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| Hue Starter Kit |
Of course, if you're looking for smart bulbs that change colors, there are quite a few options out there. I looked them over an decided to play it safe. Philips has pioneered the segment and gets good reviews so I saved up my nickels and dimes and purchased a starter kit with the second generation Hue Bridge and 3 color changing bulbs.
My first problem was setup. I have an Insteon hub already and a networked TV, BluRay player, Wii U, Roku, VOIP Phone, and probably a couple others I'm forgetting. My router hooks up to a 5 port switch to hook up all of my devices and it was full. Not only that, all of my devices were getting pretty crowded surrounding my router. So I decided to put my hub upstairs where I was putting my lights. I used a trick I found that used my Sonos Bridge as an access point (the network port on a Sonos Bridge uses the SonosNet wireless network to become a live internet port). Plugging my Hue Bridge into the Sonos Bridge gave me the internet access I needed.
Set up was pretty straightforward - install the app and pair it with the bulbs. I was on my way!
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| Hue Dimmer Switch |
I bought a Hue Dimmer Switch to turn the lights on and off because sometimes it's easier to hit a switch than to say, "Alexa, turn on the lights." This is a great little device. You can program it with up to 4 scenes so you hit the on button a scene 1 comes on, hit it again and scene 2 comes on, etc. It works great and is a lot of fun.
Then came the issues.
I'm glad I bought the switch because my Echo controls didn't work very well out of the box. I mean, they worked but the lag could be awful. For example, I'd say "Alexa, turn on the lights in the loft" and it would take 5 to 15 seconds before they responded. Sometimes they'd work right away but more often than not, there was a significant delay and sometimes it wouldn't work at all. In hindsight, it was probably network issues but at the time, I just thought that Hue integration with Alexa was terrible. After all, my switch worked great.
The issues caused me much grumbling at the time and I almost returned the whole thing. I'm glad I didn't though because, as of this writing, it is working great! Not only is the lag gone, but I found that if you open your Alexa app and create a group with the Hue lights and an Echo device, you can simply tell the device, "Alexa, turn on the lights" and your lights turn on - no room name required!!! It's a simple thing but it just makes life that much easier. What fixed it? I don't really know. One day it worked and then just kept working. I do suspect it was an issue with my home network but I really don't know. Whatever the reason, it works great now.
So now the honest truth - I almost never use the colors on my bulbs any more. They're fun at first and fun to show off but after a while, the newness wears off and I find that I never use it anymore. Maybe next Christmas I'll set up a red and green light thing but in general, it's not really useful to me. Now, this isn't to say that it doesn't work well - it most certainly does. It just means that it doesn't really enhance my lifestyle.
So, should you run out and buy some? That depends. They are light bulbs so if you fixtures take multiple bulbs, you're buying multiple bulbs and that will get expensive really fast. Also, if you're replacing your overhead lights, you have to remember to leave the switch always on. If not the light goes out and no phone app or Alexa command will turn it back on (unless they control that switch). However, I put my bulbs in lamps that plug into the wall. Those can be a pain to turn off and on especially if you have multiples in a single room. In that case these bulbs work great.
The verdict? For me the Hue bulbs are great for lamps, etc. but anything in my house hooked to a wall switch (e.g. overhead lights and fans) is going to get a smart switch and not a smart bulb.
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