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

copacetic

Very interested in this topic as we are doing a house rewire and am looking to get it 'right'.

Having priced up complicated wiring controllers, dimmers etc, I'm leaning toward simple wiring and smart bulbs.

I'm struggling a little on whether they will work well in some rooms however. Our outlier is the kitchen/dining/living which will be a largish area. I'd like this setup with say, 15 gu10 bulbs, lightstrips across top of units, base of units, under island worktop and on island kickboards. Then maybe two or three floor or table lamps with bayonet or e27 fittings.

I'm not particularly looking for fancy programming, basically a few scenes saved off but most importantly the dimmer switch can control all.

I bought a dimmer switch set with e27 bulb and a bayonet extension bulb as a test and they work well without a hub etc. The limit of 10 bulbs per dimmer looks like it would be an issue for me.

Has anyone checked out this limit?

Another issue for me is cost obviously. Has anyone used Osram lightify bulbs and strips with Philips control? This would save me a fair bit.

Finally, for lightstrips, I'm guessing all the intelligence is in the controller, so if I wanted for instance all strips to work as one, I could use one controller and add cheaper strips as long as I add something to drive them from right side of the controller?


Otherwise I'm interested in say a nest smoke detector alarm thing on all lights and using bulbs in cheap outdoor fittings linked to some kind of smart motion and dusk/dawn sensors. Anyone have experience of this?

Anything I should be thinking of for general room, hallway, bathroom lighting that I'm not thinking of?

Anyone have any key things to thinking of with rewire apart form smart alarms like the nest?

Stoner

copacetic wrote:

Another issue for me is cost obviously. Has anyone used Osram lightify bulbs and strips with Philips control? This would save me a fair bit.

Just a note.

If you are getting the house rewired using the "English" way is good advice imo

In Ireland generally we loop the permanent live from switch to switch the lights only get switched live neutral and earth.


So you can't power anything in the ceiling unless the light switch is on.

By looping the feeds at the light switches and brining a switching pair up and down from the switch you can put inline switching and dimming units

This means that you could get says 500W unit to switch or dim all the lights on a switching circuit. You can use regular led lamps from Philips.

Yes hue is a great systen but it's expensive and you might not need all that control everywhere.

A number of systems will switch whole circuits and dim them for a fraction of the cost.

I'd take advantage of the fact that you are wiring the house. You are not limited to retrofit technology.

Also live neutral and earth at the switch is a good idea too.

copacetic

Stoner wrote: »

Just a note.

If you are getting the house rewired using the "English" way is good advice imo

In Ireland generally we loop the permanent live from switch to switch the lights only get switched live neutral and earth.


So you can't power anything in the ceiling unless the light switch is on.

By looping the feeds at the light switches and brining a switching pair up and down from the switch you can put inline switching and dimming units

This means that you could get says 500W unit to switch or dim all the lights on a switching circuit. You can use regular led lamps from Philips.

Yes hue is a great systen but it's expensive and you might not need all that control everywhere.

A number of systems will switch whole circuits and dim them for a fraction of the cost.

I'd take advantage of the fact that you are wiring the house. You are not limited to retrofit technology.

Also live neutral and earth at the switch is a good idea too.

Good points, would be a bit limited control wise with the lightstrips and the seperate lamps etc and also looking at getting a cooker hood that will take controllable bulbs. I am hoping to use the basics of control to have say a 'cooking' scene setup with bright light in cooking areas and lower elsewhere and then a dining one, which would light dining table and say turn off rest of spots, but only dim the lightstrips for example.

It's certainly not cheaper to go the controllable bulbs, but I'm feeling it's quite a powerful option for the future.

I quite like the simple option of a standard wired switch on the wall just turning the lights on whatever way the programming is left?

bk

I don't have it myself, however lightwaverf wall switches (and wifi hub) might be worth considering for a new build, specially when you have lots of bulbs run off one switch.

It would allow you to use standard, cheap LED bulbs, while still having the ability to remotely command them.

What you lose versus Philips Hue is coloured bulbs and strips and the greater level of integration Philips have with out home automation ecosystems.

You could even mix the two, lightwaverf on every switch, but then put philips hue bulbs in the light fittings where you think you need colour, along with hue lamps and strips. That would allow you to gradually add Hue bulbs over time, rather then all at once up front.

copacetic

bk wrote: »

I don't have it myself, however lightwaverf wall switches (and wifi hub) might be worth considering for a new build, specially when you have lots of bulbs run off one switch.

