Philips Hue Lighting - owners thread
Discussion
How do you deal with a very large house? I had Hue when it first came out in my first house and loved it but this house is 6,500 sq ft and thick walls so I use a deco system for the wifi with 8 deco units around the place.
If I plug the bridge into one of the mesh units then assume the lamps need to be able to communicate with it? The lamps won't attach themselves to the nearest deco unit? If this was the case then it seriously limits what I can do. As in I might just set the bridge up with the deco in the living room and buy Hue bulbs for the living room. I quite like the idea of the LG integration for syncing with what's on the TV.
Would I need a bridge plugged in to each deco unit to have whole of house coverage? No way will lamps in the kitchen speak to a hub plugged in in the living room, for example.
If I plug the bridge into one of the mesh units then assume the lamps need to be able to communicate with it? The lamps won't attach themselves to the nearest deco unit? If this was the case then it seriously limits what I can do. As in I might just set the bridge up with the deco in the living room and buy Hue bulbs for the living room. I quite like the idea of the LG integration for syncing with what's on the TV.
Would I need a bridge plugged in to each deco unit to have whole of house coverage? No way will lamps in the kitchen speak to a hub plugged in in the living room, for example.
AB said:
How do you deal with a very large house? I had Hue when it first came out in my first house and loved it but this house is 6,500 sq ft and thick walls so I use a deco system for the wifi with 8 deco units around the place.
If I plug the bridge into one of the mesh units then assume the lamps need to be able to communicate with it? The lamps won't attach themselves to the nearest deco unit? If this was the case then it seriously limits what I can do. As in I might just set the bridge up with the deco in the living room and buy Hue bulbs for the living room. I quite like the idea of the LG integration for syncing with what's on the TV.
Would I need a bridge plugged in to each deco unit to have whole of house coverage? No way will lamps in the kitchen speak to a hub plugged in in the living room, for example.
I have 12 deco units at home, we've had no issues with Hue via the Hub.If I plug the bridge into one of the mesh units then assume the lamps need to be able to communicate with it? The lamps won't attach themselves to the nearest deco unit? If this was the case then it seriously limits what I can do. As in I might just set the bridge up with the deco in the living room and buy Hue bulbs for the living room. I quite like the idea of the LG integration for syncing with what's on the TV.
Would I need a bridge plugged in to each deco unit to have whole of house coverage? No way will lamps in the kitchen speak to a hub plugged in in the living room, for example.
Hue uses a Zigbee mesh network and not Wi-fi. The lamps, switches, LED strips, etc.. all act as Zigbee transmitters and so creates its own (non-Wi-if) network and so size of house isn’t generally a problem. The limit you will run into is the c.50 lamps maximum a hue hub can control, and so you will need multiple hubs.
Hue have just released a new ‘Pro hub’ that can control c.150 lamps and so a good improvement.
Hue have just released a new ‘Pro hub’ that can control c.150 lamps and so a good improvement.
surbiton said:
Hue uses a Zigbee mesh network and not Wi-fi. The lamps, switches, LED strips, etc.. all act as Zigbee transmitters and so creates its own (non-Wi-if) network and so size of house isn t generally a problem. The limit you will run into is the c.50 lamps maximum a hue hub can control, and so you will need multiple hubs.
Hue have just released a new Pro hub that can control c.150 lamps and so a good improvement.
Edited: Beat me to it Hue have just released a new Pro hub that can control c.150 lamps and so a good improvement.
The new hub does look nice as it finally gives wifi as well as ethernet connection. Also, the 'movement detection' looks interesting though not sure how well that will work. As it is, I've got a couple of Hue motion sensors which are brilliant and very useful so if you could have it in every room 'for free' that would be interesting for home automation.
Not sure if I want to spend more £££s on Hue hubs though - Hue made me get rid of the original 'puck' when they shifted to the rectangular hub and the old pucks basically became e-Waste (as the migration feature forced the old ones to be deactivated) plus Hue Hubs tend to be very unpredictable when connecting to non-Hue kit - some things will work. many not.
