How do you guys use colour?

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Hey all!

I have my house kitted out in LIFX color bulbs, and a few Lightify warm/cool white lights. However, I feel like the colour potential is not being used to its maximum! How do you use colour in your house? Do you feel you exploit the power of your lights?

I have the following automations that use colour:

  • Dawn/dusk automations to change the shade of white throughout the day
  • Hall light blinks pink twice to indicate if you left a window open when leaving
  • Bathroom lights can be triggered with a switch to ā€œSpa Modeā€ (colour loop)
  • Thinking about adding a ā€œit will rain in next 30minā€ gentle blue indicator to the hall light too

Hopefully this topic will help give us all some new ideas!

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At the moment I have a lamp that indicates if the room is too hot, just right, or too cold by colour.

I plan to have my automated room lights turn on low brightness red if Iā€™ve been in bed and itā€™s not yet sunrise - to retain night vision if I have to get up.

Iā€™d like to use colour accent lights in my home cinema based on content (e.g. blue for under sea movies, orange for desert, green for jungle), but I havenā€™t worked out how yet.

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My main use case is with my Philips TVs, they integrate with the Hue lights so that when I watch TV the whole room is in-sync with the picture.

Then thereā€™s the obvious ā€œfluxā€ automation to have the right light temperature at any time of the day.

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Iā€™ve made a load of different ā€˜scenesā€™, which I can select from an input_select. These are set automatically at different points in the day.

Iā€™ve also set up two binary switches for each room named ā€œPrimary Lightsā€ and ā€œSecondary Lightsā€. The point of this is that sometimes I want cool light effects going on (secondary lights)ā€¦ but then when I walk into a room I want normal lighting (primary lights)ā€¦ So for example my kitchen and dining room are joined up. If Iā€™m in the dining room, the kitchen lights can be a nice secondary lighting effect (like dark purple or red or whatever)ā€¦ but then if you go into the kitchen you trigger the primary light (normal yellow light). This is via motion sensors. Iā€™m still very much playing around with this set up though.

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Iā€™m so jealous of the Ambilight/Hue integration on Philips TVs. I want that, but to setup Hyperion to do just that seems so onerous (money and time).

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Thatā€™s a cool idea. Make it look like the adverts but keep the practical aspect haha. Are the scenes you use ā€œjustā€ colours, or do you use effects too?

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Then thereā€™s automations I do just for shits and giggles.

I just wrote an automation to flash my lounge lamp green at sunset.

- id: lounge_lamp_green_flash
  alias: 'Green Flash'
  trigger:
    platform: sun
    event: sunset
  condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: alarm_control_panel.house # Only if someone is home
    state: disarmed
  - condition: state
    entity_id: light.lifx_lounge_entrance_lamp
    state: 'on'
  action:
    service: light.turn_on
    entity_id:  light.lifx_lounge_entrance_lamp
    data:
      brightness: 255
      color_name: 'Lime'

Itā€™s reset by my lounge lamp temperature routine.

- id: lounge_lamp_temp
  alias: 'Lounge Lamp Temperature Colour'
  trigger:
    platform: state
    entity_id:
    - sensor.aeotec_lounge_temperature
  condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id:  light.lifx_lounge_entrance_lamp # Only if lamp is on
    state: 'on'
  action:
  - service: light.turn_on
    data_template:
      entity_id:  light.lifx_lounge_entrance_lamp
      brightness: 255
      color_name: >
        {% set temp = states('sensor.aeotec_lounge_temperature') | float(1000) %}
        {% if temp < states.input_number.lounge_ac_heat_temp_set.state | float %}
          blue
        {% elif temp < states.input_number.lounge_ac_cool_temp_set.state | float %}
          orange
        {% elif temp < 1000 %}
          red
        {% else %}
          fuchsia
        {% endif %}
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For LIFX flashes, consider using light.lifx_effect_pulse which will automatically reset the light.

Also note light.lifx_set_state which can alter the color even when the light is off. It will then be the expected color when it is eventually turned on.

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I use the Circadian Lighting custom component for the lights in my bedroom and ensuite. Itā€™s much nicer when itā€™s late at night

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@amelchio Thanks for that. Very handy. I changed the automation to:

  action:
  - service: light.lifx_effect_pulse
    data:
      entity_id: light.lifx_lounge_entrance_lamp
      rgb_color: [0,255,0]
      period: 4
      cycles: 1
      mode: blink

Is there a description of the modes somewhere?

This doesnā€™t tell me much:

Valid modes: blink (default), breathe , ping , strobe , solid .

If not, Iā€™ll write a short script to try them all.

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Just try them out (with defaults for period and cycles) and you will see.

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Hey @amelchio, you have a lot of LIFX bulbs at home right?
Do you find yourself using a lot of colour? Typically for alerts, or much more?

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Iā€™m going to try this out! Did you use Flux beforehand?

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No, I started out straight into Circadian Lightning. Itā€™s been working great without any issues so far. Iā€™m happy with it

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Hi @chimpy ā€¦ yeah I have LIFX in most rooms but besides shades of white, I barely use colors. I have a few subtle notifications for open windows, coming home, new mail, etc. but thatā€™s it.

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Check this out: GitHub - samclane/LIFX-Control-Panel: As LIFX no longer supports their Windows 10 app, I created an open-source alternative for controlling LIFX-brand smart lights.

Iā€™ve been playing with it tonight. The average screen colour ā†’ light effect seems to work really well.

Thereā€™s also this kodi addon which from the look of the demo videos isnā€™t quite as good. [Release] Lifx Ambilight Addon for Kodi

Iā€™ll try it tomorrow night and see.

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This is cool but I use an Apple TV :frowning: