Philips Hue Lighting - owners thread

[joheartss]

That's what I was afraid of. So if I do use it the bulb could possible explode or even melt the lamp?

[Digitalize]

I can't imagine a situation where a bulb would explode, but the wiring of the light might not be up to the job of supplying the extra current.

[joheartss]

Oh, so worst case scenario, the light bulb just wouldn't work?

[joheartss]

[Digitalize]

No, the wire will get too hot and melt the insulation, possibly shorting or making metal casing live etc.

[dmsims]

Why did you order a 10w bulb for a 7w fitting ?

[ajprice]

I am now the owner of a Philips Hue starter pack, with 2 white bulbs and the control box. They were bought for me as a birthday present. Noob question time...

My flat has bayonet bulb fittings all through, and halogen downlighters in the main room, so the screw fitting ES Hue bulbs are not going to fit any main lights without changing the fittings. Will they work if i get a couple of ES fitting mains powered table lamps and use them in those?

[Roger645]

ajprice said:

I am now the owner of a Philips Hue starter pack, with 2 white bulbs and the control box. They were bought for me as a birthday present. Noob question time...

My flat has bayonet bulb fittings all through, and halogen downlighters in the main room, so the screw fitting ES Hue bulbs are not going to fit any main lights without changing the fittings. Will they work if i get a couple of ES fitting mains powered table lamps and use them in those?

Yep, the bulbs talk to the bridge via wireless, they only need the fitting for power.

[Magic919]

You can also get ES to BC adapters.

[dmsims]

ajprice said:

I am now the owner of a Philips Hue starter pack, with 2 white bulbs and the control box. They were bought for me as a birthday present. Noob question time...

My flat has bayonet bulb fittings all through, and halogen downlighters in the main room, so the screw fitting ES Hue bulbs are not going to fit any main lights without changing the fittings. Will they work if i get a couple of ES fitting mains powered table lamps and use them in those?

You can get these in bayonet fitting ???

[pmanson]

They are launching E14 candles soon...

[Magic919]

dmsims said:

You can get these in bayonet fitting ???

Yes, you can.

[Oakey]

pmanson said:

They are launching E14 candles soon...

At the same price. You'd think they'd be a little cheaper

[AB]

Decided to bite the bullet on Hue, about to leave the office as the gear has been delivered to a neighbour.

fk me it's expensive!! Decided I may as well do all the main rooms in the house, so main 2 bedrooms, hallway, landing and living room.

16 BC bulbs in all, so;

1x Philips Hue 9W B22 - Colour Ambiance Wireless LED Starter Pack
1x Philips Hue GO 6W Multicolour Table Lamp
13x Philips Hue 9W B22 - Colour Ambiance Wireless LED Bulb

That's the best part of £800, it's ridiculous. I've gone for an Echo downstairs and a Dot upstairs.

I've got 18x GU10 in the kitchen/dining room and 6x GU10 in the bathroom and if I wanted to put some strips in too you're looking at about £1,300 more - the kitchen/dining room is where we do most of our entertaining so it would actually be really good to have them in there but £50 for a GU10!? I'm in the lighting business myself - if they made it less pricey they'd probably sell a whole lot more.

I'll report back my thoughts when I've had a play.

[Digitalize]

Ikea have just launched a range of smart lighting, might be worth a look for the cheaper areas of the house. I don't think they do colour ones though.

[Mr Will]

AB said:

Decided to bite the bullet on Hue, about to leave the office as the gear has been delivered to a neighbour.

fk me it's expensive!! Decided I may as well do all the main rooms in the house, so main 2 bedrooms, hallway, landing and living room.

16 BC bulbs in all, so;

1x Philips Hue 9W B22 - Colour Ambiance Wireless LED Starter Pack
1x Philips Hue GO 6W Multicolour Table Lamp
13x Philips Hue 9W B22 - Colour Ambiance Wireless LED Bulb

That's the best part of £800, it's ridiculous. I've gone for an Echo downstairs and a Dot upstairs.

