Smart lights bulbs, what does what, and cost?

[ericmark]

Bit of back ground, I used smart switches, in my case energenie mihome, started with 5 now down to 2, and this is within 2 years period, so thought way forward is some thing which plugs or screws in. As least then if it goes wrong, easy to replace.

So walking through Lidi and colour changing Smart bulb was £3, did not read the packet, my fault, needs a zigbee hub, so internet and zigbee hub, and very pleased with result, but by that time Lidi had no more bulbs.

Then Lidi started selling them again, however except for the stick on strips, they were not colour changing, but wanted some ceiling spots for my wife's craft room, so got the kit, three ceiling spots, with the fitting, and a remote control, and a SES bulb for her bedside lamp.

Well I realised I could mix and match, so the remote used for her bedside lamps, the dimming and temperature adjusting bulbs went in my room, and the spots from my room when in her craft room.

Looking at the remote control, it had a back which could be fixed to the wall, so it could be used like any normal hard wired dimming switch, so the idea was born to use smart lights on the landing, as the bottom two way light switch was in the wrong place, problem however was my ceiling rose has a BA22d bulb, and Lidi bulbs are E27, and the remotes were not sold separate.

After a lot of hunting found some remotes on the internet, set for, but not arrived as yet, and also some adaptors BA22d to E27, so I bought a E27 bulb ready, well two as wanted one for my room. At this point I was satisfied our lighting was near enough, we both have remote controls to turn on lights from bedside, and should the remaining two energenie mihome switches fail, we have a way around the problem with smart bulbs.

However wife is never satisfied, she wanted a landing light with dangling things and 5 GU10 bulbs, I looked at where the landing light was, and told her straight, no way am I fitting a lamp dangling over the stair well, forget it. However my son said no problem I'll fit it, OK it will take some time, he lives 50 miles away, and he will need to bring ladders, but result is wife got the fitting.

However time has ticked on, and Lidi no longer have GU10 smart bulbs in stock, so OK internet hunt, but £25 per bulb seems a bit OTT, when Lidi were charging £7.50, found a company called TLC (thought that stood for tender loving care?) who do colour changing bulbs for £7.80 but not zigbee, uses same "smart life" app as zigbee, but not sure if the remote controls ordered will work with them?

Idea is to fit the 5 bulb chandelier with centre bulb always powered and 4 outer bulbs on the standard two way light switch, this means I can get away with just one smart bulb, it would be nice with 5 colour changing smart bulbs, but whole idea of bulbs is so easy returned to non smart bulbs should the smart bulb fail.

But now looking at what smart bulbs do what, I do not walk around all day with my phone in my pocket, and even if I did, it takes so long the the "smart life" app to boot up, really do want ability to use a remote control. We do have Nest Mini's but they are like mischievous little boys, hay google turn off, when we were referring to music got reply "turning off 5 switches" and all the lights when out, hay google turn light back on, got "I don't know how to do that yet" so removed smart switches from google Nest Mini control. There are around 6 Nest Mini's around the house, we can't get FM radio to work, so use them to get radio, so voice operation is an option, but not one I really trust Nest mini's with.

So looking for options, be it a source of cheap colour changing zigbee GU10's or remote controls to work with non zigbee, so open to suggestions, but not throttling my son for offering to fit new lamp, wait until his sons do it to him!

[Rorschach]

I'm not sure how smart having all this smart stuff is. We have a few items, a socket and a floodlight, they get some use but not a lot, it didn't change our life like they claim.

[kellys_eye]

This is one of those products that someone 'designed to create a market' rather than 'designed to fill a need'.

There will never be a 'standard' as this will prevent companies taking market share so be prepared to chop and change (as it's designed...) and continued expense.

Save yourself some money and trouble by reverting to something 'solid' - probably what you had fitted before and managed to live with for 50+ years......

<edit> if you really want to go this route then check out anything Ikea has to offer as they will be more likely to keep a good selection and support it for longer than the transient suppliers.

[Rorschach]

FWIW I didn't (and wouldn't) buy anything that requires a hub. Our smart devices are controlled directly by an app. If the device fails, I can replace it, hopefully with something that runs from the same app but not the end of the world if it needs a second app, there is a lot of cross compatibility between devices and apps. If a hub fails though, I need a new hub or all my devices stop working. If hubs are not available I need to replace the whole lot. Seems like a bad idea to me.
Can't really understand why anyone would create a device that needs a hub rather than directly controlled, doesn't seem to offer any price saving, my sonoff devices are priced pretty much the same as any hub based system and of course, no cost of the hub either, so probably cheaper overall.

[Neelix]

FWIW I think that all this wifi controlled stuff can be an expensive mistake.

We have 2 colour changing philips hue bulbs and pretty much all I used them for is coming on and off at pre programmed times during the winter - not cheap but very reliable

One thing I do like with them is that by flicking the switch off and on again, returns the bulbs to manual mode .

[ericmark]

I will admit hard wiring is better, why the rooms have not got two way lighting I don't know, however the hall landing has two way, but the switch is not where I want it, I want the switch at bottom of stairs, not other end of the hall, where I can't reach it.

So the smart switch, socket, bulb allows me to move switch position without re-wiring, and I don't want to have to use my phone, the Lidi remote control

Lidi-remote.jpg (32.59 KiB) Viewed 1451 times

is great, I can select what it works, and it has a magnetic back so can be wall mounted like any light switch, these

Remote control.jpg (24.72 KiB) Viewed 1451 times

have been part of my system for years, any of the energenie switches can be paired to three remotes and internet, and one button can switch on/off many items, and I had 4 of these which controls sockets and light switches around the house, and do not require a hub, I thought I had it cracked.

However of the 5 smart switches now down to 2, and to remove and replace with a standard switch is not fast, so items which plug in seem far better, so if it goes wrong, simply unplug.

But look at an advert for the energenie remote, the data sheet says nothing about maximum of three remote controls to work any device. And in the main where a hub is used, there are no limits to the number of phones or remotes that can control things, but there is when not using a hub.

So there are loads of adverts showing a remote control and a bulb, but they don't say if you can use two remote controls. This looks great

Lampandremote.jpg (31.17 KiB) Viewed 1451 times

but it does not say if one lamp can be used with two remote controls.

[Rorschach]

That type of remote bulb uses IR and it requires a good clear line of sight, and not terribly far either so I don't think it would work for your requirements even if it did work from 2 remotes.

They have their uses though, we have one in our bedroom as a bedside lamp, we bought it years ago very cheap and only wanted it for it's dimming function which is very nice, couldn't go back to a standard bulb now.

[ericmark]

Some bits have arrived, bulbs OK but not zigbee so although same app smart life not sure will be able to link to remote controls, but the remote controls no instructions and can't get them recognised by anything.

Remote1.jpg (23.49 KiB) Viewed 1364 times

still one bit to come so maybe they will work with relay, but seems as it stands they do nothing.