It would allow you to use standard, cheap LED bulbs, while still having the ability to remotely command them.

What you lose versus Philips Hue is coloured bulbs and strips and the greater level of integration Philips have with out home automation ecosystems.

You could even mix the two, lightwaverf on every switch, but then put philips hue bulbs in the light fittings where you think you need colour, along with hue lamps and strips. That would allow you to gradually add Hue bulbs over time, rather then all at once up front.

Interesting too, but wouldn't be a great solution for a lighting system in a big room? Or that cheap if need to put in dimmable led bulbs anyway?

I must have a look at it again but I thought the light wave stuff was powerful but not very well integrated the way Philips is.

Killer feature for me is the overall control, so for instance a double tap on the on switch on the hue dimmer switch recalls a scene for the kitchen/diner which is the 'dining' scene. So only 3 gu10s above table are on at 70%, rest of gu10s are on 20%, lamps are on 5% and strips in island on 5% on kitchen units they are at say 15%. All shades of white, not colour.

A similar scene without the dining table well lit, might be your night relaxing scene and it can be recalled either with a double tap of off switch on dimmer or automatically after midnight if someone walks into the room, sensed by the hue motion detector, or maybe by a Nest protect sensing motion though the hallway.

Mixing light wave in would seem to complicate that a fair bit, but perhaps the saving would be worth it.

Stoner

If you only have one light per switch hue is a better option.

Lightwaverf switches come into it more for more lamps.

Also the sockets and light switches can match with lightwaverf.

I'm adding Philips hue to my set up. But must security floodlights and other basic control will remain as lightwaverf.

The three flood lights off one lightest three output relay unit at 40 pounds is very good value.

Note you'll need deeper back boxes of you use smart switches, remember the neutral to the switch too.

Stoner

Note that lightwaverf has a nice energy monitor for your electrical power, the lightwaverf sockets look very good and it has a nice heating system control.
It has good power controls and LV and 220v contactors
It doesn't have the very trendy lighting dimming scenes Philips has. Although it has scene selection etc. and it can dim. But Philips are top of the class here with the lightning side of things.

ted1

Graham wrote: »

After about 18 months of use, I can't say I'm particularly impressed with Nest.

Hive looks fairly promising but it's early days yet so that opinion could change.

Hive have there own lamps and switchs out in the uk

Graham

ted1 wrote: »

Hive have there own lamps and switchs out in the uk

I did spot them but already have a stack of hue products waiting for the sparky to finish. I might be tempted to try a couple of the plugs/sensors.

Stoner

copacetic wrote:

Interesting too, but wouldn't be a great solution for a lighting system in a big room? Or that cheap if need to put in dimmable led bulbs anyway?

The cost difference between a Philips regular GU10 lamp and a hue GU10 lamp is huge. The bigger the room and more hue lamps you need the more expensive it becomes.

You've that cost every lamp change.

Philips are very good at changing lamps that failed on warranty, so keep your receipts

But for the last number of years led lamps have failed (from all manufacturers) to last the amount of time they are supposed to .

Initially Philips lamps came with 10 year, 7 year and 5 year warranties, those numbers have been slashed, it's a number of operation coupled with a 3 or 1 year guarantee, so keep those receipts.

As stated before Phillips should really have an inline switch as part of the range to bring in other circuits into their set directly

There is a myth and it's been argued a lot in this forum that some led lamps have huge lifespans, some do but many don't and the level a led degrades can be quite high. In many cases over 50 percent, some of these lamps rated to give you say 300 lumens over three years have a lumen maintenance factor of 50. Meaning that after three years they can drop to 150 lumens and still be within warranty as LM 50 was printed somewhere and the buyer didn't understand it.

AndyBoBandy

copacetic wrote: »

Having priced up complicated wiring controllers, dimmers etc, I'm leaning toward simple wiring and smart bulbs.

The advantage of the simple wiring is that if you ever leave the house down the road, the entire (expensive) hue system can be taken with you and set up in next to no time at a new house, also any new occupants in the old house would have standard lighting fixtures/switches.

copacetic wrote: »

I bought a dimmer switch set with e27 bulb and a bayonet extension bulb as a test and they work well without a hub etc. The limit of 10 bulbs per dimmer looks like it would be an issue for me.