I've got 18x GU10 in the kitchen/dining room and 6x GU10 in the bathroom and if I wanted to put some strips in too you're looking at about £1,300 more - the kitchen/dining room is where we do most of our entertaining so it would actually be really good to have them in there but £50 for a GU10!? I'm in the lighting business myself - if they made it less pricey they'd probably sell a whole lot more.

I'll report back my thoughts when I've had a play.

You can take a huge chunk off that cost by reducing the number of Colour bulbs. Instead of £50 per bulb you can get Ambience bulbs for £25 or Dimmable White for £15.

Colour bulbs are great for effect, but you don't need them everywhere. Ambience bulbs still do the daylight/warm white adjustment and are perfect when the purpose is mainly lighting (pendant lamps, desk lamps, etc). White bulbs are great for hallways and other places where you just want the automation.

If you ended up using 6x Colour, 5x Ambience and 5x White, you've saved yourself 300 quid.

Same thing with the GU10s - 18 Colour GU10s is £900, 18 white ambience GU10s is £450. Do you really want multi-coloured lighting in every one of your kitchen spotlights?

[tankplanker]

AB said:

Decided to bite the bullet on Hue, about to leave the office as the gear has been delivered to a neighbour.

fk me it's expensive!! Decided I may as well do all the main rooms in the house, so main 2 bedrooms, hallway, landing and living room.

16 BC bulbs in all, so;

1x Philips Hue 9W B22 - Colour Ambiance Wireless LED Starter Pack
1x Philips Hue GO 6W Multicolour Table Lamp
13x Philips Hue 9W B22 - Colour Ambiance Wireless LED Bulb

That's the best part of £800, it's ridiculous. I've gone for an Echo downstairs and a Dot upstairs.

I've got 18x GU10 in the kitchen/dining room and 6x GU10 in the bathroom and if I wanted to put some strips in too you're looking at about £1,300 more - the kitchen/dining room is where we do most of our entertaining so it would actually be really good to have them in there but £50 for a GU10!? I'm in the lighting business myself - if they made it less pricey they'd probably sell a whole lot more.

I'll report back my thoughts when I've had a play.

I'd have gone with z wave lighting relays or z wave switch panels rather than replacing that number of bulbs, would be ~£40 a room.

I have a large number of Hue bulbs because I bought them over a long period of time, mostly when they were on sale on Amazon, but doing it again I would go for a z wave relays.

[Tiggsy]

As above - I have the £15 ones in hall ways. Kids bedroom have white ambiance.

Only using color in 3 rooms and even then, not every bulb needs to be colour. My bedroom has 4 ceiling bulbs, 2 bed side lights and an LED strip behind the headboard - only that one is colour.

[Cotty]

AB said:

Decided to bite the bullet on Hue, about to leave the office as the gear has been delivered to a neighbour.

fk me it's expensive!! Decided I may as well do all the main rooms in the house, so main 2 bedrooms, hallway, landing and living room.

That's the best part of £800, it's ridiculous. I've gone for an Echo downstairs and a Dot upstairs.

How are you looking to control them, via the Echo and Dot? Im still finding without a dot in each room im walking onto a dark room and having to exit the room to find a dot to tell it to turn the light on, then go back into the room.

[Mr Will]

Cotty said:

How are you looking to control them, via the Echo and Dot? Im still finding without a dot in each room im walking onto a dark room and having to exit the room to find a dot to tell it to turn the light on, then go back into the room.

The £20 hue dimmer switches are brilliant - no wiring required, they just stick on the wall wherever you like and give instant, intuitive control. Up to 5 scenes of your choice, plus increase/decrease brightness, if you set them up via the Philips app.

All sorts of other options available if you program them with one of the 3rd party apps. For example I've got mine set so that holding down the off button turns off all the lights on that floor of the house. Pressing 'dim down' when the lights are off activates the nightlights for 5 minutes, etc.

The other option for hallways etc is the motion sensor - works great for simple rooms you'll be passing through often.