds atmosphere to the room and we use it with a white setting as again the main light source in the kitchen. The only thing I find is, if you change the colour from white the brightness seems to be lost so we leave it on white.

So while I love all my Hue products I think the Iris lamps are the my favourite.

Optimus Prime

Gonna get an Iris next to see how it lights up a wall. Here is an image of the two blooms I got on a wall in our back room. It's ok but they don't light up the entire wall the way I was hoping.

OU812

This is gonna be controversial, but now having lived with them for a couple of weeks. I'm not sure the 16m colours etc is "all that" as they say. I barely use them, although I do use the dimmed, nightlight etc a lot. I'm gonna monitor my use of them over the next while & then maybe downgrade to ambiance white (have kept all the boxes so will probably put them up for sale here).

Incidently, I've two hue lightstrips too many that I'm going to be offloading in the next short while. I can't think of anywhere to put them (bar one under the stairs & I'm pretty sure the dog (who sleeps there) wouldn't be too impressed. They're still boxed (Amazon no fuss packaging - not retail package) & new. They're currently £65 on Amazon, was thinking of £60 each including postage if anyone is interested. Would be looking for Amazon gift card credit instead of PayPal or bank transfer as I need to get a new printer & some other stuff.

AndyBoBandy

Not controversial at all.

As I said in the OP of this thread the colour bulbs lose their novelty factor after a while, however I'm still more than happy to keep my 7 colour E27's as well as the 10 colour GU10's in my kitchen.

Orion

Newcomer to all this so only have a Hue Go as a bedside lamp, colour e27 in the main bedroom light, plain white in hall and landing and above the kitchen table. Going to replace most, if not all, with Hue over the coming months tho.

Question regarding the strip lights - how long is the power cable? Looking at putting some strips in the living room but the plugs are all near the floor and want to put them at the top of the walls. There is one area where the power lead would be relatively hidden but would need to be about 3 metres long. Also how realistic is it to replace the main sitting room light with just strips? Currently the chandelier is broken and haven't replaced it yet. Might be an option to just remove it and use strip lights instead.

My plans:
Kids bedrooms - ambient white with their own switches.
Ensuite - plain white with motion sensor - have echo dot in bedroom so can use that too.
Kitchen - replace current 3 bulb light strip with a new one - it's knackered - and have ambient white there and replace plain white above table with ambient white.
Motion sensor in hall and landing to activate them - this is a maybe. Currently have IFTTT turning them on at sunset and off at 1am. Might set up IFTTT to also turn them off if the bedroom lights are off after 1am. Other option is IFTTT to turn on hall light when I'm close to the house - but want to set this up for multiple devices so it's not just for me.
Planning on an extension later this year and the downstairs room that is currently a kids bedroom will be a chill room cum office. No TV just music system (possible Sonos), bookshelves and piano. Might look at some blooms for this when I do it.

once all this is done I'm going to look at further stuff like self monitored alarm, cameras, water sensors and motion detectors for security. That's the long game though.

Irish Gunner

Ok have the Philips Hue lights and working out fine but now looking at Philips Strips for behind the TV and possible in the kitchen as not a big place. However if I but only one strip I can only use it for either TV or Kitchen that correct? If I want to use some of the lead for tv and some for kitchen

I would need extenders that correct?.

 Has anyone used these for behind TV and use them as scenes ?

Optimus Prime

If you want one behind your tv and one in the kitchen then you need 2x Light strips.

The extenders only make a lightstrip longer by attaching to the end of it.

Cabaal

My setup is simple:
3x coloured hue's in living room that are in lamps
1x landing upstairs
1x front door

I'm aiming to expand this to:
1x utility room w/sensor so anytime somebody opens the door it'll power on
1x office
I'm in two minds about installing a sensor in the landing, if I did I think the plan would be to have it operate the landing and bathroom lights and to turn them on dimmed if the sensor is tripped after 10pm.

Optimus Prime

I love the sensors, i have one in my kitchen and one in the bathroom upstairs so far.. its great just walking in and the lights come on.

Id love to have them in the bedrooms too, but not sure how to work that as you would be turning on the lights in your sleep. could set it to not work after a certain time, but that time could change night to night. was also thinking of maybe putting the sensor under the bed, so it would only come on if someone walked by the bed. but again you might get up in the middle of the night and they come on.. have to think about it more..

matrim

Is it easy to split a light strip?

I currently have one on the top of a cabinet in the landing but am thinking of moving it to underneath the banister on the stairs. However, our stairs is a split level with a "return". So I would need to split the lightstrip so that you have some on each banister.

TheTubes

matrim wrote: »

Is it easy to split a light strip?