For any meaningful set up (as what you are describing), I would suggest a hub, you can get them for free in the GU10 starter pack anyway. The dimmer is just that, a simple dimmer, no more, no less, but for scenes, alarms, timers and everything else, you'll need a hub.

copacetic wrote: »

Has anyone checked out this limit?

I believe the limit of 10 bulbs per dimmer is only if you are using the dimmer without a hub, with a hub, you can use a single dimmer for as many lights as you like.

copacetic

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

The advantage of the simple wiring is that if you ever leave the house down the road, the entire (expensive) hue system can be taken with you and set up in next to no time at a new house, also any new occupants in the old house would have standard lighting fixtures/switches.




For any meaningful set up (as what you are describing), I would suggest a hub, you can get them for free in the GU10 starter pack anyway. The dimmer is just that, a simple dimmer, no more, no less, but for scenes, alarms, timers and everything else, you'll need a hub.




I believe the limit of 10 bulbs per dimmer is only if you are using the dimmer without a hub, with a hub, you can use a single dimmer for as many lights as you like.

Certainly I'll get the hub for the system, possibly more than one. The units I picked up so far are just a start to test operation and interoperability with Osram etc.

my understanding is that the dimmer is much more than just a dimmer and can be entirely reprogrammed to use 8 states to recall anything you want.

AndyBoBandy

what would you need more than 1 hub for?

the only reason I could think of would be for a set up an another address, or if you had more than 50 bulbs at the original location (which would be epic).

copacetic

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

what would you need more than 1 hub for?

the only reason I could think of would be for a set up an another address, or if you had more than 50 bulbs at the original location (which would be epic).

It would be for the number of bulbs, if we fit the various outside units we will come close to them limits. However from what I have read, the limit isn't a 'hard limit' and avoiding an extra bridge if at all possible seems to be the advice out there.

AndyBoBandy

So I've only gone and splashed out on 4 colour & ambiance GU10's for my kitchen (another 6 required) along with a sensor, all to go with the 4 ambiance GU10's I ordered the previous week!!

The 4 ambiance's will go on the landing, and the 4 colours will go on the dining room side of my kitchen, to be followed by another 6 on the kitchen side!

I've already got a dimmer switch in the kitchen for the 2 light strips, so I might just add the 10 GU10's to the same dimmer, as I don't want too many dimmers stuck on the wall beside the original switch!!

(Hue Disco is about to get a whole lot more fun)

Optimus Prime

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

So I've only gone and splashed out on 4 colour & ambiance GU10's for my kitchen (another 6 required) along with a sensor, all to go with the 4 ambiance GU10's I ordered the previous week!!

The 4 ambiance's will go on the landing, and the 4 colours will go on the dining room side of my kitchen, to be followed by another 6 on the kitchen side!

I've already got a dimmer switch in the kitchen for the 2 light strips, so I might just add the 10 GU10's to the same dimmer, as I don't want too many dimmers stuck on the wall beside the original switch!!

(Hue Disco is about to get a whole lot more fun)

Haha I need six gu10s myself , I'd regret it if I didn't get the colour ones. Got my lightstrips the other day , they look great over the kitchen units.

AndyBoBandy

Optimus Prime wrote: »

I'd regret it if I didn't get the colour ones.

Thats what I was thinking! I was going to just fill the kitchen with the ambiance lights, but as you say, I'd of always regretted not splashing the extra few quid for the colour bulbs!!

The only problem is I've only ordered 4, and need another 6!! however I reckon once their in, I'll be ordering the remaining 6 pretty sharpish!

Stoner

Guys has anyone got the Hue bloom.

It's pricey but I'm thinking of adding it to my place.
I was thinking of the equipment cabinet beside my TV to backwash the wall.

I'll hook it up to the ring doorbell to flash the the door rings and to the nest smoke detector and co2 detector .

I think it could have useful applications

But how does it look? Im not one for dimming and colour change because it's caused me so much hassle over the years at work. However this seems to have nailed it.

Has anyone got one. How do they use it. Is it something you got and played with it for a while but now you never change the colour etc?
Could be cool for story time for the kids ?

