Lightbulbs

Very good :smile:

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Whose bright idea was this topic?

Edit: still haven’t logged in on my staff account :man_facepalming:t2::man_shrugging:t2:

So I was going to upgrade all my lights to smart ones next year. Until a brief power cut last night meant that I was woken from my sweet slumber by the bedside lights coming on at maximum brightness

It’s not a frequent thing but now I’m doubting smart lights…

I’ve got all my Hue lights to power-on in the last-used state, so this doesn’t happen. It also means that the wall switches, where involved, can be switched off/on without the retina-searing surprise moments.

But if you have fade-in routines, this will obviously not work while switched off. But the app shows which bulbs are unavailable, so it’s easy to tell what is switched off at the wall in any room.

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I actually didn’t know that setting existed, well it saves me a headache so thank you!

After 4 years of using different brands and fittings from supermarkets and diy shops, only 4 gu10 from poundland had fail.

New year, new update. Stocked up on Osram bulbs from Dyson as they had a limited offer on, and now almost all bulbs in the house are LED (exceptions being bathroom and kitchen).

Further to that, despite what I said earlier about having no interest in smart bulbs, I have bought, er, a smart bulb. Just the one, for my bedroom/office.

Key selling point for me was (a) ability to change the temperature of the light, which means I can have cool/daylight light when I’m working and warm light at bedtime (also dimmable), and (b) I already have Tapo devices so it was no effort at all to add it to my home systems.

I still stand by what I said earlier about it being too expensive to replace all the bulbs in the house with smart bulbs, but it turns out I’m actually really liking the bulb so far. It even has a smart calibration feature where it will change the temperature of the light for me according to time of day, which is really handy!

Those bulbs look great value. I have some Tapo smart plugs which work great but it’s annoying that they don’t support HomeKit.

Oooh… looks like the answer to the ‘switch-off’ issue. A little expensive but I think I’ll try one at least when launched:

Completely agree about smart bulbs. They can be useful in a few places, but smart switches are a far more interesting prospect for me.

Just a shame no one has brought a complete product to the UK market yet. Den were pretty close, but they’ve gone bust and re-opened once already, and apparently their products weren’t functional without a connection to Den’s servers.

What’s privacy like with Tapo? Can you use the app on WiFi without an Internet connection? Ideally, I’d block traffic from a bulb at the router…

I’ve ordered 4

This is entirely your fault

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I’m afraid I’ve not been in a position where I’ve had WiFi but no internet to test this case. If I get the chance to disconnect the internet and test this, I’ll come back and let you know.

:grimacing: I never had the slightest inkling that my little post could wield so much power. I hope they work as well for you as mine has for me (he says, typing in the light of his bulb).

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I was actually looking at those in November but they were out of stock :grin:

Supposed to be delivered tomorrow so :crossed_fingers:

With great power comes great illumination.

How did you get on with them?

The kids love them. Linked to Alexa for the youngest so when you say “goodnight Alexa” it turns off the light and starts his audiobook

I keep forgetting and turning them off at the wall switch. I’m old and forgetful. But it’s nice when I remember :grin:

Great thankyou!

I’m really interested in the match daylight feature and these seem much more affordable than LIFX so might have to give it a go.

That tends to be the mode I use in the living room when I’m reading in the evening.

They’re really easy to set up

Party mode is fun when I want to get the kid’s attention

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I’m currently in the process of migrating my Philips hue ecosystem over to the thread-enabled nanoleaf essential bulbs.

They’re significantly cheaper than Hue, just as good, but the setup and implementation of an ecosystem of thread products is just so much better. You’ll need a thread border router somewhere on your home network for it though. Not sure what hardware other vendors provide, but for Apple, both HomePod mini and the new Apple TV serve as thread border routers.

CHIP compatible too.