I currently have one on the top of a cabinet in the landing but am thinking of moving it to underneath the banister on the stairs. However, our stairs is a split level with a "return". So I would need to split the lightstrip so that you have some on each banister.

Cutting it is not too bad but they are not designed to be reconnected.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Cutting-and-Reconnecting-Hue-Light-Strip-Plus-Segm/?ALLSTEPS

AndyBoBandy

matrim wrote: »

Is it easy to split a light strip?

I currently have one on the top of a cabinet in the landing but am thinking of moving it to underneath the banister on the stairs. However, our stairs is a split level with a "return". So I would need to split the lightstrip so that you have some on each banister.

all the logic in a light strip is in the control box, of which only 1 is supplied with each light strip,

so if you split it, the loose end thats been cut off will be useless, unless you have the skills to re-connect it, which renders cutting it in the first place useless.

matrim

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

all the logic in a light strip is in the control box, of which only 1 is supplied with each light strip,

so if you split it, the loose end thats been cut off will be useless, unless you have the skills to re-connect it, which renders cutting it in the first place useless.

By split I meant cut it and reconnect it via wire only so that lights stops for a small bit and then continues. Something like that instructables link but I was hoping for an easier way that didn't involve soldering.

AndyBoBandy

matrim wrote: »

By split I meant cut it and reconnect it via wire only so that lights stops for a small bit and then continues. Something like that instructables link but I was hoping for an easier way that didn't involve soldering.

There are plug in extenders available, but these would involve using the full 2m of light strip and adding the 1m extensions

Irish Gunner

Optimus Prime wrote: »

If you want one behind your tv and one in the kitchen then you need 2x Light strips.

The extenders only make a lightstrip longer by attaching to the end of it.

Cheers may hold out as getting new TV hopefully and not to pushed on kitchen lights just yet

AndyBoBandy

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Cheers may hold out as getting new TV hopefully and not to pushed on kitchen lights just yet

I'll only ever buy a Samsung TV myself now,

But just to plant a seed, a Philips Ambilight TV can sync up with hue to give enhanced lighting effects to TV viewing.
Have you looked into that?

Irish Gunner

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

I'll only ever buy a Samsung TV myself now,

But just to plant a seed, a Philips Ambilight TV can sync up with hue to give enhanced lighting effects to TV viewing.
Have you looked into that?

Yeah have eye on Samsung as soon as I sell old TV on Adverts...

Had a look at Philips but sticking with Samsung.. Cheers for the suggestion

NomadicGray

Whats the best price anyone is seeing for the dimmer? I think €32 is the cheapest I've seen, that was on Amazon.de
Could do with 2 more really, but Im too tight to spend nearly €65 on them.

AndyBoBandy

NomadicGray wrote: »

Whats the best price anyone is seeing for the dimmer? I think €32 is the cheapest I've seen, that was on Amazon.de
Could do with 2 more really, but Im too tight to spend nearly €65 on them.

Wait till Amazon UK get them back in stock and their about £19.99 (~€24) getv2 of them to get the free shipping.

Or for £29.99 get the dimmer switch and a white only bulb (if you need any)

NomadicGray

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Wait till Amazon UK get them back in stock and their about £19.99 (~€24) getv2 of them to get the free shipping.

Or for £29.99 get the dimmer switch and a white only bulb (if you need any)

Cool, didnt notice the ones on Amazon right now are 3rd party, thanks.

laugh

You can use Sunrise / Sunset from Weather Underground in IFTTT btw, I have the lights at the front door on that.

AndyBoBandy

laugh wrote: »

You can use Sunrise / Sunset from Weather Underground in IFTTT btw, I have the lights at the front door on that.

The think I don't like about using a sunset IFTTT is I'd want my lights coming on over a 1 hour fade before sunset, and sunset on a clear sunny day vs sunset on a cloudy overcast day are 2 completely different scenarios.

Orion

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

The think I don't like about using a sunset IFTTT is I'd want my lights coming on over a 1 hour fade before sunset, and sunset on a clear sunny day vs sunset on a cloudy overcast day are 2 completely different scenarios.

So set up your own IFTTT to do that then.

AndyBoBandy

Orion wrote: »

So set up your own IFTTT to do that then.

Sounds like too much hassle when there are already timer/routine capabilities in the hue app

The Black Oil

Good to know the coloured bulbs lose their novelty factor. Tempted by the likes of a Go or Iris, but will focus on the basics for the moment. Re sensor for the bathroom sensor, can it detect movement if you're in the shower?! i.e. behind a curtain.

Still thinking about a dimmer or two.

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Wait till Amazon UK get them back in stock and their about £19.99 (~€24) getv2 of them to get the free shipping.

They can come down from £30+, then?