AndyBoBandy

I bought a bloom in Woodies a few weeks ago, (woodies in Lucan, as both Swords Woodies still don't have anything other than the dimmer sets available)

it's ok, does the colours, but does not do the various white ambiance colours!

I have mine in the master bedroom on the TV wall bracket pointing upwards, so it gives a nice coloured glow in the background, behind the TV.
Its a nice addition to a room where I already have 2 colour & 1 white hue bulb installed, I use it in a scene with the 2 bedside lamps on a warm white, and the bloom behind the TV on a similar colour.

one thing I don't like about it is the power supply is a bulgy transformer plug (thats fine, fairly standard), however the wire into the actual bloom isn't a plug it type, it's hard wired to the plug, meaning if you want to place it inside a cabinet or anywhere, and don't want the wire coming out the front, you'll need a big hole in the back of the cabinet to feed the plug through!

Graham

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

one thing I don't like about it is the power supply is a bulgy transformer plug (thats fine, fairly standard), however the wire into the actual bloom isn't a plug it type, it's hard wired to the plug, meaning if you want to place it inside a cabinet or anywhere, and don't want the wire coming out the front, you'll need a big hole in the back of the cabinet to feed the plug through!

Ill conceived power supplies/cords is a complaint I'd have about a couple of the Hue products.

It's like they spent the entire budget on the bulbs/lights then remembered that they'd need power about 2 minutes before manufacture.

The Hue Go is a great little lamp apart from the balancing trick necessary with the power cord on the front.

AndyBoBandy

if the bloom had a plug type adaptor into the bloom itself or into the plug/transformer, I'd consider adding 2 to my kitchen dresser, they could be reasonably hidden at the bottom on each side, with just an 8-10mm hole through the back board to run the cable.

Graham

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

if the bloom had a plug type adaptor into the bloom itself or into the plug/transformer, I'd consider adding 2 to my kitchen dresser, they could be reasonably hidden at the bottom on each side, with just an 8-10mm hole through the back board to run the cable.

You should take a look at the Hue Go. The power cord should just about fit through your 10mm hole and the lamp itself it a hundred lumens or so brighter than the bloom.

Only downside is the aforementioned balancing requirement.

AndyBoBandy

Graham wrote: »

You should take a look at the Hue Go. The power cord should just about fit through your 10mm hole and the lamp itself it a hundred lumens or so brighter than the bloom.

Only downside is the aforementioned balancing requirement.

I'm not sure a Go would be suited, as it emits light everywhere and would be clearly visible, as opposed to the bloom pointing in a certain direction, and just washing the inside of the cabinet with light.

not to mention that 2 Go's wouldn't be cheap for a light I'd only ever want on really low!!

maybe down the line if I still need my hue fix I could add 2 GU10 fixtures to each cabinet

Optimus Prime

whats the difference between the bloom and an iris?

AndyBoBandy

Optimus Prime wrote: »

whats the difference between the bloom and an iris?

Bloom would be for painting light on a wall (€60 at Woodies)


Iris would be more of an actual light, (something to be seen) (€100 at Woodies)

Stoner

AndyBoBandy wrote:

I'm not sure a Go would be suited, as it emits light everywhere and would be clearly visible, as opposed to the bloom pointing in a certain direction, and just washing the inside of the cabinet with light.

It seems the go has 120 additional lumens and works better with the app?
And that the bloom is not a full Hue product without full colour support they grandfathered it into the range

Mind you I remember the bloom lamp before Hue was around.

Having read this is probably go for the GO if it has more functionality, because that suits me more for my application

Do you need a Philips TV to get them to work with the TV, would be more value again I think. The Humminizer thing.

I'm just really looking to see what cool things people use these extra features for.

Optimus Prime

ok cool so does the bloom throw out more light than the iris?

AndyBoBandy

Optimus Prime wrote: »

ok cool so does the bloom throw out more light than the iris?

I don't think so, I believe the Iris puts out a little more lumens. 210 vs 120 in the bloom

Optimus Prime

Cool, so if you wanted something to shine on a wall, regardless of the price, then you would be better of going for the iris as it would "light up" more of the wall?

Stoner

AndyBoBandy wrote:

I don't think so, I believe the Iris puts out a little more lumens. 210 vs 120 in the bloom

120 isn't much in all fairness.

So these are decorative. A full colour Hue regular lamp could possibly be added to a third party lamp to create a similar-ish effect?