Light Bulbs: best option to be controlled by HA?

Hardware
1

ello,

I am trying to “automate” my rental place, therefore I am looking for “less invasive” options to implement “basic automation”…

the “easiest one” would be to automate/control lighting… by this I mean install “connected” light bulbs that I can control with HA directly (I don’t want a solution like Philips Hue, where I would need ad extra “central unit”)…

I have found few options such as:

anyone can suggest a good/cheap product? (please keep in mind that I am in a rental place, therefore, I dont need a superfancy option just turo on/off and dimming…

Thank you

2

I’m currently in a rental so have the same issue regards to being non-invasive. I went with Yeelights bought from Banggood. Nice and cheap and have worked perfectly with HA for over a year now.

3

You can’t control your lights “with HA directly”, you always need a device that communicates with them. Most lights use the Zigbee protocol. Some others are connected through WiFi, but in this way they consume a lot of power.
Me personally, I’ve equipped my apartment with OSRAM Lightify and after one year I can say that I better had invested a little bit more money and bought Philips Hue.

4

do you need an hub or you can set them up with HA directly? thank you :slight_smile:

5

Yeelights don’t require a hub and work great.

6

Nope, they just connect to your wifi network as @DavidFW1960 has said

7

though an extra unit might sound expensive and more complex, there’s a very good reason to like a dedicated Hub: if HA is down for whatever reason, you can always use the dedicated app, in my case Ikea and Hue without a hitch. This hasn’t been a luxury the last couple of months, well almost a year now, since Hue integration changed in HA, and also several Ikea Tradfri issues seem to be hard to mitigate.

Cut it short, and only talking Hue and Ikea: I am very very happy with my dedicated hubs, and use these regularly. Also adds to the WAF if once can use their remotes and App, who HA is in its down-state…

Hue and Ikea are after all consumer grade released to market scrutiny tools, HA is still in its beta phase…

8

They also have an additional benefit of not bankrupting you (yes I’m looking at you Phillips Hue!!)

I also use LimitlessLED/MiLight that comes with a Hub. I actually think the hub solution is a little better personally. but either works well.

9

The question is, do you call the wifi router a hub or not. :wink:

10

I use Milight bulbs with the DIY hub, I have 14 milight bulbs https://github.com/sidoh/esp8266_milight_hub

I like that they integrate with MQTT and they were really cheap, but they lack transitions and the color is a little un-subtle. Other than that they are pretty great though especially for the price, I also have Milight remotes.

I also use the Ikea Tradfri bulbs with zigbee2mqtt https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt

Tradfri and the Philips Hue both are Zigbee, which zigbee2mqtt supports, among many other products and bulbs. It allows you to mix Zigbee products without buying any of the proprietary hubs.

zigbee2mqtt was not around when I bought light bulbs, if it were I would probably have gone entirely with a mix of Tradfri/Hue as they are a higher quality than the milights.

So IMO I would do zigbee2mqtt and mix whatever Zigbee products make sense for your place.

1 Like
11

ah…no.

  1. Who doesn’t already have wifi… (especiallly people who DO have HA)

  2. A wifi router is NOT a proprietary device like a Hue hub.

  3. its all good since I know you are joking :wink:

12

Okay, let’s continue joking: My router comes from Swisscom and it’s 100 % proprietary, they even update and reboot it whenever they like. :beers:

A really good open solution is the one proposed by @oakbrad.

In my case the main problem with wifi is the poor coverage in some parts of my apartment. With Zigbee on the other hand the devices build a chain and I’m able to control even lights outside the house.

13

thank you for this! I like this idea!

let me recap: I could buys IKEA Tradfri, then use HA as hub (no need of a separate hub, right?

in this case, where should I start? I have forgot to say that I am a newbie :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Thank you :slight_smile:

14

For zigbee2mqtt you need the devices listed here. Weigh this and the time you’ll need against the price of a (yes, proprietary) Tradfri hub, where the integration into HA is quite simple.

15

A good solution is deCONZ which is just a software gateway and a usb stick. It supports most Zigbee devices (Hue, Trådfri, Xiaomi, Innr, etc.) out there and is hassle free.

Its usb stick also got support in Hass internal Zigbee implementation so when that is a bit more mature you can even remove the software gateway.