Hello everyone, this is my first post and my initial venture into home automation. I’d like to verify if my intended smart lighting setup is feasible and if I’m overlooking anything.
My plan involves using multiple Philips Hue White Ambiance GU10 bulbs as the primary lighting in a room. These will be controlled by two Philips Hue Dim Switches located at different points in the room.
Since I haven’t purchased any equipment yet, I’m considering the Home Assistant (HA) green and SkyConnect USB for integration. One limitation I’ve noted is that the Hue Dim Switch can’t change the color temperature. Therefore, I want to automate the color temperature adjustment to match the circadian rhythm of my geographical location. Ideally, when I turn on the bulbs, they should automatically detect the current time and my latitude, and adjust the color temperature accordingly. In this setup, the switch would function solely for turning the lights on/off, dimming, and cycling through four preset scenes, as I understand.
I would appreciate confirmation that this setup is possible. Additionally, if anyone can provide insights or references to a similar setup or integration, I would be grateful. Thank you for your assistance.
I’m using Philip Hue lights & motion sensors in the house and it works without any problems. My setup also has a Philip Hue hub which I’ve hardwired into one of back end ports of the my router and assigned Hub a static IP address, so the hub has never been offline or had connectivity issues for the past three years.
The hub, one set up, imports the Philips devices into Home Assistant which you can create automation based on custom logic. JUST FYI, the Philips bulbs only needs to supplement about their current state (on/off, light settings etc) and all other information such as time of the day, sunrise, sunset etc can be made reliably available in HA via other integrations and add-on.
Thanks for the quick reply. But this requires me to have a hue bridge, right? Which i would love to avoid as i want to make the green the central hub. Other than that, seems like this could work
Home Assistant (green) and the Philips Hub (or Bridge) are two different things and serve different purposes. As per details for this light on Amazon, you will need the Philip Bridge to connect these lights to Home Assistant.
Yes, this is possible, even without a hue hub. I use my hue lights without a hue hub, just with a zigbee dongle and z2m. Once you get it set up it works pretty flawlessly. However, if you ever need to reset or repair a bulb with the coordinator it’s becoming increasingly hard to do that without a hue hub. The hue lights with both Zigbee and Bluetooth can be reset with an Android or iOS app. But with future updates that may change.
There’s also a way to do it with z2m but frankly speaking, it’s all a bit hit and miss without a hue hub, so for all the hue zigbee lights without Bluetooth better get a hub. Luckily I had to do this only once or twice because of a new network setup, but I had one bulb just lying around for a few months until I found a way to reset it with the zigbee dongle because the phone app wouldn’t connect the light. Would have been so much easier with a hue hub, l had to pair all my 30+ zigbee devices again because every device lost connection while resetting the bulb (and wouldn’t connect after a restart).
TLdr; yes it works without a hub, but it might be an annoying experience.
I agree with you @Rjaap , it can be real annoying. Took me a second reset of 60+ bulbs as well to ensure I logged all the hue serial numbers after my ZigBee controller lost connectivity. I did find zigbee2mqtt with the ZigBee controller much more reliable for longer distances than the hue hub.
I do find it hard to get away from the Hue Hub completely if you have Hue buttons/dial controllers etc…
I did find that one of these will allow you to reset a bulb without the hub, but if you have lights that are difficult to reach the hub serial number reset is easier.
The GU10s are the only one’s I have had an issue with. They first gens would not properly display blue. I believe they have been upgraded, but don’t quote me on that.
As for the rest, Hue bulbs and motion sensors are second to none in my opinion. I DO agree they are expensive and their light fixtures are junk.
I get the appeal, I really wanted to like them. But flicker is an absolute no go for me.
I had a look around at the supposedly best of the best in terms of spots to get a better understanding of what is realistic in this application and found luminaires such as those:
That’s pretty much exactly what I would be looking for to build at home light quality wise - High CRI of around 90, tunable white capability, Zigbee connected, perfect. But even those only reach a lm/W of around 80-90. I still don’t get why that would be the case, seeing as energy efficiency is such a huge deal and LEDs can easily have up to 200lm/ W but ok… I guess COBs are just not that efficient in this specific application when tunable white is included. Ok, the Hue’s are around 70 lm/ W, whatever… consumer grade stuff, fine. I also don’t have a gallery in my living room so 83 something CRI is fine… But I went to my local home depot and this is just unacceptable: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ym9NebpzCys. It’s proven to have very bad health effects and should be avoided at all costs imo How to Mitigate Health & Safety Risks from LED Lighting – Flicker Alliance
They offer everything the Hue’s have except they are cheaper (and people report that brightness of RGB is very low which i don’t really care about) and I personally confirmed in the store that they don’t flicker. Guess I’m gonna go with those as they also seem to be Zigbee2MQTT compatible.
Interesting…I’ll check them out. I have a large land parcel with a lot of lighting inside and out my home. HUE’s outdoor products are beyond awful so I’ve had to get creative. This product line gives me hope. THANKS!
I bought one of their larger round luminaires, Eglo Sarsina Z I think it was, and took it completely apart. I have a decade of work experience in the lighting industry and I can say this product was manufactured to a very acceptable quality standard. They know what they are doing
I have a love/hate relationship with Hue, but most alternative bulbs and sensors have been subpar. Hue is better than most, but overall I think the quality is lacking especially at their price point.
My home interior will stay Hue because I’ve made a significant investment, but I’ve have a little over 8 acres and would love to add smart lighting beyond the few Hue bulbs current in operation.
Love this forum simply for so many opinions and insight!
