I want to light my whole home. What bulb suggestions do you have for me?? I have a Lifx bulb, but that ran my like 60+ are there any cheaper options with similar function?? Thanks in advance…
@playboy71322 I was recently discussing this very same topic. I’m glad that @DavidFW1960 took the time to recommend some lights by Limitless LED but can also be found on Amazon by the name of MiLights. They are considerably cheaper. I will be ordering some of these to try soon. I’m am still very ignorant with HA capabilities. I wanted to at least share something I have learned while being here in this community. I’m excited to see the possibilities of HA in my family’s life, including a whole home LED solution as well. Best of luck!
I have an RGB Xiaomi Yeelight bulb (650 lm). They cost around 16 USD and are WiFi capable (with hass support of course). I highly recommend it. Another good option would be the AiLight. This bulb is considerable cheaper, however you will need to flash the unofficial firmware with MQTT support onto it manually.
I really like the RBG Xiaomi light. I might get both and see which works best for me unless someone comes with something else that beats these too. I like the wifi enabled plug and play.
Just right now they are out of stock.
@TheAK I’m glad you posted those recommendations. Add to what seems like my never ending list of devises. I’m not not sure if I should thank you or be upset with you!
@playboy71322 Looks like we might be trying several different lights now.
I bit the bullet and picked up a more expensive light today. It’s the tp-link LB130 bulb. It’s a Wi-Fi RGB bulb. Figured I would spend the money on a bulb twice the price. Experiment and play with it so I have time to research and order some other lights. Plus I am too impatient to have to wait for the shipping. LOL
The advantage for me of LimitlessLED is they use a bridge which only uses one IP address for many lights. I do have 2 of the yeelights that I got for less than $8 on special and they individually connect to your WLAN with their own IP address. Both work well.
If the bridge only has one IP address, how does HA control each individual light?
HA controls a group and you add bulbs to a group. For instance I have 4 GU10 lights in my office in one group and they turn on and off as a group. Maybe you need to review the component in the docs.
If you can do it, replacing the switches is the better usually much more economical way to go, particular when you have several bulbs on the same one, and then you can just use very cheap dumb led bulbs.
Adding a few smart bulbs in the mix is good for when you really want individual dimming and/or colour effects which would usually be in lamps which are more suitable given the lack of an accompanying wall switch that someone is bound to turn off and ruin the whole set up.
Yeah but she’s getting really well trained now. hahaha.
Also needs an electrician…
This is a rental house for a short period of time so I wanted a bulb solution in a few places aroudn the house. The sonoff and some dumb LED bulbs would be a better choice if I owned the house and could chop behind the walls.
That’s what I am planning on doing. Some sonoff switches throughout the home with basic LEDs. Then some WiFi or RF bulbs like the Limitless LEDs, for the fancy stuff in select places in the home. I am installing Hass.io right now! Now I am waiting for my interface to be seen on the network. It’s been about 5 minutes and still nothing yet. I know it can take some time…but this is how my patience level has me feeling
That’s fair enough, you said “whole house” in your original post hence my comment
Sengled makes some cheap zigbee bulbs if zigbee is an option.
@DavidFW1960 After some more research, I can completely agree with you about only having to deal with one IP. I was able to successfully integrate my first light last night. It was easy and straightforward for the most part. I can definitely see though that in say 1 years time, how many individual IPs I would have to manage in regard to lights. That seems like a headache and overly cumbersome. Looks like I will be going with Mi-Lights throughout my home where I want fancy LEDs and some Sonoff switches for regular lights (which after it is all said and done, I may end up just doing a complete home setup with the Mi-Lights for the sake of not having to purchase Sonoff switches and rewiring a bunch of switches. Thanks again for the suggestions!
I would strongly advise Yeelight over MiLight/LimitlessLed.
- Yeelight works without hub or bridge;
- Yeelight has more capabilities than MiLight (like scenes and effects);
- Yeelight has IFTTT integration;
- Yeelight works out of the box with Google Home (and probably Alexa too?).
And the most important one:
- When switching on a MiLight light with the regular light switch (which you will do rather often), the light goes on in a very very dim nightmode. With Yeelight the state is configurable.
And now…I am back to square one again!
Fantastic points. Thank you @Bob_NL for your input. Definitely something I was not aware of. So, out of curiosity would you say that dealing with say 20+ individual lights & IPs is a pain in the rear? Or do you simply get used to having to deal with a large number of devices on your router? I am not the most advanced user (obviously) but I imagine having to manage lights, their IPs, entity IDs, etc can become quite the chore. Other more obvious things like a door lock or window sensor, etc would be easy to figure out. But how about a room with say 8 different bulbs? How do you manage them individually in a logical way?