I recently purchased a couple of Philips Wiz lights from Home Depot, and a small lamp base for testing them. Once I got them connected to my IoT VLAN, all seems to be working ok via the app. I can turn them off/on, dim them, etc., and can control them via Home Assistant. I set the Power On Behavior to ‘Last Status’, however, when I turn them off in the app, then turn the lamp off and back on, they come back on a full bright. I was expecting them to stay off since that was the last status when the lamp was turned off.
Am I missing something in the setup, or is this a known issue with these bulbs? If a known issue, are there any recommendations for bulbs that will successfully return to the last status of the bulb after a power outage? These specific bulbs are intended for bedside lamps, and I really don’t want them coming on full bright in the middle of the night after a power outage.
I don’t know this brand, but many smart bulbs suffer from this issue. TP-link’s bulbs do the same, which is why I switched to Shelly’s Duo bulbs. The TP-link bulbs has better colour and other features, but not this annoying issue.
That said, I’ve gone even further and rather installed smart switches with dumb bulbs. Smart bulbs have their place, but I think this is a mistake many first-time hobbyists make — myself included.
You want to keep manual control of lights for the sake of the rest of your family (if applicable), but even for yourself: You don’t want to whip out a fancy remote control like your phone just to switch on a light. If you can fully automate all the light functions, then of course it doesn’t matter.
It’s unclear to me from the description of your testing procedure but did it involve removing the supply of electricity to the bulb? Just want to confirm you simulated a power failure because the expression “turning off” can be ambiguous in this context.
FWIW, Power On Behavior works correctly for my Philips Hue bulbs (Zigbee-based).
Thanks. Yes, in this instance the lamps I’ll be controlling are on our bedside nightstands, and the plugs are not connected to a switch, so smart bulbs or smart plugs seem the only option. If I can’t find a bulb that works the way I like, then I may look for a smart dimmable plug with a similar feature.
Sorry. Yes, after I set the app to turn the bulbs off, I then used the power switch on the lamp to remove power, simulating a power outage and what would happen when the power came back on.
I will look into the Hue bulbs. The only thing I’ve seen that I could hold against them is their price compared to others. But, if they are the only ones I can find that work the way I want, then it may be work the money.
Another question: would the Hue devices (and others for that matter) work with a generic Zigbee gateway, say the Sonoff dongle, or does it really need an actual Hue gateway?
Yes; using the ZHA integration or zigbee2mqtt (Z2M) and the Zigbee coordinators they support (like from Sonoff). However, having said that, I don’t know how you can conveniently set the bulb’s Power On behavior afterwards (because the Hue app only works with the Hue bridge). I don’t use ZHA or Z2M so I am unfamiliar how they can be used to configure that property (perhaps someone else can explain).
I am surprised the Philips Wiz app failed to set the bulb’s Power On behavior correctly. All I can suggest is ensure the bulb’s firmware is up to date and check with Philips to see if it’s a known problem.
The nightstand lamps have integrated switches in each lamp, so we turn them off/on with that using standard dumb bulbs.
The primary use case for these lamps is when one of us goes to bed earlier than the other. Now, if I go to bed, I turn on my wife’s lamp (which comes on full bright) and try to go to sleep (not particularly easy) then she turns it off when she comes to bed… What I want is to have a scene switch that can turn on a smart bulb in my wife’s lamp at it’s lowest brightness. That will allow me to get to sleep easier, but leave enough light that she can navigate the bedroom when she comes to bed.
However, what I certainly do not want is for both lamps to come on full bright after a power outage at 02.00 am.
Thanks for the info. Being completely new at this, is this common, where HA only controls basic functions but you must have the manufacturer’s hub for their app to work, or is this more unique to Hue products? For example, Aquara (or any other manufacturer you are familiar with) has Zigbee devices and hubs. Should I expect extra functionality to work only if I have an Aquara hub to connect them to, or would the app communicate over any Zigbee hub in general?
I have pretty much the same setup, except that she goes to sleep before me. In my case, I installed smart bulbs (for the dimming) and got two smart buttons. These are all Shelly devices. When she turns off her light, mine goes to minimum brightness. In other words, looking at your original message, the lights are always powered, so the manual (connected) switches aren’t used.
Right. However, doing some basic testing with the Wiz bulbs I purchased, if I lose power to the house, when it comes back on these bulbs will always come back on at full brightness, even it’s the middle of the night. As you can imagine, my wife will not be happy with that!
So, I was just looking for advice on either a) something I may have missed in the setup, or b) bulbs others have used that they know will return to the last bulb state after a power outage (i.e. stay off after a power outage at night).
