We have several Echo devices already. What I want is smart lighting - something where I can change the colour temp of lights from daylight to warm light either automatically based on time of day, or manually. I want manual light switches as well as voice control. I also want small lamps or under-shelf lights for my home workspace.
I understand that Hue is a different network - how well does it penetrate the house? I'd put the hub on the middle floor of the house so it needs to go through one floor to the top and one floor to the downstairs.
Future expansions could be a doorbell (video optional) or smart heating, but I guess these would work with WiFi just as well? I also would like strips to place under the kitchen cupboards to light the worktops, and I might like these to come on automatically when I turn the main lights on, but be able to turn them off independently as well.
How does Hue compare with the IKEA system?
Aside from the price ? 😉
I have a Hue setup, although I’ve only applied it to the downstairs area.
I put the Hue bridge next to my WiFi router & Alexa device, the Hue bridge needs to connect to your WiFi network & you need to add Hue as a skill to your Alexa device
If you see a video showing a light strip attached to the back of your TV & sync’d to the TV beware - the video doesn’t tell you that you need a £270 sync box, and it won’t sync with anything built into the TV e.g Netflix. It is good, though.
You can also add motion sensors to the Hue network, so for example your landing light automatically turns on when it detects someone going upstairs
Well the price is the big blocker, that's why I'm balking at it.
I don't care about TV sync but I would quite like motion sensors. Are they available in other systems?
Hue works great but it's SO expensive. There are a lot of cheaper options these days! (Bear in mind the really cheap Chinese wifi lights that don't use a hub will only work via Chinese servers - depends how you feel about that! Also means they only work when you have internet access)
Absolute best option moving forwards IMO (considering how rapidly home automation is evolving and where it'll be in a few years time) is to set up a home server using something like Home Assistant which can be run on any PC/linux box/Mac or even a Raspberry Pi. This massively opens the door to all kinds of low cost & home brew solutions, all of which can talk to each other so you can have a totally integrated solution. Obviously this includes motion detectors and in theory anything e.g. put the kettle for you when it detects you getting up in the morning, etc.
Also potentially much cheaper than any other solution but does require a bit of technical nous or at least a willingness to learn!!
I've got a load of Hue lights about the house now. Started initially to fill the gaps in our house, where odd position of light switches (or complete lack of) meant that it was difficult to put lights on before walking through certain rooms in the dark.
I've now got them setup in the living room, dining/kitchen, stairwells and driveway. Motion sensors link to the stairwell lights as soon as anyone is near. Driveway lights similarly setup. A few simple routines/automations set up that mean that a certain scene is triggered if someone goes down the stairs at a certain time early morning, or leaves the house, or comes home at a certain time. Pretty easy to do and works fine.
Also got Tado system for heating, so everything can be worked with the Home app.
Not sure how it would compare to IKEA system though.
Just buy generic smart bulbs that don’t require any extras and save yourself some money.
Ikea tradfri id somewhat compatible with hue. You can connect ikea bulbs to hue hub but not the other way. INNR bulbs are also compatible with hue hubs and the strip is cheaper than hue equivalent (but not as refined).
Some Alexa devices have a hue hub built in. This could save you a few quid. The hue devices are rock solid performers so worth using if you can afford it. HueEssentials on android is amazing for simple custom control. you can set lights to do pretty much what you want. buttons too.
Another consideration which I have been looking into is Samsung Smartthings. £80 for a startr set on amazon and can control a load of different lights and other smart devices like doorbells, cameras, etc.
Edit:
To clarify, the ikea and innr bulbs are not as integrated as hue and cant do the more fancy things.
We have it all over the house, haven't had any problems with them networking with each other (it uses mesh networking so even if a bulb is out of range of the hub it should be able to communicate via bulbs in between).
We use the Hue dimmer switches and bought some little adaptors so they go over the existing light switches ( https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D5KJ4B6/ ).
Also potentially much cheaper than any other solution but does require a bit of technical nous or at least a willingness to learn!!
I have no issue with the technical aspect of this kind of thing but I frequently cannot be bothered as I fart about getting things to work with each other all day at work.
You can connect ikea bulbs to hue hub but not the other way.
This is very interesting as I don't mind shelling out for a one-off hub but having to spend £25 on every bulb would be pretty irritating. I also quite like the light panels, and the IKEA ones are cheap and variable colour.
Hue uses Zigbee rather than WiFi, seems to work well in terms of coverage but then I live in a small house. It can in theory interfere with WiFi (assuming you're using 2.4GHz WiFi) but likely only if you've changed your default WiFi channel
I have:
Alexa Dot
Hue Bridge
Living room with Hue colour bulbs
Bedroom with Hue colour bulbs
Bathroom with Hue spotlights (also a Hue remote switch on wall outside bathroom)
Outdoor Philips light (that came with a Hue bulb in it)
All works well, pricey to buy all at once but I'd just do a room at a time.