If I was to change to another hub it'd likely be one that's more compatible with the range of zigbee devices out there (ie. not a Hue branded hub) and that works fully with Home Assistant. The Hue app is nice for light control from the phone but there are alternatives and every now and then Philips 'improve' the app that usually makes it more confusing to use or hides useful features under more menus.
Not sure if I want to spend more £££s on Hue hubs though - Hue made me get rid of the original 'puck' when they shifted to the rectangular hub and the old pucks basically became e-Waste (as the migration feature forced the old ones to be deactivated) plus Hue Hubs tend to be very unpredictable when connecting to non-Hue kit - some things will work. many not.
If I was to change to another hub it'd likely be one that's more compatible with the range of zigbee devices out there (ie. not a Hue branded hub) and that works fully with Home Assistant. The Hue app is nice for light control from the phone but there are alternatives and every now and then Philips 'improve' the app that usually makes it more confusing to use or hides useful features under more menus.
I got rid of my Hue Hub and went fully over to Home Assistant but the motion aware stuff is very cool, and if it works well could prove to be a really big step. It's quite a clever business move from Philips that you have to buy more bulbs to make it work better.
I've got PIR motion and MMWave presence sensors all over the place and they work really well, but they all need power and therefore cables running along walls. If you could achieve the same thing through a device that's already integrated, that'd be great.
Considering it's driven by the Zigbee signal strength, presumably the concept could work with other powered Zigbee devices too.
I've got PIR motion and MMWave presence sensors all over the place and they work really well, but they all need power and therefore cables running along walls. If you could achieve the same thing through a device that's already integrated, that'd be great.
Considering it's driven by the Zigbee signal strength, presumably the concept could work with other powered Zigbee devices too.
surbiton said:
Hue uses a Zigbee mesh network and not Wi-fi. The lamps, switches, LED strips, etc.. all act as Zigbee transmitters and so creates its own (non-Wi-if) network and so size of house isn t generally a problem. The limit you will run into is the c.50 lamps maximum a hue hub can control, and so you will need multiple hubs.
Hue have just released a new Pro hub that can control c.150 lamps and so a good improvement.
That is the answer I was hoping for and may also solve the problem I have with the lamps I have outside on the driveway. If they're 'piggyback' from the closest to the house then it should work nicely.Hue have just released a new Pro hub that can control c.150 lamps and so a good improvement.
Other question, which I may be lazy asking rather than Googling, but do colour GU10 lamps exist that work with Hue that don't have as much depth? I have uplighters around the house that the standard Hue lamps are too tall for.
I have just ordered the new bridge and currently have 3 of the old ones.
House isn’t massive but there’s over 250 light fittings in total (yes I made an Excel sheet starting the week I moved in, just so I could track the halogen to LED migration!
I have found the outside/inside lights to not be much of a problem, given that they all mesh together, providing your hue lights are relatively spread out and left powered on, everything ends up being able to communicate with a hub even if it’s quite far away.
House isn’t massive but there’s over 250 light fittings in total (yes I made an Excel sheet starting the week I moved in, just so I could track the halogen to LED migration!
I have found the outside/inside lights to not be much of a problem, given that they all mesh together, providing your hue lights are relatively spread out and left powered on, everything ends up being able to communicate with a hub even if it’s quite far away.
New bridge has been in for a week
Painless migrating the first of my old bridges across but there’s currently no migration option for subsequent bridges, so I’m leaving those as is for the time being
The main report is that the motion sensing is just brilliant, I’ve found it reliable and no false positives like when somebody walks in the room above.
I’ve now switched several key spaces to motion sensing and it’s really effective, just as if I had installed sensors but without any faff
Only downside is that I think only 4 motion zones are supported, which means I’d want to buy 3-4 of the new bridge pro’s to replace 3 of the old ones.
I see what they did there
Painless migrating the first of my old bridges across but there’s currently no migration option for subsequent bridges, so I’m leaving those as is for the time being
The main report is that the motion sensing is just brilliant, I’ve found it reliable and no false positives like when somebody walks in the room above.
I’ve now switched several key spaces to motion sensing and it’s really effective, just as if I had installed sensors but without any faff
Only downside is that I think only 4 motion zones are supported, which means I’d want to buy 3-4 of the new bridge pro’s to replace 3 of the old ones.
