Are you doing anything with Hue?

CapitalOne

CapitalOne

CapitalOne

Soldato
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23 Nov 2014
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The Cronx
Hi all

I've had Hue lights running for a year now, and thought I would share some tips and see what else people were doing. I can't see another recent thread to discuss Hue.

A few months ago I discovered Osram Lightify bulbs were compatible (this was temporarilly disabled then enabled again in a firmware update 2 weeks ago). If your timing is right, these are a third of the cost of Phillips' bulbs. I bought the rainforest out of it's last 5 E27 bulbs at £15 each at the weekend. Although the colour transitions on these bulbs are not as smooth as Hue, it's not a big deal to me. To add these bulbs, do not switch them on until you start an automatic search in your Hue app - whilst searching switch them on and they connect in a few seconds as "Extended Colour Bulb".

I now have 2 strips, 2 blooms and 2 tabletops in the kitchen (20ft x 10ft) and 1 Lighify in a lamp in the connected utility room (10ft x 7ft). These provide enough light to work by but I really need to do the GU10s in the celing - unfortunately there are 12 of these to fill!

Hallway (next door) has 3 Lightify - 2 in lamps, on in the main celing light. Hallway is L shape cut out of a 12ft x 12ft square. This room is lit perfectly.

Sitting room (20ft x 15ft) has 4 Lightify, 2 in lamps and 2 in the main celing lights. Again lit perfectly well.

Study (15ft x 7ft just has a single strip for a backlight to the 50" TV and looks great.

Still to do - Kitchen Gu10's, Dining room GU10's (so that's £850 in hue speak!). 2 habited bedrooms will need 5 Lightify.

I love them, adjustable colour and brightness, timing, geofencing and of course Disco effects. I also use IFTTT to play around although can't find anything really useful. Flashes on email, all go blue when it's going to rain are all novel but that's about it.

I'm also playing with the JSON api side of things, mainly to build my own remote, as few of the many I have tried (iConnectHue is the current one) really make things easy enough for the rest of the family - which is key as they light the house

So, that gets the ball rolling, what is anyone else doing?
 
Just a comment on Osram Lightify - they are cheaper but not as good.

I bought 6 when they were in a deal somewhere - they all blew within a year. I have yet (touch wood) to have a hue bulb fail in 3 years. Also, the colour range and temperature isn't as good as Hue, and they don't support moods etc with Hue although I expect they work better on a Lightify network.
 
Just added a Nanoleaf Aurora to my setup. It's brilliant, very sci-fi. Not as practical as Hue, so if it's of any use to anyone, the products are not really comparable. Yes they are both LED smart lighting systems but Hue is best for normal lighting purposes, the Aurora is almost artwork!
 
matt100 said:
So specific radiators turn themselves off when they get to the nests target temperature even if the nest isn't there itself?
Click to expand...

Yes.

So my setup - I have eTRVs on 3 bedroom radiators upstairs which was always "hotter" than downstairs. Turn the Nest downstairs to 20c, and each eTRV winds itself up/down to a target of 20c. Downstairs takes longer to get to 20c, which previously meant upstairs got too toasty, now, as Nest downstairs winds up to 20c and upstairs reaches 20c earlier, all the eTRVs wind down to keep at 20c. Hope that makes sense!

ETA - obviously the heating has to be on for this to work, so it won't make a difference in the summer, I'm looking to get wifi controlled aircon for then.
 
I’d recommend it. Just wait for a deal on the eTRVs - i think i paid £120 for 3 inc a hub (which you can then pair with the sockets which are much cheaper than smartthings and work just as well if a bit bigger). Note, very easy to install where you already have normal TRVs but you might need a plumber otherwise. Good luck!
 
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