Pluses:
Convenience - Routine to automatically switch on certain lights in morning and to switch off all lights in house at certain time (a few minutes after I usually leave for work)
Convenience - Routine so I can say "Alexa, good night" and all the Hue lights turn off (handy once in bed)
Remote switch for bathroom saves having to talk to Alexa if getting up in the middle of the night (so you don't disturb others)
Hands-free light control (if you've got your hands full or dirty etc.)
Minuses:
Cost
Sometimes Alexa doesn't recognise command or there's a few second delay (quite rare these days I find)
People turning off/on the old light switches at the wall (it all stops working if the lights are off at the wall :p ), mostly just applies to visitors, you soon get in the habit of not using them in your own house.
If you have a room with two Hue lights in that you wish to control separately you need to call them different names (I have a main living room light called "living room" and a second light I only rarely use called "lounge"). Might be able to call them "living room one" and "living room two" but firstly that's even more of a mouthful to say and secondly you can set the brightness via a number so not sure if it would conflict. I suspect it would always come on as either brightness level 1 or 2 (out of 100).
Rarely Alexa can't communicate with the outdoor light but always seems to work second time of asking (without me having to do anything) so not sure if that's just got a weak signal due to distance and walls.
You sound a bit of a prat talking to Alexa to control lights
Colour lights are just a gimmick really - once you've played with the colours a couple of times you'll likely never do it again. That said I do use the "Relax" scene generally in my living room when watching TV, not sure if you can get close to that with a non-colour bulb
I still need to do my kitchen where it would work really well but waiting on doing it as part of a kitchen refurb rather than adding to my existing mess of a kitchen
Hue is good but our usage has mostly been:
- tying together several lights on to a single switch/remote - we do ceiling lights on different switches, lightstrip, freestanding lamp over dining table on a remote downstairs, then similar in bedroom for bedside lamps, lightstrip, main ceiling lamp and have a remote each stuck to the back of the headboard. The sort of stuff you might do "properly" if you we rewiring a house but not otherwise.
- timers. Porch light auto on at sunset, dim later, off later still. Kids nightlight on at bedtime, off in the morning.
- ability to dim lights in places like the lounge without fitting dimmer switches
- when we're away sticking most stuff on timer so it looks like we're home. Hue lets you have a an amount of randomness around the times you set so it doesn't look so consistent if someone was watching.
I have some Ikea ones to play with (the Hue GU10s are mental money, and the previous house owners stuck loads of them about), if I can get them paired and working just for on/off it'll be enough.
I started buying Hue kit before Christmas and so far am impressed.
Amazon regularly have kits for half price or less.
So far have lounge and dining room table lamps and all bedroom ceiling lights set up. Next will be an outside light and sensor.
Running it all via the Hue app and/or Apple Home and no problems yet. The ability to set routines, operate scenes and manually adjust colours and brightness is great and the novelty isn't wearing off.
@molgrips The Ikea compatibility is an interesting one. It's not as seamless as connecting hue bulbs but works. It's also worth getting an ikea hub as a maintenance item as some ikea bulb require updating or 'activating' to be able to connect to the hue hub.
I cant stress enough the power of the huessentials app. I have a 4 button remote by the bed that I use to control both the ceiling light and the bedside light. You can use the app to customise the buttons so I have the ceiling light to go on/off with a long press of the dimmer +/- buttons with dimming as normal. Then I have my bedside light doing the same but with the bigger on/off buttons. I then have full control of the bedroom lights.
Motion sensors on the landing and hallway turn on the relevant lights to certain colours and brightness at different times of day...I have the lading come on dim/red between midnight and 6am.
It would be worth looking at Paul Hibbert on YouTube
Lots of smart tech inc Hue alternatives , on which he has strong views
His videos are a weird mix of informing, irritating and funny
Always makes me laugh
Good luck
We've gone IKEA, because they had a load of stuff in their reduced section, did have to return the first tradfri hub as it was faulty.
Just done the living room & hallway so far, works nicely.
Only thing is that we have Google & Alexa & if I try to talk to the same bulb with both it drops out, so we only use Google, Google home app is great too.
Whenever I'm in IKEA look out for some more bulbs in their reduced section. So far it's worked out a fraction of the cost of hue.
Just put a roof on our conservatory , so looking at the IKEA panels , but they're not likely to be reduced
Also getting some govee coloured led strips in their too as they should sync with home app.
+1 on Paul hibbert good advice on who's best at what