I see what they did there
Apologies if this has been mentioned already in the thread but can anyone suggest an cheaper alternative to Hue white/colour spot light bulbs? I am currently 100% Hue across multiple zones and devices but am getting a bit pissed off with the failure rate of the spot light bulbs. At £50+ a bulb they fail far too quickly.
Hedgedhog said:
Apologies if this has been mentioned already in the thread but can anyone suggest an cheaper alternative to Hue white/colour spot light bulbs? I am currently 100% Hue across multiple zones and devices but am getting a bit pissed off with the failure rate of the spot light bulbs. At £50+ a bulb they fail far too quickly.
The GU10?IKEA smart bulbs are good and very cheap. I've also had good experiences with Innr and Aqara, and they all use ZigBee so I think would work with the Hue hub.
Hedgedhog said:
Apologies if this has been mentioned already in the thread but can anyone suggest an cheaper alternative to Hue white/colour spot light bulbs? I am currently 100% Hue across multiple zones and devices but am getting a bit pissed off with the failure rate of the spot light bulbs. At £50+ a bulb they fail far too quickly.
How long are the Gu10’s lasting?I have over 100 of the white ambient ones and they’re used heavily, I’ve had one DOA the others all fine, no failures in 2-3 years.
I’d be pretty pissed off if they all started failing in the near future.
Hedgedhog said:
Apologies if this has been mentioned already in the thread but can anyone suggest an cheaper alternative to Hue white/colour spot light bulbs? I am currently 100% Hue across multiple zones and devices but am getting a bit pissed off with the failure rate of the spot light bulbs. At £50+ a bulb they fail far too quickly.
I've had just one GU10 failure (of around 25) in 7 seven years! Prior to Hue they'd go pop regular. I don't know if I have a Philips Hue problem, or an Alexa problem...
Every now and again various lights stop working, as in they stop responding to verbal commands via Alexa. Where I can normally say 'Alexa, hallway light on' I get the response "Hmmmm, the hallway isn't responding....' However, the lights come on when turning on manually via the light switch. After a few days service resumes as normal, but then at some point things fail again.
Pressing the Bridge to reset, and asking Alexa to discover devices fails to help.
My son's Echo has also stopped working as an alarm clock, failing to go off. Yet each Echo or Dot works when speaking to it, asking questions etc.
Here's screenshots from my iPhone.. Any idea what might be going on please?
Every now and again various lights stop working, as in they stop responding to verbal commands via Alexa. Where I can normally say 'Alexa, hallway light on' I get the response "Hmmmm, the hallway isn't responding....' However, the lights come on when turning on manually via the light switch. After a few days service resumes as normal, but then at some point things fail again.
Pressing the Bridge to reset, and asking Alexa to discover devices fails to help.
My son's Echo has also stopped working as an alarm clock, failing to go off. Yet each Echo or Dot works when speaking to it, asking questions etc.
Here's screenshots from my iPhone.. Any idea what might be going on please?
Well to answer my own question - Reddit had the answer, turned out I needed to reset the link between my Amazon account to my Philips Hue account ..
By doing this the accounts linked and when opening the Alexa app on my iPhone the devices started working again after a few seconds
By doing this the accounts linked and when opening the Alexa app on my iPhone the devices started working again after a few seconds
Edited by The Gauge on Thursday 9th October 21:20
The Gauge said:
Well to answer my own question - Reddit had the answer, turned out I needed to reset the link between my Amazon account to my Philips Hue account ..
By doing this the accounts linked and when opening the Alexa app on my iPhone the devices started working again after a few seconds
Thanks for sharing that! I've been having intermittent issues between Hue and Alexa for the last few months following several years of hassle free operation. Will give that a try and hopefully it sorts it 🤞By doing this the accounts linked and when opening the Alexa app on my iPhone the devices started working again after a few seconds
va1o said:
Thanks for sharing that! I've been having intermittent issues between Hue and Alexa for the last few months following several years of hassle free operation. Will give that a try and hopefully it sorts it ?
Link to the Reddit post (use desktop pc to perform reset)https://www.reddit.com/r/Hue/comments/15zd56g/for_...
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