@cengland0 yes. Would have jumped on this if it were available in white. I got some other Hue bulbs on sale that we’re this yellowy colour that I’ve put in places I don’t care it. They are great. But I want real light in my living spaces.
For anyone that wants an old fashioned look back.before.we had white light capable bulbs these work. Some people still prefer yellow light.
@AlabamaGal most other-than-wifi smarthome products (zigbee, z-wave, hue) require a hub of some sort that is usually wired to your home network. Once you have the hub the devices all create a mesh network with each other and the hub so they can communicate through the whole home.
@AlabamaGal All Phillip Hue require a bridge hard connected to a hub. Zigbee bulbs are a good alternative as most hubs support Zigbee or you can get a cheap Zigbee hub. Bulbs can be found pretty easily for <$10 and often quite a bit less if you watch for deals. I got a 4 pack of dimmables for $28 a month or two ago and use them and some other Zigbee bulbs with a SmartThings hub through nVidia Shield. Works great.
@AlabamaGal Depends on your needs (Alexa specific, mobile app controlled etc). I’d search for smart bulb (or switch if that is easier) + no hub required if that is a limitation.
@AlabamaGal
LIFX makes an excellent line of bulbs that require no hubs and connect directly to wi-fi. They are, however, only available as full color range lights and are fairly expensive at $60 each. Sale price is $39.99 to $53.99 regularly. I have two in places where I wanted the color change capability and they work quite well. The LIFX app is quite good, I have found it more responsive and feature rich than the Philips Hue app and they integrate well with my Alexa enabled speakers.
@AlabamaGal Another vote for LIFX. My husband bought me one for Christmas. I put it in the main living area, connects directly to my Google Home devices. Very happy!
@Willijs3 I love the idea of the smart home. What I hate is that literally everything involved in setting one up today involves either a) giving up any remaining security you had on your home network b) using some megacorp’s always-on always-listening device c) spending a shedload of money and/or d) a ridiculous amount of work to get around the first three.
Did you know there are crappy “smart bulbs” out there that have a built-in unencrypted Wi-fi network (that you cannot turn off or secure) that they use to distribute your secure Wi-fi network’s keys to each other — and anyone else who happens to be listening? Even implementations that can be secured often aren’t out of the box.
Philips of course from the beginning made a hub that worked great with Zigbee devices. Then they pushed a firmware update that cut off new Zigbee connections and only allowed new Hue bulbs and others Philips had tested. They backtracked after that blew up in their face, but still, why would I believe any interoperability promises from them?
Affordable smart cameras (like basically all the ones you see on Meh) most often use a cloud service to work with remote access. Sometimes that cloud service exposes your camera feed on an unencrypted endpoint in China.
We’re already seeing ads inadvertently (or by design) activating smart agents like Alexa — so far to humorous effect, mostly, but how long is it before dodgy video ads do it maliciously?
I used to work with Matthew Garrett, who takes an interest in the security of this stuff. Spoiler alert: it’s all terrible and the fact that there aren’t massive smart-home hacks already hitting the news means either it’s just not interesting to hackers on a large scale yet, or it is and we’re just not hearing about it. But the barn door itself is wide open with a big sign on it that says “Please come in and make yourself at home”.
That’s what I hate. And that’s why my TV, all my light bulbs and switches, and all my stereo gear are still dumb as a box of rocks.
@kensey Your smart home can be as secure or as unsecure as you want it to be. It all depends on how much effort you want to put into it. The more “plug&play” the device, the less secure it will be (in most cases).
And in any case, if someone wants to take the time to hack through multiple firewalls and crack multiple passwords just so they can turn on and off my lightbulbs like a spooky ghost, I say go for it. It’s not like my bank account is linked to my lightbulbs.
@Willijs3 My point is it often doesn’t take any levels of hacking, just scanning the net for devices that set up backdoors straight into your network. Then they can use exploits to infect vulnerable devices directly, and the vast majority of these things never get updated. Many can’t be.
