So I’ve been trying some different bulbs during my short experience in HA (8 months now) and I haven’t found any that fit 100% my requirements.
Basically i’m in the search of a bulb with the following characteristics:
-Color and Cold/Warm white
-Fast response
-Smooth and configurable transitions
-800lm and +1100lm
-Affordable
What I’ve tested so far:
*Sengled The good:
-Fast Response
-Color and Cold/Warm white
-800lm The bad:
-can’t do transitions using ZHA
-only transitions between brightness using deconz (no transitions between colors and whites).
*MiLight The good:
-Fast Response
-Color and Cold/Warm white
-800lm and 1100lm The bad:
-Choppy and awful transitions using the ESPmilight hub
*GLEDOPTO The good:
-Fast Response
-Color and Cold/Warm white
-800lm and 1100lm
-smooth Transition (except from color mode to color_temp) The bad:
-The transitions from color mode to color_temp is not existing, the change is abrupt.
*Wiz The good:
-Color and Cold/Warm white
-800lm and 1100lm
-super smooth Transition The bad:
-slow response, sometimes just a few ms of delay sometimes more than a second to respond.
The best ones in my opinion are Gledopto and Wiz, but still not 100% satisfied. I know I haven’t tried all the options available so I would like to ask you guys what you recommend to try next based on your experience.
Lifx: The Good:
-Fast
-Colour and colour temp (depending on model)
-800/1100lm
-Smooth and fast transitions
-Service to update state while off The Bad
-Expensive
-Not the strongest wifi
I have not tried them but the Lohas smart LED bulbs get good reviews and are inexpensive:
I have never had any poor response times using Wiz bulbs (made by Philips), the only issue I ever had was trying to set them up using my phone and accidentally left on its VPN connection.
I AM having random delays up to 4s on a Shelly device with poor signal strength… what kind of wireless equipment are you using?
Have you tried Nanoleaf bulbs? (you need a Thread router)
A word of advice. Don’t put smart bulbs everywhere in your house. Reserve them for use in lamps in places where you want coloured lighting or notifications.
Use smart switches or smart dimmers everywhere else in combination with dumb LED bulbs. These will be cheaper, just as easy to automate and will allow for physical control by switch toggling luddites.
The workarounds for using smart switches in detached mode to control the smart bulbs that must always be powered is not worth the hassle. You also retain local control using the switch when home assistant is down.
I have a Linksys WRT3200ACM running stock firmware. The Wiz bulbs are all around the House but I especially notice the delay on the ones in the bathroom (20m away from the router and two drywall walls in between) on which I installed a motion sensor to turn them on. With other bulbs the lights turn on as soon I enter the bathroom, but with the Wiz they turn on after a second or two.
Have you tried Nanoleaf bulbs?
no, I haven’t. I Don’t like the idea of having to set up a Thread Network.
It could be worth holding off until next year to be honest. When the Matter protocol drops (and the products that use it), there will be a LOT more Thread devices on the market than there are at the moment, and we will know more about what devices can be used to create the Thread network (other than the existing ones of course).
I couldn’t agree more. And for most of the occupied spaces, dimmers give a more gentle, soft transition from dark to light (and off again later), much more pleasing and less jarring, especially for those who are not HA enthusiasts. Regular on/off switches are ok for utility rooms, outdoors, and the like.