I love smart home stuff, but greatly prefer open source compatible (Home Assistant etc), non-internet-connected smart home equipment that still has hardware switches. There's no good standard for RGBW addressability over wires here in the U.S. (that I'm aware of) so I do use some Philips Hue bulbs, but only accompanied by a hard-wired switch capable of associating directly with the bulb, so that all it needs to work is power.
I will admit though that I still mostly just do it because it's fun. But hey, it's fun that comes in handy, too.
I just want some lights that expose a simple API and are easy to talk to. I want smart lights that will work when the internet is down and doesn't need an app to connect to.
I've been holding off buying any new smart bulbs etc. until this is finally a widespread thing, I just hope manufacturers are quick to get on board.
I have a few wifi bulbs in the house which are ok but you need a special app to use them and I can't see a way to integrate them into Home Assistant as it's some proprietary thing from TP-link ('TAPO') - I'm not making that mistake again!
Smart bulbs allow the automation of controlling the full color spectrum and intensity of the bulb. Buying smart bulbs only to use them as binary on/off lights is a humongous waste of money.
Philips Hue: You can use the phone app to control individual bulbs directly with bluetooth, but for more control you need also the Hue brigde, which talks to the bulbs over Zigbee (a wireless protocol), and to your phone app over your wifi. For initial setup, the bridge needs an internet connection, but otherwise it will work as long as your home wifi is up, even if there is no connection to outside internet. The features (timed schedules, scenes) live in the Hue brigde, so everything works also without outside internet.
LIFX: No Zigbee, no bridge. These bulbs connect to your 2.4GHz home wifi. More advanced features (schedules, scenes) live in the LIFX company server, so won't work without internet connection. But without outside internet connection, you can still use the phone app via your wifi router control the color and brightness of individual bulbs. If you're a home automation hobbyist, you can give color and brightness commands to LIFX bulbs over your 2.4Ghz wifi, so you can program your own timed schedules that would work without outside internet connection.
Other smart bulbs: Cheaper. Philips Hue and LIFX are the two most expensive.
I understand LIFX is best for bright colors. But Philips Hue bulbs don't contain just RGB leds, but also leds for white and warn white, so the bulb may have 5 different types of leds. So Philips might produce better near-white "natural" light than same colors produced by combining red,green,blue leds. Not sure if this matters to everyone or only to some lighting connoisseurs.
could you please elaborate? the only missing feature I can think of when using a socket, is the color change. I would think that is not the primary reason to purchase smart light bulbs, besides maybe one or two for the novelty? the key benefits of smart lighting is in the timing controls, dimming, and occupancy sensing, all of which can be accommodated by the socket, provided it can talk to a gateway that offers those features.
In my experience, unless you have a strong need for something like dynamic color temperature control over your light bulbs/fixtures, it's more practical and economical over time to use a "smart" light switch, rather than a "smart" light bulb.
The smart bulbs may have appeal for people that are unable or not allowed to modify their light switches.
By keeping the "smarts" at the switch level, you have a lot more choice in what bulbs you use (e.g. along color temperature, color rendition, light output, power consumption/efficiency, etc) versus the smart bulb.
The Lutron Caseta series of lighting products are basically the gold standard for being "fail normal" functional without network connectivity to the system control bridge, and the system also uses different RF frequencies than 2.4GHz Wifi based "smart" switches, so it doesn't rely on or potentially create congestion issues on your home Wifi network(s).
You don't really need a "smart" light for it, a traditional radio-controlled "dumb" light switch is good enough for this purpose. Just press a button, and the remote control sends a RF signal at 433 MHz to switch it on or off, there's no IoT complexity like firmware updates, Linux kernel, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an Internet connection or other nonsense. It can either be a light switch installed on the wall, or an integrated unit that comes with the LED light fixture (which may also allow you to change the color). Also, neutral wire is not a problem, some wall switches don't need it [0].
"Smart" lightbulbs are more flexible with more features, but personally I'm not a fan of them - many features with few additional benefits (with high price tags, possible bugs, and privacy concerns). Nevertheless, if you are not allowed to change any electrical wiring in the room, using "smart" lightbulbs can be a justified choice. Another genuine use may be controlling many wired-together lightbulbs on a large light fixture as separate groups without a laborious rewiring. Meanwhile I'll keep using my dumb wireless light switch.
[0] They solve the neutral problem by using an always-on high resistance in series with the "hot" wire. The lightbulbs on the light fixture completes the circuit, a tiny current starts to flow, which is harvested by the switch to power itself. Clever hack!
I’ve been looking too, and the more research I do, the more it looks like the best idea is to get regular dimmable bulbs + zigbee dimmer switches - that’s generally going to be simpler and more reliable, the main downside being lack of any colour temperature / RGB support :(
This thing is basically a hobby, so I understand if you have no interest with home automation. That being said, I prefer using smart wall switches than smart light bulbs. I think smart light bulbs are wasteful (more expensive than standard light bulbs, and you will be throwing out a perfectly good zigbee unit just because the LED died). The only benefits seems to be dimming and color changing, but I don't have the need for them because I can just use some night lights for that purpose (also with ZigBee switches). With smart wall switches, everything still behave exactly like before (heck, you can even still use your old switches, just wire them into the small ZigBee switch module), but now they're accessible for tinkering via Home Assistant.
I have several in my house. It’s a bit more complicated though.
You need an RGB driver. In my house it connects to a KNX network, but’s quick google tells me there are wifi ones as well.
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