One thing I wish I had known with smart bulbs (before I bought this kit last time it was offered) is that the maximum lumens you can get is only the equivalent of 60W incandescent. They simply do not make any that are brighter. Likely due to excessive heat and/or electronic interference with WiFi signal. That and you have to leave the switch on all the time (a little more obvious).
My suggestion is, if you’re capable and your home wiring includes a neutral wire to the switch itself, to replace the switch with a smart switch. Then you don’t have to worry about turning it off at the switch and you can use just about any fixture or bulb.
@zxinfinity exactly- I found awesome mini-smart plugs for $8 that don’t block the other plug on a duplex outlets, and the linking process is easier than the hub thing- and from there I simply plugged in whatever I wanted (the coffee maker- it’s awesome asking Alexa to make me coffee) without regard to wattage or bulb type.
The Hue platform will fade to black in mainstream and cling to it’s corner niche market with a death grip.
@alacrity Sale place of said plugs for $8? I’m looking to add some, but most of the square or rectangular ones that don’t block the second outlet tend to be around $12.
@cinoclav a Chinese company- lightinthebox.com regularly sells 'em for $9-$11, but puts 'em on sale once in awhile. Amazon’ll have 'em for around $35 for a 3 pack with much faster delivery times for obvious reasons. Search “smart plugs” and they’ll turn up. They’re round, btw…
@alacrity I’ve seen the round ones for similar prices but their shape sometimes blocks the other outlet. The square or long rectangular ones don’t have that problem.
If these were daylight bulbs, I’d be grabbing. 2700k would be okay for my bedroom, but those are all GU10 bulbs on overhead fixtures (which rarely get used) except for one lamp which already has a smart switch associated with it. Oh, and the closet but that has florescent tubes and is also rarely used, so I expect the pair in it to last me at least another 10 years.
@cengland0 I tried changing my light I my living room to a daylight bulb. I got confused and thought I left the curtain open. I don’t usually go above 3000k unless it’s the kitchen or garage. Too harsh for relaxing.
@jmbunkin You replace the LED itself. You replace the driver board. You fix the radio controller in the smart tech. You fix a lose connection at the socket. And that’s not even really thinking about it.
@lichme Thanks, loaded up on a couple more switches and motion sensors.
I just discovered this weekend the motion sensors have an unmentioned temperature gauge (which works with Siri if you say “what’s the temperature in the basement)?” You can’t (yet) trigger actions on temperatures but it’s still handy.
@dave Last week I purchased an Ecobee 3 smart themostat from Costco for $200. It came with 3 remote temp sensors that work with Alexa. It works with my SmartThings (with WebCore) hub also, which allows you to trigger actions based off of temp. Example: If living room is too cold, turn on the fireplace etc).
Over priced propriety tech. I’m trying to stay as open protocol as I can which seems to be z-wave (plus) and zigbee. Both are widely supported at the same time out of the box by lots of hubs and controllers.
But I do like the home automation trend here. Keep it up for a while, just maybe with some other brands. I could always use a couple more smart bulbs and light switches.
I’m new to this and still have a dumb home. Is this the same hub as the most current model on amazon? Might be worth it (to me, at least) to get this deal then buy white lights separately.
@cengland0 I was surprised @ 1:25am they sold 122 of these. After all the comments, even more surprised that they sold a total of 276 refurbished units.
Philips has three levels of bulbs: White (these, $15 each separately), White Ambience (change color temp, more dimming levels, $30 each), and White + Color Ambience (also change color, $50 each).
These are fine as simple on/off or dimmers, but if you want to do fancy scenes or gradual wake/sleep, it’s a lot more spendy.
If you are looking for colored lights for the same price go to morningsave. They are Merkury Brand not Phillips.
2-PACK: MERKURY INNOVATION WIFI LED SMART BULBS…purchased then a couple of days ago. Work with the geeni app and Amazon Alexa.MERKURY Times TWO at MORNINGSAVE
Specs
What’s in the Box?
2x Philips Hue white light bulbs
1x Bridge
1x Ethernet cable
1x Power adapter
Price Comparison
$69.99 (New) at Amazon
Warranty
90 Day Refurbisher
Estimated Delivery
Monday, July 13th - Thursday, July 16th
Weak…
Bright idea!
Note that 2700K is very yellow light.
@cengland0 yes. Would have jumped on this if it were available in white. I got some other Hue bulbs on sale that we’re this yellowy colour that I’ve put in places I don’t care it. They are great. But I want real light in my living spaces.
For anyone that wants an old fashioned look back.before.we had white light capable bulbs these work. Some people still prefer yellow light.
Google home compatible?
@peteypeso Yes
PSA: Hub requires a hard connection to your router/switch, and cannot be connected via Wi-Fi.
@lichme
Do all Philips Hue products require that?
And if so, any decent alternatives which don’t require a hard connection?
@lichme Or you could use an ethernet to wi-fi bridge.
My hue bridge, in order to be close to where I actually use the bulbs, is hooked up to an ethernet over powerline adapter/hub.
@AlabamaGal most other-than-wifi smarthome products (zigbee, z-wave, hue) require a hub of some sort that is usually wired to your home network. Once you have the hub the devices all create a mesh network with each other and the hub so they can communicate through the whole home.
@AlabamaGal All Phillip Hue require a bridge hard connected to a hub. Zigbee bulbs are a good alternative as most hubs support Zigbee or you can get a cheap Zigbee hub. Bulbs can be found pretty easily for <$10 and often quite a bit less if you watch for deals. I got a 4 pack of dimmables for $28 a month or two ago and use them and some other Zigbee bulbs with a SmartThings hub through nVidia Shield. Works great.
@AlabamaGal Depends on your needs (Alexa specific, mobile app controlled etc). I’d search for smart bulb (or switch if that is easier) + no hub required if that is a limitation.
@AlabamaGal
LIFX makes an excellent line of bulbs that require no hubs and connect directly to wi-fi. They are, however, only available as full color range lights and are fairly expensive at $60 each. Sale price is $39.99 to $53.99 regularly. I have two in places where I wanted the color change capability and they work quite well. The LIFX app is quite good, I have found it more responsive and feature rich than the Philips Hue app and they integrate well with my Alexa enabled speakers.
@cblack @lichme @djslack
(Guess I’ll reply to you all at once.)
Hub isn’t really an issue. Neither is having the hub hard wired to router. I guess it’s just that I would rather not have to do that.
I guess I’ll do more research. Thanks for the suggestions.
Fun semi-related reading.
@AlabamaGal there are some Merkury bulbs on Morning save for the same price, and they work on WiFi with no hub.
@AlabamaGal Another vote for LIFX. My husband bought me one for Christmas. I put it in the main living area, connects directly to my Google Home devices. Very happy!
Here we go again… Cue the smart home haters.
@Willijs3 Hue the smart home haters.
@Willijs3 I love the idea of the smart home. What I hate is that literally everything involved in setting one up today involves either a) giving up any remaining security you had on your home network b) using some megacorp’s always-on always-listening device c) spending a shedload of money and/or d) a ridiculous amount of work to get around the first three.
Did you know there are crappy “smart bulbs” out there that have a built-in unencrypted Wi-fi network (that you cannot turn off or secure) that they use to distribute your secure Wi-fi network’s keys to each other — and anyone else who happens to be listening? Even implementations that can be secured often aren’t out of the box.
Philips of course from the beginning made a hub that worked great with Zigbee devices. Then they pushed a firmware update that cut off new Zigbee connections and only allowed new Hue bulbs and others Philips had tested. They backtracked after that blew up in their face, but still, why would I believe any interoperability promises from them?
Affordable smart cameras (like basically all the ones you see on Meh) most often use a cloud service to work with remote access. Sometimes that cloud service exposes your camera feed on an unencrypted endpoint in China.
We’re already seeing ads inadvertently (or by design) activating smart agents like Alexa — so far to humorous effect, mostly, but how long is it before dodgy video ads do it maliciously?
I used to work with Matthew Garrett, who takes an interest in the security of this stuff. Spoiler alert: it’s all terrible and the fact that there aren’t massive smart-home hacks already hitting the news means either it’s just not interesting to hackers on a large scale yet, or it is and we’re just not hearing about it. But the barn door itself is wide open with a big sign on it that says “Please come in and make yourself at home”.
That’s what I hate. And that’s why my TV, all my light bulbs and switches, and all my stereo gear are still dumb as a box of rocks.
@kensey Your smart home can be as secure or as unsecure as you want it to be. It all depends on how much effort you want to put into it. The more “plug&play” the device, the less secure it will be (in most cases).
And in any case, if someone wants to take the time to hack through multiple firewalls and crack multiple passwords just so they can turn on and off my lightbulbs like a spooky ghost, I say go for it. It’s not like my bank account is linked to my lightbulbs.
@Willijs3 My point is it often doesn’t take any levels of hacking, just scanning the net for devices that set up backdoors straight into your network. Then they can use exploits to infect vulnerable devices directly, and the vast majority of these things never get updated. Many can’t be.
Tempted to buy this to upgrade mine and pass my g1 set from here on to my mother in law. Have to see what the differences between g1 and g2 are.
@djslack Apple Home Kit is the main difference. The gen 2 and 3 color bulbs are supposedly a lot better, but they work with the gen 1 hub.
So if you aren’t going Siri, you don’t need a new hub.
One thing I wish I had known with smart bulbs (before I bought this kit last time it was offered) is that the maximum lumens you can get is only the equivalent of 60W incandescent. They simply do not make any that are brighter. Likely due to excessive heat and/or electronic interference with WiFi signal. That and you have to leave the switch on all the time (a little more obvious).
My suggestion is, if you’re capable and your home wiring includes a neutral wire to the switch itself, to replace the switch with a smart switch. Then you don’t have to worry about turning it off at the switch and you can use just about any fixture or bulb.
@zxinfinity That neutral line is key, though. My old house only has two wires behind the switch plates, so there’s nothing I can do.
@zxinfinity
I simply hot-wired the switched wire in the switch box. Left the then useless switch in the box for appearance
(Removed the switched wires from the switch and connected them to each other with a wire nut to bypass the switch.)
NOTE: You PROBABLY ought to turn off the CB first.
RESULT: Switch is now a “dummy switch”. Nobody will accidentally turn the power to the Hue bulb fitted lamps and fixtures.
@zxinfinity exactly- I found awesome mini-smart plugs for $8 that don’t block the other plug on a duplex outlets, and the linking process is easier than the hub thing- and from there I simply plugged in whatever I wanted (the coffee maker- it’s awesome asking Alexa to make me coffee) without regard to wattage or bulb type.
The Hue platform will fade to black in mainstream and cling to it’s corner niche market with a death grip.
@alacrity Sale place of said plugs for $8? I’m looking to add some, but most of the square or rectangular ones that don’t block the second outlet tend to be around $12.
@cinoclav a Chinese company- lightinthebox.com regularly sells 'em for $9-$11, but puts 'em on sale once in awhile. Amazon’ll have 'em for around $35 for a 3 pack with much faster delivery times for obvious reasons. Search “smart plugs” and they’ll turn up. They’re round, btw…
@alacrity I’ve seen the round ones for similar prices but their shape sometimes blocks the other outlet. The square or long rectangular ones don’t have that problem.
@cinoclav dude, I have these and they don’t block the other outlet. If you want the square ones- go for it.
If these were daylight bulbs, I’d be grabbing. 2700k would be okay for my bedroom, but those are all GU10 bulbs on overhead fixtures (which rarely get used) except for one lamp which already has a smart switch associated with it. Oh, and the closet but that has florescent tubes and is also rarely used, so I expect the pair in it to last me at least another 10 years.
@Jamileigh17 I agree. Those 2700K bulbs look like candle light to me. I only use 5000K to 6500K bulbs in my house.
@cengland0 I tried changing my light I my living room to a daylight bulb. I got confused and thought I left the curtain open. I don’t usually go above 3000k unless it’s the kitchen or garage. Too harsh for relaxing.
@RiotDemon At least you agree that the daylight bulbs look like natural light instead of man-made light.
How do you refurb a light bulb ?
@jmbunkin put it in a nice nondescript cardboard box with fresh plastic packaging, it’s all the rage
@jmbunkin You replace the LED itself. You replace the driver board. You fix the radio controller in the smart tech. You fix a lose connection at the socket. And that’s not even really thinking about it.
Lots of Hue-MEH-dity today.
Refurbished lights gives me pause. How many hours have they burned?
Who am I kidding? I won’t buy them even if they were new.
Nothing particularly exciting here, but nice to see they’re updating regularly.
Another note, if you need more accessories/bulbs for the hub, there is a “Buy More, Save More” sale at Best Buy:
@lichme Thanks, loaded up on a couple more switches and motion sensors.
I just discovered this weekend the motion sensors have an unmentioned temperature gauge (which works with Siri if you say “what’s the temperature in the basement)?” You can’t (yet) trigger actions on temperatures but it’s still handy.
@dave Last week I purchased an Ecobee 3 smart themostat from Costco for $200. It came with 3 remote temp sensors that work with Alexa. It works with my SmartThings (with WebCore) hub also, which allows you to trigger actions based off of temp. Example: If living room is too cold, turn on the fireplace etc).
Over priced propriety tech. I’m trying to stay as open protocol as I can which seems to be z-wave (plus) and zigbee. Both are widely supported at the same time out of the box by lots of hubs and controllers.
@cblack Hue uses Zigbee in case you didn’t know
@lichme It uses Zigbee, but apparently in a not-all-that-compatible way. You can’t just add any old Zigbee bulbs to a Hue hub.
@craigthom I’ve not.done it myself, but I believe you can. Instead of auto discovery though you have the enter the serial number into your hub setup.
Or so I read.
But I do like the home automation trend here. Keep it up for a while, just maybe with some other brands. I could always use a couple more smart bulbs and light switches.
Smartify your home? I don’t get it.
LIFX for life!! No hub required.
/giphy lifx
Make the picture stop changing colors.
Thanks for all your comments on here! I did some quick research and went for the Merkury bulbs on Morning Save instead.
I’m new to this and still have a dumb home. Is this the same hub as the most current model on amazon? Might be worth it (to me, at least) to get this deal then buy white lights separately.
I’m actually surprised that selling 122 of these triggered the circuit breaker until 8am. Thought it would be more than that.
@cengland0 I was surprised @ 1:25am they sold 122 of these. After all the comments, even more surprised that they sold a total of 276 refurbished units.
Philips has three levels of bulbs: White (these, $15 each separately), White Ambience (change color temp, more dimming levels, $30 each), and White + Color Ambience (also change color, $50 each).
These are fine as simple on/off or dimmers, but if you want to do fancy scenes or gradual wake/sleep, it’s a lot more spendy.
The specs say 840 lumens and the image shows 800 lumens.
Which is it?
I have all LED bulbs in my house now. Will this control those too?
@jnorts not unless they are the smart bulbs. Led is just the type of light source.
@RiotDemon thank you
Seem kinda unwanted.
@f00l and now its sold out
@communistjack
Then they did a great job matching supply, price, and demand.
The heck with all the specs and technical stuff…That story was so funny, even my alexa is laughing!
If you are looking for colored lights for the same price go to morningsave. They are Merkury Brand not Phillips.
2-PACK: MERKURY INNOVATION WIFI LED SMART BULBS…purchased then a couple of days ago. Work with the geeni app and Amazon Alexa.MERKURY Times TWO at MORNINGSAVE
Bring these back please!!
@mmisrachi Don’t worry, they show up every once in a while.
If you guys would get the color and White I’d be happy… I have 5 of the bulbs and they are WAY better than the white only(even if you only want white)